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Toolkits

Free educational materials to explore sustainability topics and solutions

BioConnect

BioConnect - Looking to Nature for Solutions

The BioConnect kit sparks dynamic sustainability education by guiding 6th-8th graders through the innovation of nature-inspired solutions. Students explore how organisms in the Sonoran desert have adapted to extreme environments. The kit develops key innovation skills - systems thinking, critical observation, communication, and creative problem solving.

Presenters : Sara Aly El-Sayed, Leslie Bell

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Sustainable Behavior Change

Sustainable Behavior Change

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes how to implement behavior change interventions to advance sustainability outcomes. Users progress through a series of modules that explain how to prepare, design, evaluate, and facilitate successful interventions. The toolkit can be used to support instructors to teach about these efforts and provide guidance for practitioners with their own projects. 

Authors: Jordan King, Katja Brundiers, Krista O'Brien, Samantha Adamo, and Daniel Fischer

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Relationality

Learning Relationality for Sustainability Transformations

This toolkit describes the concept of relationality, relational approaches to learning, knowledge co-production, and the emotional and spiritual dimensions of learning. It teaches about relationality and how to teach using relationality, encouraging academic communities to build mutual relationships with learning in order to foster a sense of accountability.

Presenter: David Manuel-Navarrete, Brian Grant

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Place-Based Equity

Place-based equity training for sustainable urban development

This toolkit fosters a deeper understanding of equity, heat equity, and the principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (JEDIA) in sustainability education. The material contributes to a livable, sustainable, and just future by promoting sustainability education that is meaningful, equitable, and participatory.

Presenter: Paul Coseo

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Participatory Budgeting

Participatory Budgeting for Green Schools

School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) empowers students to “learn democracy by doing” by deciding how funds are used to improve their school communities and prepares young people to be active, informed, and engaged participants in civic life. The process builds student agency, confidence, communication, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Presenter: Tara Bartlett, Daniel Schugurensky

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Turn It Around

Turn It Around Cards

Turn it Around! Flashcards for Education Futures is a learning tool for adults, made by youth, to reimagine our approach to education, and our relationship with nature and the living world during this time of climate crisis. Usually, flashcards are designed by educators for students and children. This deck of flashcards is designed by youth for education policymakers, politicians, and teachers. By flipping who teaches who, this project is a reminder that everyone – and everything – must change.

Authors: Artists’ Literacies Institute, Adriene Jenik, Iveta Silova and Ann Nielsen

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coming soon

Professional Development for Sustainable Curricula

Presenter: Molly Cashion

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Collaboration

Promoting Collaboration in City Governments

This toolkit helps create more collaboration and opportunities for holistic adaptation to climate challenges within cities. It enhances understanding of sustainability, emergency management, and resilience and how climate challenges can be mitigated through improving collaboration across these three areas in city governments.


Presenter: Susila Bhagavathula

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Mindful Connections

Cultivating Mindful Connections

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes how to implement mindful interactions with nature to create connections to the environment and intertwined ecosystems. The user will advance through various sections relating to nature mindfulness activities.


Author: Cyna Schuster

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BioConnect - Looking to Nature for Solutions

The BioConnect kit sparks dynamic sustainability education by guiding 6th-8th graders through the innovation of nature-inspired solutions. Comprehensive lesson plans lead students to explore how organisms in the Sonoran desert are adapted to extreme environments. And by examining these organisms students discover sustainable strategies that inspire their final design challenge. By introducing biomimicry methodology step-by-step, the BioConnect kit develops key innovation skills – systems thinking, critical observation, communication, and creative problem solving. These standards-aligned curricula open young minds to the world of sustainability through biomimicry.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

The BioConnect kit sparks dynamic sustainability education by guiding 6th-8th graders through the innovation of nature-inspired solutions. Comprehensive lesson plans lead students to explore how organisms in the Sonoran desert are adapted to extreme environments. And by examining these organisms students discover sustainable strategies that inspire their final design challenge. By introducing biomimicry methodology step-by-step, the BioConnect kit develops key innovation skills – systems thinking, critical observation, communication, and creative problem solving. These standards-aligned curricula open young minds to the world of sustainability through biomimicry.

The objectives for users of the toolkit are to:

  • Utilize tools and resources to design and implement behavior change interventions
  • Apply a solution-oriented approach to sustainability in interdisciplinary and practical ways
  • Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders to lead applied learning projects

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

  • Collaborate throughout each lesson in order to expand ideas and solve problems (interpersonal competency)
  • Examine complex local ecosystems (systems-thinking competency)
  • Educate on the value of looking to nature for solutions (normative competence)
  • Develop the ability to utilize biomimicry as inspiration for future innovations (futures-thinking competency)

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

This kit allows educators to facilitate a classroom space which encourages students to be communicative, problem solving, and open minded. This can lead to the formation of individuals who recognise the importance of collaboration for sustainable solutions, especially when it comes to future innovation.

Creator

Sara El Sayed

Sara El SayedThe Biomimicry Center,

Leslie Bell, The Phoenix Zoo

Lily Urmann, The Biomimicry Institute

The BioConnect kit was developed for middle school grades 6,7 and 8 to connect teachers and students to nature, sustainability, and biomimicry through a week-long hands-on experience. The pedagogy and lesson plans were led by the Biomimicry Center with support from the Institute, and the outreach and continued education and training is provided by the Phoenix zoo.

Toolkit Development

The kit was developed with funding from Women and Philanthropy with the impetus of bringing biomimicry education through the Zoo’s teaching bus, but when the pandemic hit we pivoted, with the idea of a kit that could be borrowed and rotated between middle schools in Arizona. Alternatively, schools can print the lesson plans, 3D print the biomimetic models and order some of the artifacts that make up the kit. 

Toolkit Goals

The tool kit is meant to educate teachers and students about how biomimicry can be a tool to learn about nature, understand the innovation process, and innovate solutions for sustainability challenges while connecting to science and environmental standards for middle school curricula. 

