Giving Compass' Take:

• Miyo McGinn at Grist explains more impactful ways to get the climate change message across to your children and students in a way that will be beneficial and not negative. 

• How can funders help to bring fun, age-appropriate environmental education to children? 

• Here's why kids are the most effective spokespeople for shifting conservative views on climate change. 

Life as an outdoor educator might seem like it’s all fun and games — romping around outside, playing games, looking at bugs — until it comes to talking to 9-year-olds about climate change.

“They want to talk about it, but it can be hard sometimes,” Ian Schooley said with a laugh. He spent four years teaching visiting fourth and fifth graders at the Pacific Science Center’s Mercer Slough Environmental Education Center about the wetland ecosystems just outside of Seattle. Wetlands are a unique habitat that filters water, sucks up carbon dioxide, and protects our coasts — but the triple threat of sea-level rise, pollution, and development is putting them at risk.

The subject of climate change is “nearly impossible to avoid when you’re talking about ecosystems and the environment,” said Schooley, who now works with the center’s teen interns. So he helped the center come up with games and activities to broach the topic with young visitors.

Read the full article about teaching kids about climate change by Miyo McGinn at Grist.