During summer 2014, the Department of Energy and Environment, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), and the DC Environmental Education Consortium worked with the Carnegie Academy of Science Education to organize and host a three-week Environmental Literacy Summer Institute. The focus of the institute was to create curriculum units and lesson plans based on the NGSS and also support the Environmental Literacy Framework. 33 members of the Science Educator Leader Cadre (SELC) (representing 27 schools) worked in grade-level teams to develop nine curriculum units. Members of the SELC piloted these units during the 2014-15 school year.

All District schools are encouraged to field test these draft curriculum units as part of school-based environmental literacy implementation plans or as NGSS resources. The drafts will be evaluated over the course of the 2015-16 school year and refined using the Achieve EQUiP rubric.

Check out the draft curriculum units by clicking on the links below:

• Early Childhood: The World Around Us (Scientific Inquiry)
• Grade 1: Patterns and Growth (Life Science/Earth and Space Science)
• Grade 5: What’s for Dinner? (Life Science/Physical Science)
• Grade 6: Earth and Human Activity (Earth Science)
• Grade 7: Ecology (Life Science)
• Grade 8: Energy in my Every Day Life (Physical Science)
• Grade 9: Environmental Science/Earth Science Unit: Our Changing Plant (Global Climate Change)
• High School Biology Unit: Environmental Footprint
• High School Chemistry Unit: Evaluating Proposed Solutions in DC’s Sustainability Plan