How to Host a Three Hour Teach-In
- Karianne Canfield
- Feb 9
- 6 min read
Recruit Your Organizing Team:
Identify 3-5 people from across your campus to help organize your event. Think about professors who teach environmental classes, student leaders of climate groups on campus, and the sustainability office of your institution.
Register your Teach-In:
Even if you do not have details settled please register your event as soon as possible so we can help identify where events are being held.
You should pick a date, time, and potential location as you start to invite panelists…
Faculty Panels Planning Sheet:
2 Hour Activity Resources: 2 Faculty Planners
2 hour long panels 1 Student Planner, 4 classrooms reserved,
12-32 Faculty members to sit on panels,
3-8 Student Moderators
Step 1: Identify faculty panelists
Send an email to department heads, or individual faculty you recognize as climate enthusiasts from each division of your school. Email template is below. You can also send out a general interest email to a faculty listserv. We recommend a google form to collect interested names/contacts/subjects.
Step 2: Reserve Rooms
Depending on the number of faculty interested, divide by 3 on a panel, or 4 and reserve that appropriate number of rooms. If you have 12+ faculty interested consider hosting a second hour of panels. Reserve your rooms for 30 min before and after your start time.
Step 3: Invite Student Moderators
Identify student leaders, seniors, or passionate environmentalists to be moderators for your event. 1 per room is good.
Step 4: The Event
Before the event, send out a list of topics as inspiration to your panelists. To start the event, have each panelist talk on the intersection of their studies and climate action for 5 minutes ONL. Use the remainder of the period to answer questions from the audience and engage in dialog on the issues in your local community. Below are some questions for if the crowd is quiet:
In what ways do you see climate change affecting our community and how do those issues relate to the work you are doing here on campus?
What solutions within your field are you most excited about and why?
From your perspective what can our community do to take a step forward towards those solutions and in ensuring that these solutions are just?
Community Panels Planning Sheet:
1 Hour Activity Resources: 1 Faculty Planners
1 Student Planner, 1 auditorium reserved,
5-6 Community panelists,
2 Student Moderators
Step 1: Identify Community panelists
Send an email to your school administration, city/town leaders, local environmental orgs, or a faculty member who teaches on Climate Change, inviting them to be on your panel.
Step 2: Reserve Room
If hosting in person, be sure to reserve an auditorium, large lecture hall or other large meeting place where panelists can be easily heard and seen by a large group of people.
Step 3: Invite Student Moderators
Identify student leaders, seniors, or passionate environmentalists to be moderators for your event. It is best if these students have some availability to research the panelists and curate the questions to match the professions and experiences of panelists.
Step 4: The Event
Before the event, send out your list of potential questions to panelists so they are prepared. To start the event, introduce each panelist and have them share 1 way they see climate change in your community, and 1 solution they look forward to implementing. Use the remainder of the period to answer questions from the audience and engage in dialog on the issues in your local community. Below are some questions for if the crowd is quiet:
How do you intend to use your position to help push forward a solution like X?
What do you think can be done in our community to address inequities in resources?
Where do you think is the most potential for reducing community impact or increasing clean water, food, and renewable energy access?
Conclude your Teach-In with an opportunity for action - work with your sustainability office, student or community organizations to organize this.
Invite campus, student and community organizations to set up tables inviting students to sign up and take action
Have petitions for participants to sign - advocating for a campus climate commitment, action plan, divestment etc.
Have a template for letters to the editor, to elected officials for participants to sign - this can be done on a tablet that allows students to modify, sign and send the letter.
Have pre-addressed stamped postcards for students to write and send to campus or elected officials
Follow up your Teach-In with a day of action or service.
Email template below:
Dear (Colleagues, Students, Community),
(Institution Name) is organizing a WorldWide Teach-In on Climate and Justice on (DATE). We are participating along with hundreds of Colleges, Universities, High School/Middle Schools, Primary Schools and Faith Organizations around the world. For our Teach-In, we seek to engage three-dozen (Institution Name) faculty and staff to participate in concurrent panels and lead discussion.
Faculty and staff (OR replace with Community Members, Administration, etc.) do not need to be climate experts, just climate-concerned. Each faculty or staff member speaks for 5 minutes from their disciplinary perspective to a prompt we provide, so very little prep. There are four panelists per session, 20 minutes of presentation total, and then the panelists guide group discussion.
Please sign up here if you might be interested in participating in one of the panels. This is not a firm commitment, just an expression of interest in helping guide this conversation. We will be in touch to finalize the program, the prompts, and participants.
