For Schools:

Sowing the Seeds for the Future

Living Land Learn aims to foster a deeply felt nature connection and inspire climate action through personal and community engagement with the natural environment.  While engaged in interdisciplinary exploration of ecology, systems, and place, learners develop both climate literacy and emotional resilience —essential tools for navigating and shaping a changing world. While fostering a sense of connection, empowerment, and possibility, the Living Land Learn curriculum harnesses the power of imagination to cultivate creative response and shared hope.

Creating a school’s climate education vision through community building and curriculum design:

• Offer a holistic curriculum emphasizing a systems-thinking, nature-based, experiential, and action-oriented approach to understanding climate change.

• Present a “possibilist” vision of the future, focused on climate solutions and community empowerment as a response to a clear understanding of climate change.

• Promote place-based values, emphasizing the needs of Black and Brown communities, who are most impacted by climate change and by a lack of exposure to nature.

• Design and teach a trans-disciplinary visual arts curriculum integrating ecological literacy, sustainability, and material exploration. View examples in PDF.

• Adapt and integrate the Living Land Learn vision to the specific mission, vision, and philosophy of partnering schools, resulting in an accessible and actionable written curriculum document.

• Design and lead faculty and staff professional development for successful implementation; collaborate with partnering organizations for effective communication of program

Actions initiated and developed by Living Land Learn in schools:

School pollinator garden expanded into a multi-use outdoor classroom with additional garden beds, a hydroponic tower, and a bird feeder camera (ISB, ongoing since 2021).

Growing Systems: Nature and Ecology at ISB, an experiential learning program designed to deepen students’ understanding of living systems through hands-on, sensory-rich engagement with the natural world—as it exists within an urban setting.

‘Indigenous Voices in Regeneration and Society’: a one-month exhibition highlighting the presence and contribution of indigenous personalities in many fields of society, especially in the field of regenerative land practices, activism, and a culture of gratitude, with integrated resources for faculty to collect and integrate in their teaching.

Food insecurity: Composting food waste; rescuing leftover food from catered lunches each school day since 2018; and redistributing prepacked meals to the school’s predominantly immigrant neighbors via community fridges.

Envisioning the future — Materials and overconsumption:
Creation of a Paper Mill Club to address students’ concerns about paper waste, evolving toward the exploration of paper for innovative uses by blending additional materials.

Futurist Elective: Exploration of plant-based and other alternative polymers (bioplastics) as a way to reflect on the impact of plastic pollution and overconsumption.

Farm In A Flash: short curriculum to introduce food growing systems through organic farming, written for and implemented at Hudson School District during lunch time (2025).

Addressing climate anxiety through participation

'People are  polluting the whole world - I don't like it. I want to save the world. The world and nature needs to be saved by me or you. We can save the world together. Come on, let's save the world!'  — Emilia, G1

A notable dimension of Living Land Learn is its attention to emotional resilience. Climate cafés, youth programs, and art-based explorations of environmental issues acknowledge eco-anxiety while offering agency. Hands-on exploration of alternatives (like biodegradable materials) can be “energizingand uplifting,” opening pathways toward future solutions.

Previous programs:

A year-long program aiming to examine the impact of climate emotions on learning about climate issues, the ‘Re-Imagination Station’ created an optional space for G1 - 8 students to express themselves about climate-related themes through a variety of hands-on activities. The program revealed some emotions International School of Brooklyn, 2024-2025 school year.

Curated: ‘How to Talk to your Kid about Climate Change’ - an interactive parent workshop by Mor Keshet (CLimate Psychology Alliance) at ISB; a presentation by Anya Kamenetz at WFF 

Curated: ‘How to address Climate Change Emotions in the classroom’ - a presentation to ISB faculty by  Anya Kamenetz (Climate Mental Network) 

Climate Cafes are ongoing in multiple locations since 2022

To know more about being a ‘possibilist’, here's a blog post :

Educator Muriel Stallworth on Being a ‘Possibilist’. (by Andrea Estey, Shelburne Farms, VT)