NEW JERSEY 101.5

For three days this week, educators throughout New Jersey and New York will be talking about things like extreme weather, climate change, sea level rise and environmental stewardship with their students.

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It's part of a three-day 'Virtual Teach-In' that runs from Wednesday November 13th to Friday November 15th.

The program is using curriculum provided by Clean Ocean Action (COA), as part of their post Sandy Waves of Action initiative. COA Citizen Action Coordinator Zach McCue said a lot of the activities use videos and are interactive online.

"It's a way for teachers to kind of get away from the text book and let students, you know, immerse themselves," McCue explains.

COA has invited not only classroom teachers, but scout leaders, school club advisers and all types of educators who can reach the young.

According to McCue, change comes at a young level and at an educational level.

"We hope to get the facts out to students and hope to have them learn what they can do, and how their everyday decisions can contribute to help protect the environment," McCue said.

While the theory of Global Warming remains controversial in some sectors, McCue says teachers can choose from a long list of other topics with lesson plans that are relevant, and in some cases localized.

"For instance, there's a Flood-Mapper that you can track, where you live and what type of storm will create what type of flooding for your area," he explained.

With coastal clean-ups, post Sandy rebuilding forums and a host of other programs, the Waves of Action initiative was created by COA after Superstorm Sandy to help coastal communities recover. The 'Virtual Teach-In' is for the November Waves focus.

"We believe there is something inspiring, cathartic, and exciting about collectively taking part in shared education activities," said Cindy Zipf, Clean Ocean Action Executive Director. "They bring people together for a common goal; here in the NY/NJ region, education about the impacts from Superstorm Sandy and climate threats are essential to improving our future resiliency and environmental stewardship."

Educators can register at the Waves of Action website.

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