In partnership with Jaimie Cloud from The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education and Burke’s administrators, the first cohort of “early adopter” faculty developed new K-8 curricular units.
The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education was founded in 1995 as a program of The American Forum for Global Education known as the Sustainability Education Center.
At its heart, sustainability for education is futureoriented, focusing on protecting environments and creating a more ecologically and socially just world through informed action.
Take a tour of some of the first units developed through this exciting partnership!
Trash Value
Kindergarteners explored the value of their classroom food waste in response to these questions:
1) What can we do with it?
2) How can we put it to use?
3) How do the lifecycles vary amongst the items in our compost?
The project included a deep dive into vermiculture, creating and managing classroom worm boxes, and a presentation to the entire Lower School. The students even offered to make worm boxes for other Lower School classrooms!
KINDERGARTEN
FIRST GRADE
Our Connection to the Ocean
This interdisciplinary unit with Library, Makery, Art and Science took first graders on a deep dive into thinking about how to protect, care for and educate others about the ocean. Students explored how living things in the ocean are connected through not just food chains but complex relationships. This interconnectedness means every puzzle piece is important for a healthy ocean. The Makery shadow puppet unit was a culmination of the students’ explorations where they expressed concepts, facts and empathetic positions in the choice of the animals and habitat they crafted for their show.
FOURTH GRADE
Envision & Innovation
Fourth graders tackled the essential question: How can we envision the future we want (for ourselves, our community, our world) and develop ways to make it happen?
Students learned to take a “want” for their world and create a spoken word art performance that moved them toward that desire. They also dove deeper into food literacy by learning about industrial and local food systems, from things like commodity crop corn to heirloom tomatoes. The project included a field trip to a chocolate manufactory and grocery store, and the students collected food package labels to examine the story of processed and whole foods.
The goals of the project are that students will use their experiences and tools to be critical and innovative thinkers; they can see and believe that a sustainable future is possible and they will use multiple perspectives to generate ideas and demonstrate self-efficacy to make change.
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FIFTH GRADE
US Regions: Protecting the Natural Commons
The Upper School Humanities and Makery teachers collaborated to focus the United States Regions project on natural commons. Through this curricular partnership, the students researched different natural commons in one of the five US regions and ways to protect and support them so they can flourish indefinitely. They wrote informative paragraphs from their findings and integrated technology and makery skills to create interactive maps of their region.
am thrilled to see this year’s units in action and look forward to deepening the work to prioritize and support education for sustainability.”
— Fran Yang, Director of Curriculum and Innovation
SIXTH GRADE
Climate Podcasters
In the sixth-grade humanities classroom, students examined the geologic states of the earth in the past, present and future, focusing on the seven epochs and the Anthropocene. They analyzed the effects of climate change and how humans can both positively and negatively impact the earth. The unit included a special visit from Cyndera Quackenbush, Director of After School and Summer Programs, who kickstarted the unit with a story about her archaeologist father discovering billion-year stones. In addition to creative writing and thinking, the sixth graders expanded their nonfiction reading and writing skills and oral skills by making podcasts in small groups. With instructional help from the Upper
School Librarian and Digital Media Specialist and Upper School Makery Specialist, the class chose from a variety of topics including deforestation, fossil fuels, sea level rise, sustainable foods, plastic pollution, greenwashing and climate activism.
SEVENTH GRADE
Water Sustainability for Burke’s Outdoor Spaces
Seventh-grade mathematicians looked at the essential question “How can Burke’s achieve water sustainability to irrigate its outdoor spaces?” The students researched four areas: 1) rainfall in San Francisco, 2) rain catchment
barrels, 3) outdoor planting spaces, and 4) existing irrigation systems and water usage. The students walked around campus to take measurements and did calculations to find the map scale. The map will be used to calculate the area of outdoor spaces and roofs to approximate the volume of water that can be harvested.
EIGHTH GRADE
The Constitution as a Commons
Eighth graders took on the essential question: “What would you, as a citizen of this country, want the United States Congress to take action on so that we can make progress in reaching the goals laid out in the Preamble of the United States Constitution?” They researched an assigned goal from the Preamble and created a “Call to Action” that articulated a proposal for legislation. Presentations covered topics such as universal healthcare, providing for common defense, climate change, addressing the role of tax fairness and much more!
Education for Sustainability (EfS) Nine Core Content Standards