Our outreach through the Phoenix Zoo has included a training program for middle school teachers, consisting of an online training and an in-person 6-hour training. The training is free for teachers to attend, and a stipend is provided to attend the 6-hour training. The training intends to reach out to under-resourced schools and rural schools who might need extra support 

in learning how to use the kit and implementing it into their school programs. We are also working with Indigenous teachers to make the kits more culturally relevant to Indigenous students.

The material is meant to educate middle school students and teachers within the formal educational curriculum, about local sustainability challenges (e.g. water scarcity, water quality, heat island effect), and finding ways to solve these challenges inspired by Nature’s genius.

Instructors

For teachers who wish to utilize the BioConnect kit in their classrooms, it is important to understand the layout of the curricula. Each curriculum is designed for either 6th, 7th, or 8th grade and is designed to follow a week-long lesson-plan which is aligned with state and NGSS standards. Throughout the week, teachers will follow a 60 minute daily lesson plan which progresses from introducing biomimicry, to exploring specific ecosystems, to examining desert organisms, to innovating designs. Each BioConnect kit comes equipped with a content summary, kit item list, detailed lesson plans, print materials, natural artifacts, and 3D printed models which assist in the easy implementation of the kit to your classroom space.

Learners

In order to ensure student success with the BioConnect kit, it is important to recognise that biomimicry can be a very new and abstract concept to both teachers and students. While biomimicry may seem complex at first, don’t be intimidated. Dive into the activities with an open mind, collaborate with your peers, and don’t forget to have fun! 

RCE Staff

The BioConnect toolkit can be accessed on the Phoenix Zoo website through their Curriculum for the Classroom page. On this page, educators can add themselves to the interest list to obtain a kit for their classrooms as well as get information on BioConnect kit teacher workshops that are being held at the Phoenix Zoo. The kit is intended for use solely in middle school classrooms and at the moment, the full physical kit is only available through the Phoenix Zoo.

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Sustainable Behavior Change Toolkit

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes how to implement behavior change interventions to advance sustainability outcomes. Users progress through a series of modules (with resources, examples, activities, and insights) that explain how to prepare, design, evaluate, and facilitate successful intervention projects. The toolkit can be used to support instructors to teach about these efforts and provide guidance for practitioners with their own projects.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes how to implement behavior change interventions to advance sustainability outcomes. Users progress through a series of modules (with resources, examples, activities, and insights) that explain how to prepare, design, evaluate, and facilitate successful intervention projects. The toolkit can be used to support instructors to teach about these efforts and provide guidance for practitioners with their own projects.

The objectives for users of the toolkit are to:

  • Utilize tools and resources to design and implement behavior change interventions
  • Apply a solution-oriented approach to sustainability in interdisciplinary and practical ways
  • Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders to lead applied learning projects

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

  • explaining how this toolkit allows them to act towards that vision (it’s one tool among others in a broader strategy) (strategic-thinking, implementation, and integrated problem-solving competencies)
  • co-creating with others (interpersonal competency)
  • adopting a systems-perspective to describe past, present, and future states (systems-thinking competency)
  • clarifying a sustainability vision related to the topic (futures-thinking competency)

Sustainable Development Goals

  •  SDG 4: Quality Education

  •  SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

  • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

  • SDG 13: Climate Action

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

The toolkit helps to facilitate participatory decision-making processes that can lead to more equitable and inclusive sustainability solutions, particularly related to consumption behaviors.

Creator

Jordan King

My name is Jordan King and I am a PhD Candidate at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability and the College of Global Futures. I am a founding member of RCE Greater Phoenix and have worked in a variety of areas related to sustainability and education, including teacher education, higher education, and community outreach.

Toolkit Development

The Sustainable Behavior Change Toolkit was developed through a collaborative, multifaceted effort that involved students, faculty, and staff at ASU. Beyond myself, these included Dr. Daniel Fischer, Dr. Katja Brundiers, Krista O’Brien, and Samantha Adamo, as well as students Shea Alevy, Jacob Ivy, and Courtney Talbot. The project was supported by funding from the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems and the ASU Sustainability Initiatives Revolving Fund Grant in partnership with University Sustainability Practices and the Zero Waste team. The materials were originally piloted as part of a class in Spring 2020 and adapted for use in a Fall 2021 class before being further developed for use by faculty, staff, and students at ASU and beyond.

Our goals in developing the toolkit were to create a practical resource that can be used in developing actionable solutions to create a more sustainable ASU campus and community, while creating applied learning experiences.

Toolkit Goals

We hope that the toolkit can support instructors to implement forms of intervention research into their teaching across a range of disciplines (sustainability, psychology, health, etc.), in addition to providing tools for campus operational staff to implement projects to promote sustainability outcomes. Having resources like the Sustainable Behavior Change toolkit is essential to creating a stronger sustainability culture on campus and beyond, as well as a learning community that can collaborate on iteratively designing, implementing, and evaluating solutions to advance more sustainable consumption. 

Through these objectives, we envision the toolkit as a contributing strategy to the vision and mission of RCE Greater Phoenix by mobilizing education and action through inclusive approaches to multi-stakeholder collaboration that create more sustainable campuses, cities, and communities.

Instructors

For instructors who wish to use the toolkit to teach others about behavior change interventions for sustainable consumption, be aware that the modules should be progressed through in sequential order (though revisiting modules is encouraged). Each module contains resources, examples, suggested activities, and insights from previous instructors, practitioners, and learners on ways to engage and use what has been learned.

Learners

Progressing through the modules in sequential order is most effective, though revisiting modules is encouraged. As you proceed, it can be helpful to discuss emerging insights with collaborators to consider practical applications to begin designing your own intervention.

