An Educational Intervention Among Spanish-speaking Youth to Help Build Community Advocacy Around Climate Change, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice

Climate change due to anthropogenic actions threatens public health. Simultaneously, communities migrate across borders, without prior education in climate change or environmental justice, including those communities settling in New Jersey. New Jersey became the first state, starting in the 2022–2024 school years, with student learning standards across K–12 subjects on climate change, sustainability, and environmental justice. Expanding an established peer-reviewed, evaluated online introduction training course in English and translating it into Spanish would benefit susceptible, vulnerable subpopulations. Our project used the 5-module Introduction to High School Students to Climate Change, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice online training course created by the New Jersey Safe Schools Program, with specific questions for each module’s knowledge check and then a 20-question excerpt from the 2021 Student Conservation Association Survey. The new Spanish format was piloted with two schools in New Jersey and one in Houston, Texas. In total, 37 participants registered among both states (33 students and 4 teachers) and 10 finished, including 6 students and 4 teachers.