press release
As a part a worldwide week Climate Action, Bassnectar’s ‘Be Interactive’ Nonprit has unveiled a four week Climate Change course for high school science students as a resource for overworked teachers to educate the next generation about this grave threat to their future.
The course, released under a creative commons non-commercial attribution license, is available for free for anyone to download, modify, and share as they see fit here.
The course’s designer, Malanka Riaboken Guerilla Science, applied for a $10,000 grant from Be Interactive in April. With experience as an instructional designer for the University Arizona and others, Malanka had heard a story on NPR that detailed the struggle teachers to vet and organize the resources needed to teach their students about climate change. Inspired by Be Interactive’s call for environmental grant applications, she applied and was accepted, spending her summer creating the course.
“I stand by the saying that lack education is the root all evil,” Malanka said. “I just want science teachers to have what they need, for free, from a person who knows how to make quality academic lessons.”
The course is designed to be an all-inclusive resource for teachers, and includes editable powerpoints as well as a 100+ page teacher’s guide that educates instructors, guides them through each lesson, and provides resources on common misinformation around climate change.
Along with the release the course, Be Interactive called upon the music community to help spread the word and demand education for those who need these materials most-high school teachers & students.
“We’re trying something new here,” Lia Holland, Executive Director Be Interactive said. “In the ever-evolving Bassnectar experiment, we’re working to amplify creative and civic-minded fans. Could Bassnectar teach a course on Climate Change? No, but Malanka can, and we’re using the power the music to enable and lift up her awesome work.”
Be Interactive was founded by Bassnectar in 2018, and collects a dollar per ticket sold to Bassnectar events to fund fan projects, charitable activations, and community improvement initiatives.