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Massive rain storms that overwhelm Hamtamck’s sewer systems and fill the city’s basements with raw sewage used to be relatively rare. 

But the floods have become at least an annual local disaster. Furnaces and appliances are often destroyed.  At best, city residents are left with a disgusting and potentially dangerous cleanup job. 

In his Hamtramck High School classroom, science teacher William Albrecht uses the local problem to teach a lesson on global climate change. After the kids share horror stories, Albrecht asks, “How did this happen?”

He explains how increased carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have warmed the region, increasing air moisture and resulting in more frequent and intense downpours. 

“That’s one of the main issues that I try to connect [to climate change] because kids have direct concerns about it,” Albrecht says. “It is a really easy one to make clear – yep, these big rain events are directly connected to more carbon in the atmosphere.”

Albrecht is among hundreds of K-12 science teachers in southeast Michigan now educating students on the climate crisis as it unfolds in real time around them. The crisis threatens their generations’ health and economic security at a level not experienced by previous generations.

Michigan’s heavy storms also regularly leave thousands without power. At the same time, smoke from Canadian wildfires choked the region on and off throughout last summer, highlighting the vulnerability of an area once thought to be well-insulated from the effects of climate change.

Teachers say educating today’s students and young people is essential to solving the climate crisis long term. Engaging on issues that impact them directly drives home the problem and empowers them to seek solutions, said Andrea Stanczyk, who teaches climate science as part of Ypsilanti High School’s algebra program. 

“This will hopefully give them confidence to make change because right now it seems overwhelming to many of them when they look at the big picture,” she said. “If we’re able to do some of that in class …then they get more confidence to help with global change.” 

Shaping the future through climate education

The Michigan Department of Education K-12 science standards provide the minimum for how climate change should be taught, referencing the issue and how it impacts “human sustainability.”

But the standards are the bare minimum that students should know, and “locals have a lot of control” in shaping climate education, said MDE spokesperson Leanne Weber. 

In Ypsilanti, teachers incorporate climate change into courses like algebra or coding, with funding from the Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition  

Ypsilanti also experiences flooding, so students have incorporated NOAA local rainfall figures into lessons on interpreting and explaining data in graphs and charts. In a hands-on lesson, students learned why a low-lying soccer field near a hill on the YHS campus regularly floods. 

The lesson connects the local issue to increased rainfall, drainage, concrete and creeks. The students then created a native plant prairie and rain garden that prevents the field from flooding or freezing over in winter.

Such lessons show kids how taking action can make a difference while connecting the dots between local problems and global climate crisis. 

“It gives them a sense of agency,” Ypsilanti algebra teacher Abigail Woodman told planet Detroit. “We’re instilling in kids that they can have hope, they should be trying and they can make a difference.” 

In Hamtramck, Albrecht is on a similar mission. His students often do not have a strong science background and feel “disempowered” or like they do not have agency, Albrecht said. He exposes them to youth climate activist Greta Thunberg and the Sunrise Movement to show them how to channel their fear and frustration and network with bigger groups. 

Since many kids are immigrants, he also talks about climate-related issues tied to other countries, including food insecurity and oil wars. 

“The kids want to learn about it and are super smart and motivated, so that’s where it’s exciting for them – to join the fight,” Albrecht said. 

He leans into how climate change is a “political story” and the consequences, like flooded basements, can be traced back to corporations profiting off of fossil fuels.

“Our future is getting shaved down in different ways … so I’m constantly pitching, ‘Hey man, if there are enough angry people, then the revolution will roll, but not until everyone is pissed enough,’” he said. 

At Birmingham Seaholm High School, teacher Steve Claer challenges students in his intro-level global systems and AP environmental science courses to think critically and a few steps ahead. Claer said students are particularly interested in electric vehicles and see them as an essential part of solving climate change. 

“They say, ‘These are really great!’” Clear said. “Well, yes, they don’t have tailpipe emissions and aren’t kicking out the nasty stuff, but you have to go home and charge it, and where is that electricity coming from? The burning of coal.” 

“There’s still more work to be done in that direction.” 

SImilarly, he teaches about natural gas and “how it’s really a Band-Aid and not ‘the solution,’” Claer said. “That can’t be the only thing that we do.” 

If he has time, Claer does an exercise where students affix filters to cars’ tailpipes and measure what is emitted. The new cars, to the detriment of his lesson, but thankfully for the planet, do not leave much residue compared with older cars. 

Easing climate anxiety with classroom conversations

Kids also learn about what they can do regarding personal choices, like choosing plastic or paper bags or adjusting the thermostat. Daphne Leukhardt, one of Claer’s students, highlighted a recent “garbage audit” in which kids held onto all their trash for a week to show how much waste they individually produced.  

“It was shocking to see how much we waste, how little is recycled, and how long it takes for everything to decompose,” she said. “The waste is going to affect everything around us.” 

Leukhardt worries that climate change issues must be taught more in school and that Birmingham may be cutting its global systems course next year. 

“These topics should be focused on more in school, and we should get more exposure to them at a younger age,” she said. “I try to be optimistic – I don’t think the world is going to end, but I don’t like the direction it is headed in.” 

The issue can be scary for some kids who feel anxiety about an uncertain future, Albrecht said. He proposed getting a ticker that counts down the days until ecological systems collapse, but one of his most engaged students asked him not to. 

“She said, ‘No way, dude, don’t put that up. I don’t want to see that. I can’t handle that,’” Albrecht said. “My MO is to tell the climate story in a way that is not alarmist and puts all the emphasis on taking action.” 

Other kids may try to politicize the lessons and parrot right-wing talking points about climate change not being real, being a man-made issue or the earth “naturally cycling” through a period of high carbon dioxide. 

In response, Claer compares climate data from the last one million years with the last 200 years, when the earth is warmer and carbon dioxide levels are much higher than at any time in history. The data tells the story, he says. 

“We are going to follow science and data, and I don’t care where you fall on what side of the politics,” he tells students. “I care that you can follow and interpret data.” 

He occasionally runs into the “Why should I care?” attitude.

He tells them, “I care about it because of my kids and grandkids, and I care because I just have this thing where human beings should be good human beings.” 

In Ypsilanti, Woodman lets her kids know they are needed to be a big part of the solution. 

“It doesn’t help the kids to have us solve everything,” Woodman said, referring to older generations. “Clearly, we did an awful job, and we need them.”