Sustainability Education Program for Elementary – Middle School Students

Sustainability is an online course dedicated to allowing students to envision the world they’d like to live in and determine what they can do to move in that direction.

**Internal Note** We cannot mention Everfi as the client

This course covers topics such as human health, climate change, global resource constraints, and animal welfare. It’s specifically designed for upper elementary and middle school grades and presents content to build an understanding that we’re all responsible for our planet.

Here is the course flow:

1. Introduction to the topic and connection to the overarching theme
2. Pre-assessment questions
3. A series of interactive pages that allow for learners to explore concepts related to Earth, biodiversity, and the laws and principles that apply to keeping up with Earth’s life support systems
4. The Keystone Activity where students are asked to design their ideal place. As they design this place, they’ll learn more about each of the laws and principles they learned in previous pages and how each are interconnected when it comes to creating a healthy world
5. And finally the Course Conclusion – students are asked to create a social contract for their community to address lost pollinators, plastic overload, rising smog levels, and the changing climate

This course also includes a Glossary of terms acquired throughout the course, which is present throughout the module as the terms present themselves within the content.

The Sustainability course is based on the NGSS, Common Core, and CASEL competencies standards.

Throughout this course, students are guided through a series of custom, interactive lessons covering content that focus on:

• Connections and Community
• Safety and Privacy
• Screen Time vs. Offline Time
• Technology and Data
• Rights and Literacy
• Evaluating Content

The course includes six modules, each containing 20-25 minutes of lessons.

The special balance between custom course design, artwork and development is what sets this course apart from the typical online learning course, leading to higher engagement, ultimately resulting in increased learner retention.

Players begin the course by selecting their avatar which introduces a customized gaming experience. From there, each module presents a different subject, all following a similar flow:

1. Introduction to the concept, including an animation sequence to excite learners from the beginning and draw them into the subject at hand through custom visuals.
2. Assessment questions
3. A series of interactive activities and games that utilize custom artwork and development, which remain unique across the six modules.
4. A series of polls geared toward the lesson content without a correct or incorrect answer. After submitting their response, players are able to see how their fellow peers responded in order to spark discussion and self-reflection.
5. The module concludes with a carousel of digital tips summarizing key takeaways from the lesson before leading the user onto their post-assessment, then back to the home screen to choose their next lesson.

This course also includes a glossary that students can access at any time in order to review terms and vocabulary acquired throughout the modules.