RCE Staff

The toolkit can be accessed at the link above. In addition to describing the intervention development process, the curriculum also provides some background information on key concepts in sustainability. It is intended primarily for a higher education audience, but has also been used with K-12 teachers. ASU-based faculty and staff (and potentially students) can enroll in a Canvas-version of the curriculum through University Sustainability Practices to receive a professional development certificate of completion.

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Learning Relationality for Sustainability Transformations

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes the concept of relationality, relational approaches to learning, knowledge co-production, and the emotional and spiritual dimensions of learning while providing several activities and lessons pertaining to these concepts. This toolkit can be used to support instructors to teach about relationality and to teach using relationality as guidance with their own subjects. Encouraging academic communities to build mutual relationships with learning in order to foster a sense of accountability in educational settings is the foundation of this toolkit.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes the concept of relationality, relational approaches to learning, knowledge co-production, and the emotional and spiritual dimensions of learning while providing several activities and lessons pertaining to these concepts. This toolkit can be used to support instructors to teach about relationality and to teach using relationality as guidance with their own subjects. Encouraging academic communities to build mutual relationships with learning in order to foster a sense of accountability in educational settings is the foundation of this toolkit. The objectives for users of the toolkit are to:
  • Utilize tools and resources to aid in relationality-based educational instruction
  • Apply relationality concepts and skills to sustainability issues
  • Build and uncover widespread relationships and connections in order to facilitate more effective stakeholder collaboration

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

  • Interpersonal (collaboration) competency: 
  • System-thinking competency: 
  • Values-thinking competency:

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 13: Climate Action
  • SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

This toolkit helps learners discover and explore the countless relationships that connect the world

Creator

bjgrant My name is Brian Grant and I am a PhD Candidate at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability and the College of Global Futures. . dmanuel-navarrete My name is David Manuel-Navarrete  and I am an Associate Professor at Arizona State University in the School of Sustainability and the College of Global Futures.

Toolkit Development

The Relationality for Sustainability Transformations toolkit was developed from David Manuel-Navarrete’s experience working with Indigenous people in Ecuador and teaching a class on Indigenous Sustainability Solutions for ASU students. The toolkit also builds from David’s experience teaching International Development and Sustainability at ASU with Neda Movahed, and Brian Grant’s research on relationality.  Jillian Meehan assisted with organizing and enriching the toolkit materials. Our goals in developing the toolkit were to create a practical resource that can be used in developing and supporting relational ways of learning.

Toolkit Ambitions

We hope that the toolkit can support instructors to implement relational approaches into their teaching. Having resources like the Learning Relationality for Sustainability Transformations toolkit is essential to creating a stronger sustainability culture, as well as a learning community that can collaborate on iteratively designing, implementing, and evaluating solutions to advance more sustainable ways of being on the planet.  Through these objectives, we envision the toolkit as a contributing strategy to the vision and mission of RCE Greater Phoenix by mobilizing education and action through cultural transformation.

Instructors

This toolkit is for instructors who want to guide their teaching through the lens of relationality to encourage students to be active members in their learning process – not simply silent spectators. The modules contain information and resources on relationality as well as several activities geared toward unearthing and analyzing how learners are deeply connected to each other and global activities and concepts.

Learners

It is important to remind learners that they are part of the creative learning process, and they should feel encouraged to continuously relate to and contribute to the subject matter. It may be helpful to make mental or physical notes of the many connections and relationships learners uncover, especially those that are surprising or unexpected.

RCE Staff

This toolkit can be accessed using the link above. The toolkit’s activities can be tailored to many different age groups, while the relationality-based resources and information itself may be better suited for high school-aged learners or older. However, all educators are encouraged to use the concepts, resources, and activities to guide their instruction of any grade-level.

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Professional Development for Sustainable Curricula

Website coming soon

Sustainability Education Experiences
Crafting Sustainability Education Experiences: A Five-Step Guide

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

Using critical and humanizing pedagogies, participants will design their own sustainability education professional development workshop in order to build unity, co-create knowledge, share leadership, and address context-specific concerns in their school or community. 

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

  • Co-creating with others (interpersonal competency)
  • Integrating values into education experiences (normative competence)
  • Identifying context-specific sustainability problems and creating an education experience to address them (strategic thinking and integrated problem-solving competencies)

Sustainable Development Goals

  •  SDG 4: Quality Education

    This toolkit has the capability of addressing many other SDGs, depending on the goals and objectives outlined by the user

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

The toolkit is underpinned by critical and humanizing pedagogies, which are teaching practices that encourage learners to question systems of power and oppression and take action for social action.

Creator

Molly Cashion, EdD Candidate, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Senior Program Manager, Sustainability Teachers’ Academies

Bridget Rhee,  Student, School of Sustainability

Toolkit Development

While sustainability has become a buzzword, there are still many opportunities to dive deeper into the concepts and goals of the sustainability science field. We created this toolkit for educators (and aspiring educators) that want to expand their professional networks by creating workshops and professional development experiences for their peers.

Toolkit Ambitions

Using critical and humanizing pedagogies, participants will design their own sustainability education professional development workshop in order to build unity, co-create knowledge, share leadership, and address context-specific concerns in their school or community. 

Critical and humanizing pedagogies are teaching practices that encourage learners to question systems of power and oppression and take action for social change. The design, content, and activities that underpin the toolkit seek to align with Salazar’s (2013) five tenets for humanizing pedagogy:

  1. “The full development of the person is essential for humanization. 
  2. To deny someone else’s humanization is also to deny one’s own. 
  3. The journey for humanization is an individual and collective endeavor toward critical consciousness. 
  4. Critical reflection and action can transform structures that impede our own and others’ humanness, thus facilitating liberation for all. 
  5. Educators are responsible for promoting a more fully human world through their pedagogical principles and practices.” (p. 128)

This toolkit contributes to the mission and vision of RCE Greater Phoenix by providing resources and materials for educators and learners to co-create sustainability education experiences by contributing quality education.

