The State Seal of Civic Engagement Environmental Literacy

Implementation Guide

Developed by the CAELI

County Office of Education Innovation Hub

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May 5, 2022

Welcome

Please share your name and organization in the chat.

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Please answer this quick 3 question poll.

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Agenda

1. CAELI and the COE Innovation Hub
2. The State Seal of Civic Engagement
1. Overview
2. Criteria
3. Gradeband Snapshots & Guest Panel
4. Supporting Civic Engagement
5. Next Steps

What is CAELI and who are the authors of this resource?

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The California Environmental Literacy Initiative (CAELI), led by Ten Strands, works statewide to change the education system so that it supports environmental literacy with a focus on equity, inclusion, and cultural relevance for all students.

CAELI Overview

This collective impact network works with guidance from a leadership council composed of action oriented innovation hubs.

Members in the County Office of Education (COE) Innovation Hub have a role that provides some type of backbone support for environmental literacy, sustainability, and climate resilient efforts within their county region’s K12 schools.

CAELI COE Innovation Hub

The COE Innovation Hub works together on a number of projects and capacity building efforts to advance this work across the state, for example: community of practice, resource toolkits, case studies, trainings, etc.

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CAELI COE Innovation Hub

State Seal of Civic Engagement

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What is

Environmental Literacy?

“An environmentally literate person has the capacity to act individually and with others to support ecologically sound, economically prosperous, and equitable communities for present and future generations.

Through lived experiences and education programs that include classroom-based lessons, experiential education, and outdoor learning, students will become environmentally literate, developing the knowledge, skills, and understanding of environmental principles to analyze environmental issues and make informed decisions.”

~ California’s Blueprint for Environmental Literacy (2015)

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Civics is engagement in the community

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• Civic knowledge and skills
• Dispositions and traits
• Ability to solve public problems

Assembly Bill 24 (2017) instructed the California Department of Education (CDE) to develop a set of criteria to award students who have demonstrated excellence in civic education.

“It is the intent of the Legislature to establish a SSCE to encourage, and create pathways for, pupils in elementary and secondary schools to become civically engaged in democratic governmental institutions at the local, state, and national levels.”

-California Education Code (EC) Section 51470

State Seal Basics

Formal Recognition by the State for 11th and 12th grade students that demonstrate:

• Excellence in civic education and participation
• Understanding of the U.S. and California Constitutions and the democratic system of government

Based on 5 statewide adopted criteria.

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Each LEA can determine a framework for making determinations for student qualifications based on their local context.

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State Seal of Civic Engagement Criteria

Criteria 1: Academics

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Be engaged in academic work in a productive way.

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Criteria 2: Civics

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Demonstrate a competent understanding of U.S. and California constitutions; functions and governance of local governments; tribal government structures and organizations; the role of the citizen in a constitutional democracy; and democratic principles, concepts, and processes.

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Criteria 3: Civic Engagement Projects

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Participate in one or more informed civic engagement projects that address real-world problems and require students to identify and inquire into civic needs or problems, consider varied responses, take action, and reflect on efforts.

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Criteria 4: Self-Reflection

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Demonstrate civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions through self-reflection.

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Criteria 5: Character

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Exhibit character traits that reflect civic-mindedness and a commitment to positively impact the classroom, school, community and/or society.

Use the QR code or the link in the chat to access the State Seal of Civic Engagement Environmental Literacy

Implementation Guide

Breakout Rooms

What is your school, district, or LEA already doing to support civic engagement?

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What questions do you have about connecting civic engagement to environmental literacy?

