SustainableED 2025-26 Virtual Seminar Series

Throughout the academic year we'll be hosting public, online seminars synthesizing research on various topics at the intersection of education and climate change. All seminars are free and hosted on Zoom; recordings of past seminars are available on YouTube.

Jorge Cuartas, “Climate change and the foundations of lifelong development”

Monday, 12/1/2025, 1:00-1:45 PM EST (Watch the recording)

In this talk, Dr. Cuartas will introduce a conceptual framework for understanding how climate change, through its effects on physical environments, societies, communities, and families, can influence young children’s development. He will share findings from a systematic review that synthesizes emerging evidence linking climate change and child development, as well as recent studies providing causal evidence that atypically high temperatures can impair young children’s cognitive and socioemotional skills, which are foundational for later learning. Dr. Cuartas will integrate this evidence to highlight key directions for future research and discuss implications for educational and developmental policies and practices aimed at protecting young children and fostering healthy development across the life course.

Jaimie Davis, “Impact of school garden programs on health and academic outcomes”

Monday, 2/9/2026, 1:00-1:45 PM EST (Register here)

Although school-based gardening programs for children have consistently been associated with improvements in dietary behaviors, very few randomized controlled studies (RCTs) have evaluated the effects of gardening interventions on clinical health or metabolic outcomes. In this talk, Dr. Davis will highlight the effects of a one-year school-based gardening, nutrition, and cooking intervention (called TX Sprouts) on dietary intake, obesity parameters, metabolic outcomes, and academic performance in over 3,000 primarily low-income and Hispanic elementary school children. In addition, Dr. Davis will also discuss the barriers and strategies needed to sustain and maintain school gardening programs based on implementation data from over 500 schoolteachers across the US.

Hunter Gehlbach, “The global challenge of teaching about environmentalism, climate change, and Planetary Health”

Wednesday, 3/11/2026, 1:00-1:45 PM EST (Register here)

In this talk, Dr. Gehlbach will explore the unique characteristics, challenges, and opportunities that are intrinsic to Planetary Health education. Without comprehending how the balance of Earth’s systems impact human health, it is hard to imagine how people will change their attitudes, behaviors, and policy priorities in ways that will alter our current trajectory. Planetary Health education encompasses multiple pedagogical tensions. To the extent that this tension can be thoughtfully navigated, learners across the globe are likely to become more engaged in the collective action problem of protecting the environment, addressing climate change, and improving the planet’s health.

Claudia Persico, “How air pollution can harm student achievement and what schools can do to stop it”

Wednesday, 4/15/2026, 1:00-1:45 PM EST (Register here)

A variety of causal papers have examined how exposure to pollution harms student outcomes. For example, contemporaneous school bus pollution affects students’ test scores and respiratory health (Austin, Heutel and Kreisman 2019; Beatty and Shimshack 2011). High air pollution from sources ranging from highways to Toxic Release Inventory sites increases absences from school (Chung, Liu, and Persico, 2025; Currie et al., 2009; Simon, Heissel, and Persico, 2021) and lowers student achievement (Marcotte, 2017; Simon, Heissel, and Persico, 2021; Venator and Persico, 2021). This talk will survey the literature on the impacts of various health exposures on student outcomes as well as promising evidence on the impacts of school-level interventions to reduce exposure.