Educating the Next Generation of Climate Stewards

A Solutions Approach to Climate Education

Bending the Curve: Climate Education for All is a trans-disciplinary curriculum and multimedia content library created and managed by the Bending the Curve Project, which is a team of researchers, educators, and designers at the University of California. All material focuses on climate change solutions to bend the warming curve and to accelerate resilience and climate justice for our planet’s most vulnerable people. Its highly modular structure means that the material can be adapted to meet the needs of a wide range of audiences in academic and continuing education contexts.

COMPONENTS

The Bending the Curve curriculum consists of 40 modular units, each dedicated to a particular topic or practice area. All modules feature a studio-produced video lecture, assignments and in-class activities, supplemental readings, and instructor resources. Curriculum content is available for use by university instructors at UC and beyond in online, in-person and hybrid courses. Click to learn more about program components, or contact us to see how you can use the material in your class.

Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions is a digital textbook, available as a free download from the California Digital Library. The first edition was published in 2019 and consists of 19 chapters that address the topics from the original Bending the Curve undergraduate course. A second edition of the textbook is in production and will feature eight new chapters related to risk, resilience, and adaptation plus updates to many of the original chapters from the first edition.

IMPLEMENTATIONS

Since launch in 2018, nearly 2,000 University of California students—and thousands more students around the world—have taken courses built on the backbone of this dynamic curriculum. Is the Bending the Curve curriculum appropriate to help you meet your goals in climate education? Take a look at how the curriculum is being used at the University of California and beyond.

Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions is a for-credit undergraduate course that launched simultaneously on five University of California campuses in the spring of 2018. Students review assigned lectures and readings in advance, and then come to class for rich discussion and group-based work on projects, either in a virtual or in-person learning environment. The introduction to the course, presented by Professor Ram Ramanathan, can be viewed here.

The course has also been licensed by the following universities:

National Taiwan University (Taipei, Taiwan)
Stockholm University (Stockholm, Sweden)
Appalachian State University (Boone, NC)
MiraCosta College (CA)
Modesto Junior College (CA)
San Diego State University (CA)

One Health Workforce Academies, an initiative of the One Health Institute (OHI) at UC Davis, delivers student education and workforce training via online and in-person modalities. The One Health network reaches learners in 46 universities and institutions across 10 countries in Africa as well as 95 universities in eight countries in Southeast Asia. OHI has licensed Bending the Curve curriculum content to build a climate change-focused course for both university students and professional learners through its network affiliates.

The Bending the Curve Project, in collaboration with the UC Center for Climate, Health and Equity, are making Bending the Curve content available through the American Medical Association’s Education Hub. Medical practitioners have access to the following health-focused Bending the Curve video lectures:

Mental Health in Our Changing Climate
Pediatric Allergic Health Disparities in a Changing Climate
Climate Change Impacts on Human Health

In 2023 the Bending the Curve Project launched a short-format online course intended for C-suite and executive leadership in the finance and investment sector. The two-hour course consists of original material from Ram Ramanathan (Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD); David Victor (School of Global Policy and Strategy, UCSD); Magali Delmas (Anderson School of Management, UCLA); and Robert Engle (Stern School of Business, New York University). To learn more about the course, please visit the course website or watch the course trailer video. Enrollment is ongoing for both individuals and enterprise-sponsored cohorts.

ABOUT US

Bending the Curve: Climate Education for All is managed by a team of researchers, educators and designers at the University of California. We are indebted to our UC colleagues and those beyond the UC system whose expertise and contributions are the backbone of the Bending the Curve Project.

Fonna Forman (UC San Diego): Professor of Political Science and Director, Center on Global Justice, UC San Diego. Co-Chair, UC Global Climate Leadership Council.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan (UC San Diego): Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Climate Sciences and Physical Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego. Council Member, Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

Scott Friese (UC Office of the President): Assistant Director, Instructional Design, UC Online, UC Office of the President. Program lead for systemwide learning initiatives.

David Ackerly (UC Berkeley): Co-PI, Bending the Curve: Risk and Resilience expansion

Fonna Forman (UC San Diego): Vice-Chair of the Bending the Curve Report; PI of the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions course.

Micah Farver (UC San Diego): Research Assistant, Bending the Curve expansion activities.

