Too Hot to Learn: Connecting Climate Literacy, Campus Facilities, and Student Voice through Seeds to Solutions

Date: September 16, 2026
Time: 2:45 PM – 3:45 PM
Ballroom G

Extreme heat increasingly affects communities, schools, and student well-being. This session highlights a Seeds to Solutions™ climate education unit that engages students in investigating how communities prepare for and respond to extreme heat. Participants will explore how students examine local impacts, consider possible solutions, and develop community-focused actions grounded in authentic challenges. Presenters will also share examples of how the unit’s flexible design supports meaningful connections with facilities and operations staff, particularly around issues such as shade, aging infrastructure, and schoolyard and campus heat mitigation. Through examples of culminating engagements and collaboration, attendees will see how climate literacy can bridge campus, community, culture, and curriculum (the “4Cs”) while elevating student voice. Whether you work in curriculum and instruction, facilities, sustainability, or community partnerships, this session will offer ideas for building authentic connections among teaching and learning, campus systems, and community resilience efforts, while elevating student voice and civic participation.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
Attendees will be able to:

• Explore how extreme heat can provide an authentic, locally relevant context for elementary climate literacy learning.
• Examine how the storyline instructional framework supports student sensemaking and agency.
• Analyze examples of student-centered culminating engagements that promote civic participation and community problem-solving.
• Identify strategies for engaging facilities staff, community partners, and other stakeholders as authentic audiences and collaborators in student learning.
• Discuss how the 4Cs framework of campus, community, culture, and curriculum can support interdisciplinary climate resilience efforts in schools.

Speakers:
Julie Hilborn, Director of Environmental Literacy and Sustainability, San Mateo County Office of Education
Holly Steele, Director of Professional Learning & Community Building, Ten Strands

Julie Hilborn is the Director of Environmental Literacy and Sustainability at the San Mateo County Office of Education. She joined SMCOE in September of 2022 after a multi-faceted career in the formal and informal science and environmental education sectors across K-12 and university levels. Julie directs the Environmental Literacy and Sustainability program at SMCOE, which provides support to San Mateo County schools in prioritizing environmental literacy and integrating environmental sustainability and climate-ready practices across school campuses, curriculum, community, and culture. In 2025 she led SMCOE to become the first county office of education to receive Green Achiever recognition through the California Green Ribbon Schools program. She also worked internationally as an Instructor for Outward Bound Zimbabwe, and in the private sector as an environmental consultant on large-scale construction projects. Julie holds a BA from Stanford, an MA from San Jose State, an administrative credential from SMCOE and a teaching credential from San Francisco State.  

Holly Steele is the Director of Professional Learning and Community Building at Ten Strands. She joined Ten Strands in October 2025, on the heels of a 20-year career in public education, during which she served as a county office administrator for STEM and environmental education, a teacher on special assignment, and a middle school science teacher.