Instructors

This resource is for anyone who wants to create a sustainability education workshop. The website will take you through the five major steps for creating a workshop:

  1. Crafting learning objectives
  2. Engaging stakeholders
  3. Developing activities
  4. Navigating logistics
  5. Conducting your workshop and reflecting on your success

The website outlines best practices, contains external resources, and templates to guide you through the process of creating a sustainability education workshop.

Learners

This toolkit can be used by anyone for any audience! While some of the concepts are more complex, teachers can use the structures and templates to help students create their own workshops.

RCE Staff

 

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Place-based equity training for sustainable urban development

Website coming soon

The overall goals of the equity training modules are to foster a deeper understanding of equity, heat equity, and the principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (JEDIA) within the context of sustainability education. The material aims to contribute to a livable, sustainable, and just future in the region by promoting sustainability education that is meaningful, equitable, and participatory.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

The overall goals of the equity training modules are to foster a deeper understanding of equity, heat equity, and the principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access (JEDIA) within the context of sustainability education. The material aims to contribute to a livable, sustainable, and just future in the region by promoting sustainability education that is meaningful, equitable, and participatory. The objectives for learners are to examine a case study with examples on how to:
  • Engage with historical contexts and systemic inequities to develop a justice-oriented mindset that recognizes the need for equity in addressing sustainability and resilience challenges
  • Develop strategic-thinking, implementation, and integrated problem-solving competencies by learning to reframe challenges, retool approaches, and repair systems for tracking change
  • Set the stage to facilitate mutual understanding and productive collaboration among diverse participants and provide guidance for practitioners to lead applied learning projects within their own initiatives, ensuring that these efforts are aligned with community values

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

  • Systems Thinking: Learners will examine a systems-thinking perspective to describe past, present, and future states of heat equity, recognizing the complex interplay between environmental conditions and social inequities, as highlighted in Modules 3.1 and 3.2 on Inherited Inequities and Vicious Cycles of Heat Inequity. 
  • Futures Thinking: Learners will examine urban systems as coupled dynamic complex systems that are composed of both ongoing social, ecological, and technological trajectories including critical interrelationships. Supporting materials will provide learners with additional understanding of sustainability challenges of urban climates and microclimates. It will include the mechanisms that make some neighborhoods hotter than others and how to pursue equitable cooling solutions for enhanced sustainability and resilience. 
  • Values Thinking: To reveal and understand diverse worldviews of urban areas including the critical reflection on conflicting stakeholder values, power dynamics, and social-ecological-technological vulnerabilities including struggling with key trade-offs that move development toward resilient and sustainable paths.

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 3: Good Health + Well-being
  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, + Infrastructure
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 13: Climate Action
  • SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

  • The material encourages learners to engage with historical contexts and systemic inequities, fostering an understanding of how past injustices shape present conditions. This historical perspective is crucial for developing a justice-oriented mindset that recognizes the need for equity in addressing sustainability challenges.
  • The modules are designed with a justice-equity-diversity-inclusion-access (JEDIA) approach, ensuring that the educational content not only represents these principles in its design but also actively enables learners and teachers to work toward JEDIA principles and actions during the learning experience . 
  • The material provides a platform for multiple perspectives and co-creation, encouraging learners to value and integrate diverse viewpoints. This approach facilitates access to a wider range of experiences and knowledge, which is essential for fostering diversity and inclusion in sustainability practices . 
  • Through the use of multimedia and intergenerational approaches, the material ensures that learners from different backgrounds and age groups can engage with the content, enhancing accessibility and promoting equity in educational opportunities.

Toolkit Information

Module 3.1 Inherited inequities: cool places + hotspots https://youtu.be/leTuQRSf_a0 

Module 3.2 Vicious Cycles of Heat Inequity: https://youtu.be/JUa-j1I3wp8

Suggested reading:

Jackson, M. R. (2021). Addressing Inequity Through Public Health, Community Development, Arts, and Culture: Confluence of Fields and the Opportunity to Reframe, Retool, and Repair. Health promotion practice, 22(1_suppl), 141S-146S.

Coseo, P., & Hamstead, Z. (2023). Just, nature-based solutions as critical urban infrastructure for cooling and cleaning airsheds. Nature-Based Solutions for Cities, 106-146.

Coseo, P. (2019). An Urban Climate Design Framework for More Thermally-Comfortable and Equitable Communities. Landscape Research Record. OUTSTANDING PAPER, 374.

Hamstead, Z., & Coseo, P. (2019). Critical heat studies: making meaning of heat for management in the 21st century—special issue of the journal of extreme events dedicated to heat-as-hazard. Journal of Extreme Events, 6(03n04), 2003001.

Creator

Paul CoseoMy name is Paul J. Coseo, PhD, PLA, and I am the Program Head and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture + Urban Design + Environmental Design, The Design School, Arizona State University. I investigate how landscape architecture, planning, and design strategies can reduce extreme urban microclimates for more thermally-comfortable and equitable communities. Extreme urban microclimatic conditions can disrupt energy systems, water quality and availability, residents’ routines and incomes, degrade quality of life, threaten residents’ health and well-being, and create challenges for urban sustainability and resilience. Working at the intersection of meteorology, landscape architecture, and urban planning, I developed a focus area in landscape architecture called Urban Climate Design, which integrates 1) urban climatology, 2) urban ecology, 3) thermal equity, and 4) participatory research and design processes to comprehensively reshape neighborhood atmospheres.

Toolkit Development

The Place-based Equity Training for Sustainable Urban Development Toolkit were developed as a key component of the “Cool Kids, Cool Places, Cool Futures” project, an initiative spearheaded by the City of Tempe Office of Sustainability and Resilience in collaboration with the ASU Indigenous Design Collaborative and the Studio for Creativity, Place and Equitable Communities.

