New Jersey students will no longer need to be in science class to hear lessons on climate change this week Rutgers University held an event to teach the teachers how to teach the impacts of climate change across all subjects in New Jersey schools Melissa Rose Cooper brings us the story from Rutgers New Brunswick campus to see how this new approach will help Educators incorporate the topic in a more Hands-On way it's part of our ongoing series Peril and promise that reports on the human stories of climate change climate change is a topic we are all dealing with students need to know how to access that information how to understand it better in every subject matter can do their part and Sarah Rupert is hoping this Workshop will help her expand ways to incorporate climate change into the classroom as a fine arts teacher at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Huntington County she says her students are eager to know more I do see students taking on and feeling challenged by climate change you know from just wondering how to help to wondering what evidence and where it comes from we address it in PSAs in class and photography the students do posters and even through researching you know what are the issues today how are the numbers changing what's the data how do you use that visually as a representational medium to help kind of clarify some of the questions that they do have hosted by Rutgers University the goal is to help teachers across the state States educate their students on climate change as New Jersey is the first in the country to make the subject a part of the public school curriculum we want to be able to bring the world's most pressing issue which is climate change to young people so that they can take part in creating Solutions so that interdisciplinary approach we have teachers here from World Language from history from art from science from math and physical education all different disciplines coming together to figure out the best ways to present climate change understanding to young people so I was a science teacher for 15 years in Neptune and I taught biology environmental science and some of the physical sciences and so we've always talked about climate change in those 15 years but now to add them to our curriculum documents and to have them across every discipline so that students really get an understanding of how climate change is impacting them in every way in their lives throughout all of their disciplines and all of the grade levels is really important the workshop included Hands-On and interactive sessions with other teachers all collaborating on the best approach for including climate change in their classrooms first lady Tammy Murphy commending teachers for their commitment these tools are designed to create an environment for Innovation and new ideas prepare our students to meet the reality of our shared climate challenges and to develop the next generation of climate leaders further climate education also critically and crucially prepares New Jersey students to compete and succeed at the green jobs economy we know that sea level rise in Jersey is twice as fast as other places Across the Nation that's the first thing we have a large Coast we know that 84 of kids want to learn about climate change education and this is the topic that they want to learn about and they're concerned about we know that 89 of students have reported that they have stress and anxiety from climate change and they're thinking about it over time so 89 people are thinking about environment so those kids are having those thoughts it is anxiety provoking and they want to learn more and they want support Educators at the workshop say they're grateful for the opportunity to improve climate change education in New Jersey Rutgers plans to host another event like this next year for NJ Spotlight news I'm Melissa Rose Cooper lead funding for Peril and promise is provided by Dr p Roy vagalos and Diana T vagalos major support is provided by the Marcos foundation and Sue and Edgar wachenheim III and the Cheryl and Philip milstein family [Music]