Scott Friese (UC Office of the President): Program lead for Bending the Curve course design and development; producer of Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook; liaison for licensing inquiries.

Hahrie Han (UC Santa Barbara; now at Johns Hopkins): Lead author of Bending the Curve report; co-chair for creating the hybrid course; chapter contributor to the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook

Astrid Hsu (UC San Diego): Production coordinator of the Bending the Curve hybrid course

Adam Millard-Ball (UC Santa Cruz): Co-editor of and chapter contributor to the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook

Michelle Niemann: Co-editor of and chapter contributor to the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook

Christine Pereira (UC San Diego): Lead assistant to the editor and the producer of the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutionsdigital textbook

Veerabhadran Ramanathan (UC San Diego): Chair of the Bending the Curve Report; founding PI of the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions course; editor of Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook.

Alan Roper (UC Office of the President): Instructional designer and developer of Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions hybrid and online courses.

Nicola Ulibarri (UC Irvine): Co-PI, Bending the Curve: Risk and Resilience expansion.

Other major contributors: The 23 lecturers who taped video lectures for the Bending the Curve course (see the course overview); the Educational Technology Service’s multimedia services studio at UCSD, which provided executive production for course videos (with production support from seven additional campus studios);the 21 authors of chapters for the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook (see textbook’s table of contents) ; and BookMatters for layout and production of the digital textbook; the California Digital Library for hosting Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook.

Funding: Course funding provided by the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative and UC Online at the University of California, Office of the President; and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Center on Global Justice, and Teaching and Learning Commons at the University of California, San Diego. Production of Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook was funded through a Next Generation Learning Challenge grant from EDUCAUSE.

The following individuals contributed recorded lecture videos to the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions undergraduate course.

David Ackerly (UC Berkeley): Ecology, Conservation

Amir Agha Kouchak (UC Irvine): Hydrology, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Maura Allaire (UC Irvine): Water Economics, Policy

Emma Aronson (UC Riverside): Environmental Microbiology

Max Auffhammer (UC Berkeley): Environmental Economics

Matthew Barth (UC Riverside): Transportation

Tarik Benmarhnia (UC San Diego): Epidemiology, Climate Science

Jack Brouwer (UC Irvine): Fuel Cell Sciences

Jon Christensen (UC Los Angeles): Communications

Steven Davis (UC Irvine): Earth Systems Sciences

Fonna Forman (UC San Diego): Political Science and Global Justice

Hahrie Han (UC Santa Barbara; now at Johns Hopkins): Political Science

Mark Jacobsen (UC San Diego): Economics

Crystal Kolden (UC Merced): Wildfire, Management of Complex Systems

Richard Matthew (UC Irvine): Urban Planning, Public Policy

John R. Miles (UC Irvine): Religion

Adam Millard-Ball (UC Santa Cruz): Environmental Studies

Jyoti Mishra (UC San Diego): Psychiatry

David Pellow (UC Santa Cruz): Environmental Studies and Global Justice

Per Peterson (UC Berkeley): Nuclear Science

Keith Pezzoli (UC San Diego): Urban Studies

Daniel Press (UC Santa Cruz): Environmental Studies

Veerabhadran Ramanathan (UC San Diego): Climate Sciences

Eric Rignot (UC Irvine): Glaciology

Scott Samuelsen (UC Irvine): Fuel Cell Sciences

Brett Sanders (UC Irvine): Flood Modeling, Civil and Environmental Engineering

David Sedlak (UC Berkeley): Water, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Whendee Silver (UC Berkeley): Soil Science

Gina Solomon (UC San Francisco): Global Health

Richard Somerville (UC San Diego): Communications

Daniel Sperling (UC Davis): Transportation

Matthew St. Clair (UC Office of the President): Sustainability

Arianne Tehrani (UC San Francisco): Health Equity

Mary Evelyn Tucker (Yale University): Religion

Nicola Ulibarri (UC Irvine): Urban Planning and Public Policy

David Victor (UC San Diego): Political Science

Paul Watson (GlobalArc, CEO):

Sheri Weiser (UC San Francisco): Global Medicine

Durwood Zaelke (UC Santa Barbara): Environmental Law

The following individuals contributed chapters to the Bending the Curve: Climate Change Solutions digital textbook.

Roger Aines (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory): Clean Energy