This past fall, I partnered with Kelly Hoy to "sustainabalize" the project we designed the prior school year, the Regions Project. We decided it use the natural commons as a lens for students to examine the different regions in the United States. It was such an organic shift for the project because students had reffered to climate change before but it wasn't a solution-based focus.

We started the project by introducing the topic natural commons and seeing how that applies to their communities within San Francisco. We slowly introduced natural commons as they pertain as the rest of the country as well as the individual regions. The end goal was to have each student write a paragraph where they focused on a natural commons different from the other members of their regions group. It was exciting to see them delve into the topic as well as the research resources we provided them.

The projects were definitely enhanced by the shift of focusing on natural commons. They paragraphs were well crafted and informative, and it was evident they all learned a lot in the process. Having a solution-based focus on climate change is so empowering for students and it was a true gift to be part of the Curriculum Council to have the opportunity to explore it with Jaime Cloud.