The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN)

It is important that we prepare tomorrows scientists, decision makers, and communities to address the societal and ecological impacts of a changing climate. In order to respond to, mitigate, and adapt to those changes, community members of all ages need accurate, up-to-date information, knowledge of the sciences, and analytical skills to make responsible decisions and long-term climate resiliency plans regarding these challenging topics. The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN, http://cleanet.org) is 1) providing teaching resources for educators through the CLEAN Collection and pedagogical support for teaching climate and energy science and solutions; and 2) facilitating a professionally diverse community of climate and energy literacy community leaders, called the CLEAN Network, to share and leverage efforts to extend the reach and effectiveness of climate and energy education. This presentation will provide an overview of the CLEAN web portal and techniques we have used to reach educators. We will showcase the CLEAN Collection with its 750+ curated resources (curricula, activities, videos, visualizations, and demonstrations/experiments) that have been peer- and expert scientist-reviewed for scientific accuracy, pedagogical effectiveness, and technical quality. We will highlight the most recent updates: 1) we launched a new website design to increase accessibility, 2) we developed a collection for elementary-grade level resources and pedagogic support for primary teachers, 3) several efforts towards a more inclusive website (Spanish translations, culturally-responsive climate literacy principles, etc.), 4), teaching resources around the 4th National Climate Assessment, 5) a teacher ambassador program, 6) expanded partnership with NOAAs Climate.gov portal and 7) virtual teaching resources. We will present findings usage data from our web analytics. Through analytics data, we will show lessons learned from CLEAN marketing efforts; insights which we anticipate can aid other climate and energy education programs in effectively increasing the visibility of their vital work.