In particular, the videos were developed by a core equity team, which includes Selina Martinez, Kenneth Shirley, Paul Coseo, Wanda Dalla Costa, Maria Rosario Jackson, and  Braden Kay with contributions from Katja Brundiers, Grace Logan, Eleo Paul, and Amanda Trakas. The purpose of creating these materials was to provide a foundational understanding of racial and heat equity within the context of sustainability education. The materials provide advice on how to amplify voices and empower individuals to better care for their communities’ equity and justice culture through a lens of heat. By acknowledging historical inequities and fostering a justice-oriented mindset, the materials provide learners lessons to co-create visions and action steps that contribute to a more livable, sustainable, and just future. The material is designed to be a living resource, encouraging ongoing contributions and revisions to ensure it remains relevant and aligned with community values.

Toolkit Ambitions

We intended the materials to help learners achieve an entry level understanding of racial and heat equity, empowering them to create sustainable, just, and inclusive communities through informed decision-making and collaborative action.

We activate Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Access principles through the design of the learning material themselves as these principles are embedded into the content and pedagogy, fostering inclusive dialogue, and equipping learners with the tools to address systemic inequities and promote sustainable, equitable communities.

The equity training materials contribute to the mission and vision of RCE Greater Phoenix by promoting sustainability education that is deeply intertwined with justice, equity, diversity, and access principles, thereby advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and fostering collaborative efforts to create a more equitable and sustainable future in the region.

Instructors

Learners

RCE Staff

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Doing Democracy to Green Your School Community

School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) is an innovative civic learning model designed to build student agency, collaboration, and critical thinking skills while creating equitable opportunities for students to authentically contribute to their communities and civic life. SPB is, at the same time, a tool for citizenship education, a tool for civic engagement, and a tool for school democracy. The SPB process stems from the widely adopted municipal Participatory Budgeting (PB) model that was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

What are the goals of the material? The School Participatory Budgeting: Doing Democracy to Green Your School Community toolkit simultaneously addresses two existential crises: the degeneration of democracy and the climate crisis. This toolkit provides educators with the knowledge and tools needed to implement School Participatory Budgeting (SPB), an innovative civic learning model designed to build student agency, collaboration, and critical thinking skills while creating equitable opportunities for students to authentically contribute to their communities and civic life. What are the objectives for learners? Educators will learn about the background of SPB, the different phases of the SPB process, how SPB can complement sustainable practices and projects, and the impact the SPB process can have on students’ sustainability and futures-thinking competencies, and their civic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practices. Resources and implementation support are provided through Arizona State University’s Participatory Governance Initiative and the Center for the Future of Arizona.

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

Strategic Thinking in sustainability problem solving, such as designing and carrying out SPB project proposals, and actions toward transformational change Interpersonal (Collaboration) Competence to perform problem analysis, conduct sustainability assessments, and engage in project management Integrated Problem Solving to apply different problem-solving ideas, including complex sustainability problems, and develop viable solutions

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 3: Good Health + Well-being
  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 13: Climate Action
  • SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

SPB is designed to engage everyone, not just a selected group of students. It strives to create more equitable school communities and decision-making processes by engaging the diversity of student voices and engaging every student through a variety of participation Opportunities. Moreover, SPB gives students real power over real money, empowers them to leverage their agency and collective voice, emboldens them in decision-making processes, fortifies youth-adult partnerships, builds critical thinking and communication skills, creates meaningful solutions to everyday problems, mirrors actual voting processes, and prepares young people to be lifelong civic participants. SPB also promotes healthy interactions among participants, a sense of community, mutual trust, school democracy, and a positive school climate.

Creator

tara bartlett 
My name is Tara Bartlett and I am a  Senior Research Analyst for Arizona State University’s Participatory Governance Initiative

daniel schugur

My name is Daniel Schugurensky and I am the founding director of the Participatory Governance Initiative at Arizona State University

Toolkit Development

School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) is an innovative civic learning model designed to build student agency, collaboration, and critical thinking skills while creating equitable opportunities for students to authentically contribute to their communities and civic life. SPB is, at the same time, a tool for citizenship education, a tool for civic engagement, and a tool for school democracy. The SPB process stems from the widely adopted municipal Participatory Budgeting (PB) model that was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989.

Toolkit Ambitions

The School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) process can be used to green a school community in the following ways:

  • Conduct a sustainability needs assessment of the campus.
  • Identify aspects of your school community where sustainability could be improved.
  • Research how other schools have infused sustainable programs and practices into their school community.
  • Propose sustainable ideas to improve the school community.
  • Assess how current projects underway could be more sustainable.
  • Partner with local community organizations focused on sustainable practices.

Instructors

Learners

RCE Staff

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Turn It Around Cards

“Turn it Around: Flashcards for Climate Futures” was conceived as a transformative learning tool to reimagine our educational approach amidst the looming climate crisis. Crafted by youth and for the wider educational community, the initiative stemmed from a collective vision to challenge traditional educational paradigms. Unlike conventional flashcards aimed at students, this project sought to invert the dynamic by harnessing the creative power of youth to influence educators, policymakers, and politicians. The intent was clear: to foster a radical rethinking of our educational systems, urging a profound shift in perspective and action.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

Inception and Vision “Turn it Around: Flashcards for Climate Futures” was conceived as a transformative learning tool to reimagine our educational approach amidst the looming climate crisis. Crafted by youth and for the wider educational community, the initiative stemmed from a collective vision to challenge traditional educational paradigms. Unlike conventional flashcards aimed at students, this project sought to invert the dynamic by harnessing the creative power of youth to influence educators, policymakers, and politicians. The intent was clear: to foster a radical rethinking of our educational systems, urging a profound shift in perspective and action. Artistic Curation, Analysis and Outreach The heart of this initiative lies in the artistic expression of young minds worldwide. Collating artwork and written contributions from diverse youth artists and writers became the cornerstone of this project. Each piece was meticulously analyzed, highlighting unique perspectives on the climate crisis. The curation process focused on selecting artworks that not only resonated visually but also conveyed powerful messages, challenging the status quo and evoking critical thinking. Our approach was multi-layered, involving extensive collaboration among artists, writers, educators, and researchers conductinga rigorous analysis of the submissions, encompassing diverse viewpoints and narratives. Collaborative discussions and engagements nurtured an environment where every piece of artwork was more than a visual representation; it became a catalyst for sparking dialogues and driving societal change. Artistic Impact and Outreach Articulating the urgency of the climate crisis through art became pivotal in engaging broader audiences. The project showcased artistic expressions at various events and platforms globally. From Earth Day marches at ASU locally and research presentations to showcasing the artwork around the UNESCO building to high-level conferences like COP 26 and 27, these artworks were instrumental in amplifying youth voices and influencing policy discussions.