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Link to Jamboard: https://jamboard.google.com/d/1zJEoE0hM_WuJa3c2Du-6hnTmbHdd_-bap24Yz9fMwFQ/viewer

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Grade Band Snapshots

& Educator Panel

Panel

• K-2nd Grade: Robert Golden and Mandy Breuer from Golden Charter Academy in Fresno
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• 3-5th Grade: Laura Arnow, Pajaro Valley School District
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• 6-8th Grade: Mark Gomez, Salinas Union High School District
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• 9th-12th Grade: Gina Woodward from Hilltop High School in Chula Vista

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Little Hands Do BigThings:

a Zoo School’s Civic Action Journey

GCA CEO, President & Fresno’s Very Own–Robert Golden

Environmental Student Outcomes embedded into our LCAP goals

Designing with Stewardship Action in Mind

Kindergarten Presentation: Monarchs & Milkweed

Designing with Stewardship Action in Mind

• Started with Amplify Science California Milkweed & Monarch unit
• Teacher paired phenomena to read-aloud stories
• After stories, students began making paintings of butterfly stages and plant parts
• Each painting became an opportunity to write caption
• Captions turned into essays and problem statements
• Problem statements turned into opportunities to seek solutions

& Using Action & Place to Make Curriculum REAL

2nd Grade Presentation: Superhero Trees

& Using Action & Place to Make Curriculum REAL

• Started with Amplify CKLA Knowledge Cycles in Nature unit
• Students studied different maps in CalEnviroScreen platform
• Trees started emerging as a “superhero” relating to many of the cycles students were studying
• Students wrote narratives about superhero trees while discovering their own neighborhoods were of the most tree-poor in Fresno
• The Superhero Tree stories became tools for creating public value for trees and tree planting event drawing even the mayor, other public figures and a majority of 2nd grade families

Results

Students showed real concern about “fairness” and “rights” to environmentally healthy communities

• neighborhoods with fewer trees compared to other areas
• human impact on animal habitats and populations
• where waste was going
• to name a few

Students felt the need to have their families involved in the action–even after the project

• single-use plastic
• plants to take home
• waste streaming

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Do It Yourself

• Set the sandbox and be open to student interests, i.e., in our kindergarten waste unit where they audited trash for a month, teachers wanted to do recycling. Yet, students were more interested in food waste, decomposition and composting. We adapted the focus and kept most of our assessments. Have something in the project for everyone’s talents.
• Curriculum is your friend and can save you time. Take it literally & innovate on top of it to make it come to life. Curriculum is the structure from which teacher and student creativity grew.
• Our focus was literacy–so all Presentations of Learning are centered on giving students ample speaking, listening, writing opportunities–with the math and science elements too.
• The presentations of learning with the service action showed students the assets in their community–many of their families emerged as active environmental stewards in their own right, i.e., gardeners, agency employees, advocates, etc.
• Accountability with the interdisciplinary design documents–kept the conversation and thinking going. Families reported back that students “couldn’t stop talking about their learning at home.”

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Follow/Join our Work

Instagram: @goldencharteracademy

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www.goldencharteracademy.org

Small But Mighty:

Some successes of the Calabasas Green Team

There's a radical - and wonderful - new idea here... that all children could and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people's ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks on the world. It’s an idea with revolutionary implications. If we take it seriously.

--Deborah Meier

Three (of many) Projects

Death to Sporks

The Enchanted Forest

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The Balloon Ban

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Death To Sporks

Our first campaign -- to get rid of plastic packets with disposable sporks and straws

• Student waste audits found unopened packets in trash
• Student litter surveys identified many sporks on the playground
• Student social surveys revealed most kids just wanted a napkin

Action steps:

• The “Sporkback” -- student-led action
• Students met with Food Services to request a spork dispenser
• Students distributed bamboo sporks

Results

• Spork dispenser for unwrapped individual sporks
• Straws behind the counter on request
• Sadly the spork dispenser has since vanished and the packets are back

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3. Participate in one or more informed civic engagement project(s) that address real-world problems and require students to identify and inquire into civic needs or problems, consider varied responses, take action, and reflect on efforts.

What got kids engaged? They noticed a very localized problem and felt empowered to solve it.

Balloon Ban

A year-long investigation into microplastics and entanglement DURING THE SHUTDOWN

• Virtual visit with Microplastic Madness
• Shared internet research into the impact of balloons
• Collaborative animation online

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Action steps:

• Presentation to the school board
• Classroom visits, paper flowers, and a school-wide pledge

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Results

• Balloons at Calabasas graduation reduced from 250 in 2019 to 5 in 2020
• PVUSD Board adopted Balloon Ban, made a Sustainability Pledge, and created a grownup green team

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What got kids engaged? They learned that something kids love had surprising consequences and wanted to create change.

