8 Free Climate Change Education Tools for Back to School
- Maddison Chaffin
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 11
As a new school year begins, educators are preparing to bring real-world relevance into the classroom, with lessons that resonate with their kids. Whether you're teaching health, science, environmental studies, or family and consumer sciences, integrating climate education can spark curiosity and empower students to think critically about their impact on the world as they grow into our future decision-makers.
To support your planning, we’ve curated 8 free climate change education tools, from interactive guides and downloadable printables to curriculum databases. This list features a mix of our most popular Educated Choices Program (ECP) resources, along with trustworthy tools from fellow climate education partners.
Keep these 8 ready-to-use resources in your back pocket to make climate literacy engaging and accessible all year long:
1. Free Download: ECP’s Printable Poster PDF
Make your classroom a living, breathing resource with this free downloadable poster featuring key facts and visuals about food systems and climate change. This pixelated video-game style poster covers:
Water Use
Land Use
Deforestation
Ghg Emissions
Print out a few copies to post on bulletin boards, hallways, or to decorate your classroom. We bet it will kick off a classroom discussion!
2. ECP's Climate Change Education Video and Resource Library
ECP’s digital library is full of free, standards-aligned video presentations that help students explore the intersections of food, health, society, and the environment. Relevant topics include:
Each themed education package includes a video, ready-to-use lesson plans, activities, discussion questions, and remote student viewing links, ideal for independent classroom use or remote assignments.
Example of ECP’s FREE Climate Change Education Package: Our Carbon Foodprint
3. ECP’s Academic Standards Guidelines
Explore the Academic Standards Guidelines to find how ECP materials align with common standards from over a dozen countries.
Find the subject and age level closest to your needs
Compare the guidelines to your academic standards to find ones that closely match your standards
Find the free science-backed resources that meet those guidelines.
4. ECP’s Rethinking Food Waste Guide
Empower students to reduce food waste at school and home. This guide includes:
Real-world food waste facts to familiarize students with the topic
Practical steps for reducing waste
Composting information and instructions
Meal and grocery planning printables
This is a great resource for students to take home and involve the whole family in.
5. ECP’s Next Steps Toolkit
This website helps students connect learning to the real world after using ECP materials in class. It includes:
Environmentally friendly recipes
Stats and studies chosen by ECP’s curriculum developers
Book, documentary, and podcast recommendations
6. FoodPrint.org’s Water Foodprint Calculator
Your “foodprint” is the result of everything it takes to get your food from the farm to your plate. Many of those processes are invisible to consumers.”
This online tool helps students explore how everyday food choices impact the environment by allowing them to see what their own water footprint is! This is a perfect companion to ECP’s “Our Carbon Foodprint”.
Use to initiate classroom discussions and reflection after watching the video.
7. Subject to Climate Education
This dynamic platform offers free climate change education teaching materials curated by grade level and subject. Highlights include:
Monthly observance calendars with accompanying resources
NGSS-aligned lesson plans
Ready-to-use activities for cross-curricular connections
Ideal for integrating current events into your lessons.
8. Green Schools Alliance’s START Dashboard
This interactive tool helps schools track sustainability initiatives and reduce their carbon footprint. The dashboard includes:
Student education programs
Ideas, guides, and resources to set school-wide sustainability goals
Sustainability tracking tools
A powerful way to turn climate education into school-wide action.
Benefits of Free Climate Change Education
Our modern food systems are large contributors to many of the leading personal, public, and environmental health concerns, including deforestation, biodiversity loss, food waste, and more. Early education can inspire the next generation to reduce some of the major effects of our current agricultural system, including land use, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Our free climate education is lasting and impactful. These eye-opening topics have inspired students around the world to participate in projects to improve the sustainability of their school or local community and even involve their families as they further their learning. More than 90% of our viewers say they will make healthier, more planet-friendly food choices after watching our content. With over 3.5 million viewers in 60 countries and counting, our vision to create lasting change is becoming clearer, and you can be a part of it.
About Educated Choices Program:
At the Educated Choices Program, we believe every student deserves access to accurate and engaging education that empowers them to build a better future. If you agree, support our organization by using our resources in your classroom and connecting with us for future updates:
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