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies “Turn it Around: Flashcards for Climate Futures” serves as a rich learning experience that cultivates critical thinking and a spectrum of sustainability competencies among learners. 
  • Systems-thinking competency: Through the creative artwork and thought-provoking content, participants are encouraged to think deeply about the intricate relationship between human actions and their impact on the environment. The flashcards facilitate a systemic understanding of environmental issues, emphasizing the complex interconnections between human behavior, policies, and ecological systems. 
  • Values-thinking competency: It is cultivated by prompting learners to critically reflect on their ethical stance, fostering a deeper understanding of environmental responsibility and sustainable practices. 
  • Strategic-thinking competency: The initiative stimulates creative problem-solving skills by encouraging learners to explore innovative approaches to address pressing climate challenges. 
  • Collaborative competency: By engaging with diverse perspectives and artistic expressions, participants are inspired to think creatively and develop novel solutions that contribute positively to a sustainable future.

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 13: Climate Action
  • SDG 15: Life on Land

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

  • Inclusion and Diversity: The Project celebrates diverse perspectives and voices, showcasing artwork and insights from young artists worldwide, irrespective of cultural or geographical backgrounds.
  • Equity: The Project highlights the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities and emphasizes the need for equitable solutions.
  • Justice: The Project advocates for environmental justice, recognizing the ethical responsibility to address the climate crisis for the benefit of present and future generations.
  • Access: The Project provides open access to educational tools, encouraging broad participation and engagement across diverse communities

Creator

The genesis of the “Turn It Around: Flashcards for Climate Futures” toolkit involved a vast and diverse network of contributors, including esteemed youth artists, activists, educators, researchers, policymakers, and a multitude of organizational partners. This collaboration was instrumental in shaping the toolkit’s content and overarching vision.

Dilraba

As a PhD student in Educational Policy and Evaluation at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College ASU, I, Dilraba Anayatova, had the privilege of being deeply involved in this transformative project. I with my colleagues, analyzed the wealth of submitted artworks, meticulously categorizing and exploring submissions based on colors, age demographics, and geographic locations.

Immersing myself in the artwork, I sought to understand the profound emotional and contextual nuances embedded within the submissions. This analysis led to the development of a comprehensive policy report, an interactive website, and the physical deck itself. Together, we orchestrated marches, art exhibitions, presentations, and workshops to disseminate the toolkit’s content and spark meaningful conversations.

Leveraging my passion for environmental and rural education, I with my colleagues applied the flashcards to diverse settings, like tarot reading, nature walking, meditation etc. Moreover, we developed tailored educational resources designed specifically for teachers, harnessing creative interpretations of the flashcards.

Throughout this journey, under the mentorship of Dr. Iveta Silova, my contributions were aimed at enriching the project outcomes and advancing the mission of fostering ecologically conscious education futures. The collaborative efforts of everyone involved, including youth artists and partners, greatly shaped the success of this initiative.

Toolkit Development

“Turn It Around: Flashcards for Climate Futures” was conceived as a year-long youth-led climate education initiative, initially established at Arizona State University and generously supported by the Open Society Foundations and UNESCO’s Futures of Education Initiative. Its focus was to address education’s pivotal role in addressing the environmental crisis and our collective inability to envisage alternative solutions.

The project stemmed from a realization that despite efforts to promote education as a vehicle for sustainable living (e.g., Sustainable Development Goal 4 or UN’s Education for Sustainable Development initiative), educational systems persistently reinforced human exceptionalism and economic growth over environmental sustainability. Fossil-fuel-dependent, profit-driven activities had drastically escalated global warming, pushing the planet toward irreversible tipping points.

Merging visions and voices of youth artists and leaders globally, the project aims to radically reimagine education as part of he solution to the climate crisis. The project refused to accept human exceptionalism and neoliberal individualism as the sole survival vision on a compromised Earth. Instead, it aimed to amplify marginalized voices, considering intergenerational, cross-cultural, and multispecies interdependence and justice.

The project’s call for contributions circulated through social media, inviting children and youth to share their art and written responses on various prompts related to climate education, sustainability, and their visions for a livable future on Earth. Overwhelmed by the response, the initiative received over 1000 submissions from 60 countries and five continents, with a significant disproportion in submissions from the Global South compared to their contribution to historical CO2 emissions.

Toolkit Ambitions

The “Turn It Around: Flashcards for Climate Futures” toolkit aspires to serve as a catalyst for transformative change in climate education. It seeks to engage policymakers, educators, and communities worldwide in reshaping educational paradigms toward ecological justice and sustainability.

This toolkit aims to transcend conventional educational models by offering a multifaceted approach that merges socially engaged art with factual scientific insights. By harnessing the power of artistic expression, it endeavors to inspire immediate action among policymakers while laying the groundwork for long-term policy planning that acknowledges intergenerational, cross-cultural, and multispecies interdependence and justice.

Central to its objectives is the integration of youth voices and perspectives from diverse global backgrounds, underscoring the urgency and depth of the climate crisis. The toolkit seeks to challenge traditional hierarchies by amplifying voices typically excluded from global climate conversations, thereby fostering a more inclusive and representative dialogue.

