About Us

The primary goal of this climate literacy resource is to help and encourage grades 6-12 (middle to high school) teachers to incorporate information about climate change in classrooms outside STEM disciplines. This resource was inspired in part by The Teacher Friendly GuideTM to Climate Change, a publication by the Paleontological Research Institution, whose focus is primarily high school Earth and environmental science teachers.

Current Project Leaders:

  • Bosiljka Glumac is a Professor of Geosciences at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. She came up with the idea for this web resource when she surveyed students in her GEO 106 Extraordinary Events in the History of Earth, Life and Climate course and realized that they had very little familiarity with the impact of climate on human history. 
  • Taylor Agena is a class of 2026 engineering major at Smith College. They have written and revised various entries, particularly in the areas of History/Social Studies, Indigenous Perspectives, and Music.

Former Project Leaders:

  • Julia Herzfeld is a class of 2021 graduate of Smith College, where they majored in sociology and minored in geosciences. Prior to their graduation, they helped develop this resource from its inception, coordinating with students and working professionals, writing and revising many topic entries, and helping to create this website.
  • Caroline Davock is a class of 2023 biology major and geosciences minor at Smith College. She has written several topic entries, particularly in the area of History and Social Studies, revised many more, and helped put this webpage together. 
  • Ollie Donald graduated from Smith College in 2022 with a degree in Environmental Geosciences. During the summer of 2022, they worked as a Research Fellow on revising entries, updating the website, and including Indigenous Perspectives.
  • Carol Berner is a lecturer in the Department of Education and Child Study at Smith College. She coordinates the Water Inquiry group, a collaboration of Smith students and faculty and local K–12 teachers and is the regional coordinator of River of Words, a place-based education initiative integrating watershed science, literacy and the arts in the Connecticut River Valley.

Contact Us: 

climate@smith.edu or via this form

Acknowledgements

Initial Conversations

Tiphareth Ananda (4th grade teacher, Campus School of Smith College), Tracy Dawson-Greene (7th grade social studies teacher, Northampton JFK Middle School)

Expert Advice

Vanessa Adel (Professor of Sociology, Smith College), Lisa Berrios (Smith College AC ’02), Anna Botta (Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies, Program of World Literatures, Smith College), Katie Boyd (CLEAN Program Manager), Rich Cairn (Director, Emerging America), Lewis Dartnell (Professor of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London), Gregory de Wet (Professor of Geosciences, Smith College), Graham Dodd (Director of Curriculum Design & Innovation, Campus School of Smith College), Don Duggan-Haas (Director of Teacher Programming, The Paleontological Research Institution), Martin Finné (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University), Lisa Gardiner (UCAR Center for Science Education), Julia Ginsburg (Graduate Student, Concordia University), Lily Gurton-Wachter (Professor of English, Smith College), Alexander Koch (Postdoctorate Fellow in Geography, Simon Fraser University), Joseph Manning (Professor of Classics & History, Yale University), Miranda McCarvel (Lecturer in English Language & Literature, Smith College), Christen Mucher (Professor of American Studies, Smith College, Five Colleges Certificate in Native American and Indigenous Studies), Javier Puente (Professor of Latin American Studies, Smith College), Al Rudnitsky (Professor of Education, Smith College), Margaret Sarkissian (Professor of Music, Smith College), Andrea Stone (Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, Member of American Studies, Member of Book Studies and Archives Concentrations, Smith College), Steve Waksman (Professor of Music, Smith College), Frazer Ward (Professor of Art, Smith College), Erika Weiberg (Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University), Rebecca Worsham (Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, Smith College)

Content Contributors – Smith College student research fellows and volunteers

Muneera Aldarwish, Sophie Arnstein (Volcanoes in Art), Emma Atkinson (The Arctic Expedition of Sir John Franklin), Miriam Boardman (An Introduction to the Word Climate), Ciara Chen, Rachel Clendenning (The Syrian Refugee Crisis), Olivia Dawson (Southwestern United States Megadrought) Samikshya Dhami (Famines in Western India), Ollie Donald (Collapse of Mycenaean Civilization, Heat waves, Indigenous Studies), Hannah Durkee (Migration of Early Homo Sapiens Out of East Africa), Olivia Grandbois (Climate Change and Mental Health Issues), Kayara Hardnett-Barnes (Volcanoes in Art, Feed Lot (1991) by Sue Coe), Mika Holtz, Dominique Kelly (Namazu (鯰) the Earthshaker), Aleena Khan (The Swan Book (2013) by Alexis Wright), Tierna Matecha (Decline of the Mycenaean Civilization, Wildfires, Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding, Saharan dust clouds, The Global Food Crisis, Korean, “Wake Up America” by Miley Cyrus, ), Sela McNeil (Heat waves, James Temte, Big Weather), Lesly Oquendo, Hannah Osman (“Feels Like Summer” by Childish Gambino), Annabel Stattelman-Scanlan (Urbanization), Lesley Tilghman (The Great Dying), Veronica Picard, Renee Rienecker, Olivia Sabini-Leite (An Introduction to the Word Climate), Caroline Sears, Juliet Schulman-Hall, Maya Stefanelli, Victoria Tse, Kerry Walker

Constructive Feedback

Tola Alabi (AFDB Independent Consultant), Jason Donev (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary), Brittany Gutermuth (Climate Change Education Coordinator, Mass Audubon), Michael Jabot, Katie Modic (Executive Director, Communitopia), Ginger Wireman (Community Outreach & Environmental Education Specialist, Nuclear Waste Program – WA Dept. of Ecology)

Funding

Smith College Center for the Environment, Ecological Design and Sustainability (CEEDS), Smith College Geoscience Department

Tech and Website Assistance

Frank Citino (Smith College)