In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Carol O’Donnell, executive director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center in Washington, DC, about educating students in kindergarten through grade 12 about sustainability and environmental issues. O’Donnell discusses how the Sustainable Development Goals, formulated by the United Nations, provide a global framework for youth education; how working with educational material in a local context can help students gain data literacy skills; and how the Smithsonian Science Education Center tailors curricula on environmental issues and climate change to different age groups.

References and recommendations:

“Data, discourse, and development: Building a sustainable world through education and science communication” by Heidi Gibson, Mary E. Short, and Carol O’Donnell; https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.981988/full

Smithsonian Science Education Center; https://ssec.si.edu/

Smithsonian Science for Global Goals Project; https://ssec.si.edu/global-goals

EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, from the US Environmental Protection Agency; https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen

“Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It” by Gale Sinatra and Barbara Hofer; https://academic.oup.com/book/39889