Moreover, the toolkit aims to provoke critical thinking and paradigm shifts, challenging the prevalent belief in human exceptionalism and individualism. It endeavors to dismantle outdated educational structures that prioritize economic growth over environmental sustainability. Through the use of visually stimulating flashcards and thought-provoking content, it aims to engage audiences in reimagining education as an integral part of resolving the climate crisis.

Ultimately, the toolkit aspires to trigger a series of transformative turns in educational systems, encouraging a shift towards pedagogies that honor interdependence, reciprocity with nature, and holistic ecological community-building. It seeks to galvanize global audiences into adopting an approach that recognizes the intricate interconnections between humanity and the planet, fostering a collective responsibility for a sustainable future.

Policy Makers

As a policy maker, you have a critical role in shaping educational policies. This toolkit offers insights into alternative educational paradigms and encourages considering innovative approaches in curriculum development. 

  • Picking one or several flashcards, we hope you feel prompted to reimagine the role of education in addressing the climate crisis, fostering environmental consciousness, and nurturing sustainable development goals. 
  • The flashcards could also be brought to a meeting, and offer a great way to start the meeting

Activists

For activists, this toolkit serves as a powerful advocacy tool. It provides compelling visual narratives and prompts that can be used to raise awareness about climate change, environmental sustainability, and the need for educational reform. 

  • Activists can leverage the flashcards in campaigns, workshops, and community engagements to provoke discussions and inspire action toward a more sustainable future.

Teachers

Teachers can integrate flashcards into their teaching methodologies to foster critical thinking and environmental awareness among students. This toolkit offers diverse and creative teaching materials that can be adapted across various subjects and age groups. It encourages educators to facilitate discussions, inspire curiosity, and promote a deeper understanding of the climate crisis within their classrooms.

Researchers

Researchers have the opportunity to explore the impact and efficacy of these flashcards in shaping environmental consciousness and educational paradigms. They can conduct studies to assess the toolkit’s effectiveness in stimulating critical thinking, promoting sustainability competencies, and influencing behavioral changes in learners. The toolkit provides rich material for qualitative and quantitative analysis to advance research in environmental education.

Others Engaged in Education, Climate Advocacy, or Research:

Individuals engaged in education, climate advocacy, or research can utilize this toolkit as a transformative resource. It offers a unique perspective on the intersection of education and climate change, inspiring fresh thinking and action. By engaging with the flashcards, users can contribute to the collective effort of redefining education for a sustainable future. Whether in formal educational settings, advocacy campaigns, or scholarly pursuits, this toolkit serves as a catalyst for change.

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Promoting collaboration in city governments

This course comprises a series of trainings to help practitioners create more collaboration and opportunities for holistic adaptation to climate challenges within cities. It is designed to enhance understanding of concepts such as sustainability, emergency management, and resilience and how climate change adaptation strategies in cities can be better leveraged as well through improving collaboration across these three areas in city governments.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

This course comprises a series of trainings to help practitioners create more collaboration and opportunities for holistic adaptation to climate challenges within cities. It is designed to enhance understanding of concepts such as sustainability, emergency management, and resilience and how climate change adaptation strategies in cities can be better leveraged as well through improving collaboration across these three areas in city governments.

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

All key competencies in sustainability will be addressed during the trainings.  Particularly, interpersonal (collaboration) and intrapersonal competencies will be fostered.

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 4: Quality Education
  • SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
  • SDG 13: Climate Action
  • SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

This toolkit helps learners understand different perspectives, different roles, and different ways of knowing and being and helps them discover positions, relationships, and connections outside their familiar environments. The hope is that this toolkit thereby contributes to a more just, equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible world.

Creator

susila

My name is Susila Bhagavathula. I am a Ph.D. student in sustainability at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability. I’m interested in the intersection of sustainability, emergency management, resilience, capacity building, and governance related to heat.

Toolkit Development

I created this toolkit as part of my Master’s thesis to help practitioners, particularly people in city governments, coordinate and integrate their work in sustainability, resilience, and emergency management. Beyond myself, the development team included Dr. Katja Brundiers, Prof. Dr. Michael Stauffacher, and Dr. Braden Kay, who helped to develop the introduction and wrap-up meetings.

The trainings and materials that were used as part of this toolkit were developed by different people and organizations. The City of Tempe Fire and Medical Rescue team designed the first training as an Emergency Operations Center Annual Exercise to prepare the city for cyber-attacks. A kind thank you to Darrell Duty and Andrea Glass for letting us use the exercise.

Dr. Lauren Withycombe Keeler, at Arizona State University, developed the second game, Future Shocks and City Resilience. A kind thank you to her for letting us use this game.

The third game is called Game of Heat and was developed by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network, who kindly allowed us to use the game for the sake of this toolkit.

Toolkit Ambitions

The toolkit was developed for anyone interested in creating more collaboration and more opportunities for adaptation to climate change within cities. It is addressed to members of city staff or leadership, community members, students, or anyone who is part of an organization in which they want to see more collaboration.

The toolkit was designed to foster connections and help learners understand different perspectives, roles, and ways of knowing and being. The hope is that this toolkit hereby contributes to more justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and access, whether through projects that are developed as a result of this training series or in the personal lives of those working in city governments. Additionally, the toolkit is designed to convey a deeper understanding of the sustainability, emergency management, and resilience concepts through so-called “serious games,” a game-based approach meant to convey information for educational purposes (not just entertainment).

Credits

People who developed the training series:
Susila Bhagavathula, ASU School of Sustainability
Dr. Katja Brundiers, ASU School of Sustainability
Dr. Braden Kay, formerly Sustainability Director at the City of Tempe

Kind thank you for letting us use the games and training:
Darrell Duty, City of Tempe Fire Medical Rescue
Andrea Glass, City of Tempe Fire Medical Rescue
Dr. Lauren Withycombe Keeler, ASU School of Future of Innovation in Society
USDN – Urban Sustainability Directors Network

Works cited:
Baja, K. (2018). USDN Game of Heat: Toolkit and Resources. Urban Sustainability Directors Network. Accessed online at https://www.usdn.org/uploads/cms/documents/game_of_heat.zip.

