To aid teachers in following the HB 4895 bill passed by Gov. Pritzker in Aug. 2024, which requires public schools to teach climate change, the Illinois Climate Education Hub officially launched last month. The hub provides Illinois teachers with free teaching materials and lesson plans related to climate change.
HB 4895 was created by Naperville high school students and Climate Education for Illinois, a group dedicated to promoting climate education for students in Illinois schools and founded by Helen Von den Steinen and Dr. Marie Kabir. The youth advisory boards within Climate Education for Illinois and Seven Generations Ahead, a group committed to tackling the issues of climate change with innovative and equitable solutions, provided student input while creating the hub.
Katie Stabb, an Oak Park River Forest High School alum who now studies Climate System Science and Engineering at MIT, was a member of Seven Generations Ahead’s youth board that helped to pass HB 4895. She first became involved after noticing the lack of solution-based learning in school…