2. Demonstrate a competent understanding of …functions and governance of local governments;... the role of the citizen in a constitutional democracy; and democratic principles, concepts, and processes…

The Enchanted Forest

A Defined Learning project about Urban Forestry

• Career focused--students acted as urban foresters
• Integrated language arts, science, social studies and media studies

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Action steps

• Students surveyed, identified, and mapped campus trees
• Students planned for increased vegetation on our site
• Students created a powerpoint presentation describing the plan

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Results

• We weren’t able to present the idea to the school board.
• HOWEVER, kids see themselves as advocates for our urban landscape
• … and it got us outside for the first time in more than a year!

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What got kids engaged? They collaborated to conduct research and engineer solutions to a problem that affected them directly.

1. Be engaged in academic work in a productive way

What really matters to engage elementary activists?

--love comes first, action comes later

--local, visible, kid-centered issues

--small actions with quick results

--everything is likely to be messy

--joy, joy, joy

Thanks!

… any questions?�

laura_arnow@pvusd.net

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Credits

Slide Deck Link

• Video by the Green Team and Laura Arnow
• Funding for the Green Team from the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation’s Ocean Guardian program
• Presentation template by Slidesgo

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6th-8th Grade

Mark Gomez

Curriculum Specialist and Teacher

Salinas Valley Unified High School District

Jessica - Climate Change

Esther - Water Pollution

KEY CONSIDERATIONS

How do you get your kids civically engaged?

• Help them discover what they care about… freedom in your curriculum to EXPLORE issues in their communities and lives… to make connection

Which of the SSCE criteria do you support and how?

• As the students progress through the grades, we hope to support ALL the criteria for ALL students by providing MULTIPLE opportunities to learn about and engage in civic action

What seems especially important to consider in civically engaging kids in this age group?

Believe in their ability to think critically and ACT on issues. They are ready and need our support!!

Supporting Civic Engagement

Strategies

• Students can build their civic engagement beginning in K-8.
• Connect with community partners who already lead civic projects.
• Develop a teacher organized project the first year → participation counts as engagement.

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In the chat:

Share ways that you are thinking of bringing the state seal of civic engagement to students.

Share ideas you have for bringing an environmental lens to civics.

Free for Community Based Partners to showcase your program.

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COEs can host your own vetted page.

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https://caeli.greenguardians.com/

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Free to educators to search for programs by duration, cost, locations, grades, subjects, topics, and standards.

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https://caeli.greenguardians.com/

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Next Steps

• March 31, 2022 - County Offices of Education Environmental Literacy Leadership Case Studies. Recording here.
• April 7, 2022 - A Teacher Call to Action for Environmental Literacy. Recording here..
• April 21, 2022 - A Teacher Call to Action for Environmental Literacy for Professional Learning Providers. Recording here.
• May 5, 2022 - State Seal of Civic Engagement Environmental Literacy Implementation Guide. Recording here.
• June 2, 2022 - Community-Based Partner Network Toolkit. Recording here.

Thank You from the COE Innovation Hub

Amity Sandage, Environmental Literacy Coordinator, Santa Cruz County Office of Education

Amy Frame, K-12 Program Manager, Ten Strands

Andra Yeghoian, Environmental Literacy Coordinator, San Mateo County Office of Education

Olivia Kernan, Environmental Literacy Coordinator, Humboldt County Office of Education

Nathan Inouye, Environmental Literacy Coordinator, Ventura County Office of Education

Peggy Harte, Youth Education Program Manager, UC Davis Center for Community and Citizen Science, Environmental Literacy Program Manager, Solano County Office of Education

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Tamara Basepayne, Coordinator Outdoor Education and Environmental Literacy, San Joaquin County Office of Education

Jennifer Mutch, Science Coordinator, Santa Clara County Office of Education

Katie Beck, STEM Coordinator, Educational Services Orange County Department of Education

Lori Kiesser, Coordinator, Development & Funding, Inside the Outdoors, Orange County Department of Education

Crystal Starr Howe, Environmental Literacy Coordinator, San Diego County Office of Education

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