Bhagavathula, S., Brundiers, K., Stauffacher, M., & Kay, B. (2021). Fostering collaboration in city governments’ sustainability, emergency management and resilience work through competency-based capacity building. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 63, 102408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102408

Keeler, L. W., Gabriele, A., Kay, B. R., & Wiek, A. (2017). Future Shocks and City Resilience: Building Organizational Capacity for Resilience and Sustainability through Game Play and Ways of Thinking. Sustainability: The Journal of Record, 10(5), 282–292. https://doi.org/10.1089/sus.2017.0011

Instructors

The trainings were designed to be facilitated by people interested in creating collaboration and to coordinate and integrate their work in sustainability, resilience, and emergency management. Each training module has detailed instructions for leading the training oneself, including handbooks and worksheets. All game cards and materials will be downloadable. The content should be tailored to the specific city and context where the trainings will be held. When facilitating, it is important to create a positive, open and friendly learning environment. Collaboration is built on trust, and instructors are encouraged to see their role as one of facilitating openness beyond pure content. The hope is that the gameplay will create a sense of connection and fun as well

Learners

This toolkit was developed for anyone interested in creating more collaboration and more opportunities for adaptation to climate change within cities. It’s geared towards members of city staff or leadership, community members, students, or anyone who is part of an organization in which they want to see more collaboration.


Learners can go through the modules sequentially, as indicated on the website, and revisit certain trainings and modules as often as needed for full comprehension. Additional trainings will be made available and linked as a resource in case learners want to focus on one topic over another. This flexibility ensures that for different climate challenges, a training will be made available to collaborate on. The goal is to start the collaboration process. However, collaboration is a constant effort that goes beyond just participating in a training series.

RCE Staff

The toolkit can be accessed at the link above. In addition to describing the training sequence overall, the modules provide a deeper explanation of each training. Before sharing it with others, the licensing information should be considered.

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Cultivating Mindful Connections

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes how to implement mindful interactions with nature to create connections to the environment and intertwined ecosystems. The user will advance through various sections relating to nature mindfulness activities.

License Information

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.

Purpose

This interactive curriculum toolkit describes how to implement mindful interactions with nature to create connections to the environment and intertwined ecosystems. The user will advance through various sections relating to nature mindfulness activities. The objectives of the toolkit are:
  • Utilize tools and resources to cultivate a mindful connection with the environment
  • Apply mindfulness techniques to increase one’s connection with their environment
  • Facilitate collaboration among stakeholders to lead applied learning projects
The toolkit can be used for personal education purposes and aiding educators in teaching the public. Users will be able to explore a series of web pages filled with resources, examples, activities, and insights that explain how to prepare to engage with nature in a more meaningful way.

Sustainability Approach

Sustainability Competencies

  • Describes the benefits and purpose of the toolkit to aid in the user’s application to solutions
  • Apply the curriculum to the users individual needs mindfulness
  • Engage and collaborate with others to promote nature mindfulness
  • Observe and analyze the environment which will aid in the development of environmental stewardship as well as a sense of place
  • Adopt a meaningful connection to nature that incorporates systematic thinking as individuals connect to the  environments past, present, and future

Sustainable Development Goals

  • SDG 3: Health and Well-being
  • SDG 15: Life on the Land

Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Access

The toolkit helps to facilitate mindful connections to the environment that can lead to a more in-depth understanding of nature. Developing a sense of place or relationships with nature fosters stewardship, pro-environmental decision-making, equity, inclusion, and sustainable solutions, particularly related to the environment one makes a connection with.

 

Creator

My name is Cyna Schuster and I am an EdD graduate from Arizona State University. I have worked in various areas of  environmental sustainability education, including early childhood education and higher education. I am the co-advisor for the Sustainability Club, an ASU student organization on the Tempe campus. My primary research interest is in the area of  environmental Education, nature connectedness, and mindfulness.

Toolkit Development

The Cultivating Mindfulness Connections Toolkit was developed as a collective collaboration that included ASU faculty and students. Faculty member Dr. Molina Walters and ASU student Taina Rodriguez were actively involved in this project.

The primary goals of developing the toolkit were to utilize tools and resources to cultivate a mindful connection with the environment.

  • Apply mindfulness techniques to increase one’s connection with one’s environment, resulting in systematic thinking about our relationship with nature.
  •  Facilitate critical thinking about how human interaction impacts the environment.

 

The purpose of the toolkit is to educate the public about the importance of implementing mindful connections with nature. Developing mindful connections can alter the user’s perspective on their environment, resulting in the user producing sustainable outcomes. The toolkit can be used by any individual interested in creating an intimate connection with nature. It has been designed
to accommodate each user’s needs.


We aim for the toolkit to support traditional and nontraditional educators in creating and sustaining a mindful connection with their environment. This intimate relationship will contribute to the user developing a sense of place and environmental  stewardship. The toolkit will make the user more self-aware, environmentally aware, and emotionally aware to care for the environment.

Instructors

For traditional and nontraditional educators who wish to use the toolkit to teach others about developing a mindful connection with the environment. The user of the toolkit is encouraged to explore the content and activities. The toolkit contains research, examples, and activities.

Learners

Advancing through the modules in sequential order is highly recommended. The activity modules should be visited as it will apply concepts taught in previous modules. As you progress through the modules, having discussions with your peers may be helpful to develop sustainable solutions..

RCE Staff

The toolkit can be accessed at the link above. The curriculum provides background information on the significance of experiencing nature. It also provides activities for all ages and accommodations as needed. Traditional and nontraditional educators can use the toolkit to educate themselves or the community.

This toolkit is supplied under CCBY-NC-SA license.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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