All faculty, please consider adding the Teach-In to your syllabus as an extra-credit or required option. At the global climate meetings, the youth rightly called for action "Now. Not Next Month. Not Next Year." As educators, we have the obligation now to help all of our students-- regardless of discipline-- understand the extraordinary moment in which we are living. Today's students have about a twenty-year window- working as artists, scientists, engineers, writers, business people, advocates, musicians, teachers-- to stabilize the climate and profoundly change the future. Replacing students' widespread climate despair with the recognition of their agency as citizens, volunteers and in their professional work is the purpose of the Teach-In.
Thank you for considering these requests, and of course, glad to discuss.
Questions? Email SolveClimate2030@gmail.com
Best regards,
Eban Goodstein, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Worldwide Teach-In on Climate and Justice
PS: Please alert all climate-concerned colleagues and students in your networks to our project.
Build Your Panels:
Below is an EXAMPLE list of topics matched with divisions or experienced faculty. You can use this as a guide for brainstorming your own faculty panelists. When you are ready to build your own panel download THIS excel sheet.
Theme | Topic / Title (edit as needed, these are suggestions) | Faculty / Speaker name |
1.1 Climate and Justice | A Green New Deal | Economics Faculty |
Student moderator: | Climate & Global Inequality | Politics Faculty |
Climate Dividends: Where Should the Revenue Go? | Politics Faculty | |
Investing in Our Communities | Sociology Faculty | |
suggested | Anti-Racism and Intersectional Climate Solutions | Faculty |
1.2 Climate Science: What You Need to Know | Is it Too Late? | Physics Faculty |
Student moderator: | Climate and Water | Environmental Studies Faculty |
Local Impacts | Biology Faculty | |
Psychology of Change / Responding to Deniers | Sociology / Psychology / Physics Faculty | |
1.3 Winning the Story Wars | Designing Climate Change Solutions | Studio Art / Design Faculty |
Student moderator: | Communicating Science & Solutions | Communications Faculty |
Climate Storytelling | Film / Studio Art faculty | |
The Case for Stewardship | Philosophy and Religion Faculty | |
1.4 Climate Solutions: Global Perspectives / OR Materials | Objects that Change Lives | Studio Art / Design Faculty |
Student moderator: | Jewelry Futures (Material perspective) | Studio Art / Design Faculty |
Global Perspective #2 | Faculty with global insight | |
Global Perspective #3 | Faculty with global insight | |
2.1 Climate Solutions: Local Perspectives | Food Justice and Climate | Sociology Faculty |
Student moderator: | State or City Climate Policy | Local Expert on Faculty |
OR Alternative Spring Break group, working on local climate change impacts/solutions | Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Solutions | Local Expert on Faculty |
Waste management? Recycling? | ||
2.2 Cities and Climate | Summer in the City: Heat Waves and Heat Islands | History Faculty |
Student moderator: | Cities and Sea Level Rise | Anthropology Faculty |
Reimagining Cities | Architecture Faculty | |
Boston Tackles the Climate | Local Expert on Faculty | |
2.3 Dealing with Climate Depression | Artists Respond to Climate | History of Art / Studio Art Faculty |
Student moderator: | Moving Beyond Avoidance | Psychology Faculty |
Mourn, then Organize | Sociology Faculty | |
Writing about Climate | Literature Faculty | |
2.4 Climate Solutions, Energy, Agriculture, Forests | Electrification | Business Faculty |
Student moderator: | Regenerative Agriculture | Biology Faculty |
Wetlands and Coastal areas | Biology Faculty | |
Protecting Forests | Biology Faculty | |
Materials Science / Cradle to cradle design | Design Faculty | |
What can we do? (Community Panel) | Faculty moderated panel / or Dean / President | |
Rise-Up | Student group / organization | |
Vote | Political Studies Faculty | |
Organize | Sociology Faculty | |
Educate | Dean | |
Entrepreneur | Business Faculty | |
How Our College Can Lead | Senior Administrator | |
Divest pensions |
When you are ready to build your own panel download THIS excel sheet.
Update Your Event Details:
Now with all your panelists invited, your date and location secured, be sure to update the registration website so attendees can easily prepare for your event. Update Your Event
Build Your Posters and Spread the Word:
When you are ready to build your posters you can use a template like THIS, or take a look at previous year’s posters for inspiration HERE. Once you have your poster made, share it with students to be sure it is spread around social media.
Let your institution know you are hosting this event by sending an email out on
Student Listservs
Faculty Listservs
Alumni Newsletters
Local News Outlets
If any organizers are a part of climate organizations local to your institution, invite them as well!
Comments