About This Lesson
The goal of the Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) program and curriculum is to increase the climate science and resilience knowledge, and critical thinking skills, of middle and high school teachers and students and empower them to build resilience in their communities. Resilience can be thought of as adapting to changing conditions in a way that increases the well-being of communities and improves the health of the natural environment.
The RiSC 1.0 curriculum, written and tested by teachers, enables students to understand the fundamentals of climate science and extreme weather risks. The accompanying RiSC Vulnerability Assessment, helps students to assess their schools and neighborhoods’ vulnerability to these risks. An updated version of the curriculum, also written and tested by teachers, educates students about the value of Nature-Based Features as tools for coastal defense and resilience to extreme heat; it engages them in understanding how issues of equity and justice - often neglected in urban planning - impact local communities; and it provides hands-on activities that help to empower students and build community resilience.
