Lorraine Ramirez Villarin, assistant professor of Middle Grades, Secondary and Science Education at the University of North Georgia (UNG), traveled to South America as part of the Fulbright-Hays Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE).

Ramirez Villarin met and collaborated with 15 other faculty members from institutions of higher education to learn how Colombia is handling climate change and sustainability efforts.

"It's one of the most biodiverse countries in the world," she said.

Now back in the U.S., Ramirez Villarin is required by the Fulbright-Hays program to promote what she learned to other universities and communities. She recently taught a class of one of her cohort members as guest faculty

"I was a guest speaker at one of my colleague's classes at the State University of New York (SUNY) Oneonta campus," Ramirez Villarin said. “I lectured about climate change and provided an activity for students to engage in rich conversations regarding the plausible causes.”

Ramirez Villarin said she was inspired to apply by colleagues who had experienced the Fulbright-Hays month-long program.

"I read that the proposal was going to be on climate change and sustainability, and I have a master's degree in environmental biology. Because I teach science and cover climate change in one of my courses, I thought this would be perfect,” she said. “I really wanted to travel to Colombia and see what information I could gather to broaden my knowledge on the topic, implement it in my courses, or create some sort of science instructional scaffold."

Through a collaborative National Science Foundation (NSF) grant she works for, there is a climate change instructional scaffold for middle grades and high school students already, but Ramirez Villarin said she wanted to change the focus and make it more appealing for younger students.

"I want to provide a simple way for these students to read about it, understand it, and take action," she said. "Part of the team worked on one elementary resource, so I am trying to create this second one related to climate change."

Ramirez Villarin is currently working on creating a story book-like scaffold that will teach elementary school children about climate change mitigation. It will include art illustrations by a UNG alumna on how Colombia is dealing with climate change and how we can adopt these practices. There will be a Spanish version as well.

"I know climate change is a very controversial issue. But once I visited Colombia, it was extremely evident," she said. "What Colombians are doing is something that I feel  should be shared with the world."

She will be presenting the project at three conferences: the Georgia Science Teachers Association, the Experiential Learning and Inquiry for Physical Science Educators (E.L.I.P.SE.) Conference, held at the Gainesville Campus in March and the National Science Teaching Association Conference in Philadelphia.

The Fulbright-Hays Program awards grants to individual U.S. K-14 pre-teachers, teachers and administrators, pre-doctoral students and postdoctoral faculty, as well as to U.S. institutions and organizations. The program supports research and training efforts overseas, which focus on non-Western foreign languages and area studies. The Fulbright-Hays Program is funded by a Congressional appropriation to the U.S. Department of Education.