Reading, writing, arithmetic… and climate change?

Third-graders at Public School 103 in the northern Bronx sat on a rug last month as their teacher, Kristy Neumeister, led a book discussion.

The book 'Rain School' is about children living in a rural region of Chad, a country in Central Africa. Every year their school has to be rebuilt because storms wash it away.

“And what causes all these rains, storms and floods?” asked Mrs. Neumeister.

“Carbon,” said Aiden, a serious-looking eight-year-old.

Ms. Neumeister was one of 39 elementary school teachers from across the city who participated in a four-day training session over the summer called “Integrating Climate Education in NYC Public Schools.” The aim was to familiarize teachers with the topic so that they can incorporate climate change into their lesson plans.

The summer workshop could be just the beginning. Last year, New Jersey, the first state to mandate climate change lessons, introduced them in its public schools. Several similar invoices are being considered in New York, with one proposing to teach climate change for all grades and subjects and has the support of more than 115 educators and nonprofits like the National Wildlife Federation.

“Climate change is not a future threat; it is a current reality,” said Sen. James Sanders Jr., a Democrat who represents parts of southeastern Queens, such as the Rockaways, that are vulnerable to sea level rise and flooding. He is a sponsor of another bill that would include the topic in science lessons.

While New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California are actively incorporating climate change into curriculums, other states, including Texas, Virginia and Florida, have resisted, said Glenn Branch, the deputy director of the University of California. National Center for Science Education. Reasons include community resistance in more conservative states and outdated scientific standards, he said.

Even in regions that embrace climate change education, there is some pushback. In Connecticut, state Rep. John Piscopo, a Republican, wants that adjust standards to include more questions about whether man-made greenhouse gases are the main source of global warming.

“Current policies tie the hands of science teachers from challenging hypotheses and theories, which are the foundation of science,” Mr. Piscopo said. “This amounts to indoctrinating our young people rather than encouraging the lively debate and individual learning they deserve.”

(Numerous studies have found that an overwhelming majority of scientists focused on Earth's climate agree that the planet is warming and that humans are the primary cause, as do almost 60 percent of the general population of the United States.)

New York City, the nation's largest school system, is getting a head start on a potential curriculum mandate with its efforts to compost lunches, decarbonize school buildings and prepare older students for careers in the clean energy sector. In February, the Ministry of Education, together with the United Federation of Teachers, will organize a larger training session on climate change for up to 500 teachers at all grade levels.

The more reach the better, says Oren Pizmony-Levy, director of the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University's Teachers College, a sponsor of the summer workshop along with Columbia and the city school system.

The summer's crash course in climate change was intimidating at times, Ms. Neumeister said. In one session, Jason Smerdon, a professor at Columbia Climate School, discussed the life cycle of carbon, sometimes using scientific terms as “isotopic rates.”

But the workshop also provided more accessible resources, such as the website Subject to climate, which allows teachers to develop and share their lesson plans, as well as ideas for interactive activities, such as a nature walk to measure carbon dioxide in the air. In one session, a Teachers College instructor suggested talking to children about “zombie fires” (underground fires in the Arctic).

By the end of the week, Ms. Neumeister had understood enough to introduce the topic to her students, she said. But she felt like she and her fellow teachers were under pressure to translate what she had learned into engaging classroom lessons. “I felt like we were like guinea pigs,” she said.

To ensure the topic resonates with students, there needs to be more teacher training and instructional resources, Mr. Branch said, citing previous studies that have lack of exposure of teachers to climate change. He would like to see more states join California, New Jersey, Maine and Washington, which have set aside money for professional development in this area.

Another concern shared among teachers during the four-day workshop was how to integrate climate change into busy class schedules, including state test preparation.

“It's not about adding more, it's more about weaving it in,” Mr. Pizmony-Levy said of incorporating climate change into subjects like math and English language arts. Ms. Neumeister was able to achieve this in her reading comprehension lessons by using articles about the environment accompanied by short quizzes.

Monica Pagan-Guzman, who also participated in the summer workshop, teaches third grade at Public School 83 in East Harlem. She developed the “Rain School” lesson plan with Ms. Neumeister, and both women planned to teach it in the fall. But when the school year started, Ms. Pagan-Guzman found herself in a classroom where only a handful of students were reading level.

In response, Ms. Pagan-Guzman changed her lesson plan. She hopes to start a lunch club this winter to discuss climate change and combine this with new research into animal welfare. “They know that animals need positive homes and positive environments,” she said of her students. “So I thought this would be an easy way to go back and not give up on this process.”

In the northern Bronx, Ms. Neumeister's students continued their book review of “Rain School” and explored ideas for weatherproof schools.

The group talked about poles and how they were used in the United States to raise buildings. “You can put sandbags around the water so that your house doesn't get destroyed,” says Ameena (8).

“I think they're starting to get some of it,” Ms. Neumeister said. But she would like to see children become acquainted with climate change even earlier.

“If they start this in kindergarten with these basic concepts, by the time students get to third grade, there will be so much more knowledge,” she said. “They would become like little experts, and it would become part of their lifestyle, and their parents would know about it too.”