By Carine Verschueren & Sam Lindgren
Climate change is no longer a topic reserved for science classrooms. It is shaping the world students are growing up in and creating new opportunities for educators across every grade level and subject area to help learners understand complex global challenges and to think critically. Beginning with the 2026–2027 school year, the State of Illinois requires all public K-12 classrooms to incorporate instruction on the causes, impacts, and solutions of climate change into their curriculum. Yet many teachers ask the same questions: Where do I begin? How do I address difficult emotions, controversial conversations, and uncertainty while still inspiring hope? Where do I find the resources to do all this?
The new Climate Change Education for Classroom Teachers is a job-embedded microcredential for teachers designed to answer those questions. Through 8 self-paced modules, teachers explore practical and research-based approaches to integrating climate change education (CCE) into their classrooms, curricula, and school communities. Throughout the course, teachers build practical resources that they can use immediately, including age-appropriate conversation starters, a hope-in-practice classroom checklist, a standards crosswalk, a whole-school climate education action plan, and a lesson or unit plan for their own classroom. The course is designed for teachers to discover strategies that allow them to confidently foster climate literacy and justice, and inspire meaningful action.
This ISBE-approved microcredential course is asynchronous and appropriate for elementary, middle, or high school teachers, including those who work in non-formal settings. The course will help educators move beyond simply teaching about climate change toward creating learning experiences that empower students to understand their world and participate thoughtfully in shaping its future.
Illinois public school teachers who complete the course will receive a digital badge on their Illinois Professional Education License (PEL) and receive 40 professional development hours. All other educators, including teachers from outside of Illinois, will receive a certificate of completion. Teachers can register for the microcredential on the College of Education microcredential storefront.