Select Page

Developing a Curriculum for the Climate Crisis

N-12 Leader in Sustainability Education

Holistic Student Education on a Complex Topic

The Harley School, an independent N-Grade 12 school located in Rochester, New York, received a traditional EE Ford grant to:

1) develop a comprehensive climate change curriculum in the Upper School and upgrade learning spaces for hands-on, climate-oriented projects;

2) create our own Sustainability Plan to align our practices with our commitment to reducing climate change; and

3) disseminate our curriculum and learnings both locally and nationally. 

Education for sustainability is a priority at the school. Harley offers a range of innovative electives from the Food & Farm Lab to Design & Engineering. Our Biomimicry Club was honored in national competitions two years in a row. The state-of-the art Commons building is a “living building” generating its own energy, housing science classrooms, centers for Mindfulness and Civic Engagement, a MakerSpace, greenhouse, and teaching kitchen. Yet we are still developing a comprehensive approach to teaching climate change for all Upper School students.

We aim to improve our ability to empower all graduates as empathic and informed leaders who act on innovative solutions to address the impact of climate change, in part through the work of this grant.  

Moving Forward

EE Ford Grant: Significant Goals

  • Climate curriculum development led by Dr. Betsy Vinton and Upper School faculty
  • Update Harley’s MakerSpace to support projects
  • Sustainability plan led by Sustainability Committee, created during 2021-22 school year
  • Summer of 2023 and beyond: Community outreach for sharing work through online course for students, teacher training, Horizons at Harley collaboration

2022-23 School Year:

Individual brainstorming sessions with faculty
Freshman experience planning and curriculum integration (sample project: Leaves as Thermometers: A Collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution)
Summer Institute and summer reading
Documentation and reimbursement process
15 Climate change lessons integrated into the US curriculum this trimester

Dr. Betsy Vinton

Harley Math & Science Teacher and Developer of the Harley Climate Crisis Curriculum

Seth O’Bryan

Commons Co-Director

Seth led the creation of the sustainability plan in collaboration
with Dr. Terry Smith and the sustainability committee. Seth is the
co-leader for managing the overall climate grant.

The Harley School Sustainability Statement

We are committed stewards of our planet and each other. In this way, we are advocates for a sustainable future. Learning through a lens of sustainability provides an essential framework for understanding our world.    

We believe sustainability: 

  • relies on a balanced system. 
  • embraces the interdependence of the environment, the community, and the economy
  • builds on the past, is attentive to the present, and aims for a viable future.

Sustainability Committee Charge

The Harley School Sustainability Committee is a community-wide, inclusive committee, whose members may include faculty, staff, trustees, students and other members of the community with expertise and interest in sustainability. The Committee’s work is informed and guided by the Harley School’s Sustainability Statement (below). The Committee supports the School to live its Mission, including its commitment to “care for others and the world.”  In its work, the Committee focuses on a limited number of areas (from one to four at most) that are decided upon in concert with School leadership, and that can change periodically. These areas may include the School’s curriculum relating to teaching and learning on sustainability (both in and out of the classroom), the School’s policies and practices to improve its sustainability as an institution, and issues of sustainability as they relate to the broader Rochester western New York community. The Committee will periodically report on its work and may make recommendations to School leadership (administrative and trustees) regarding these areas. While the committee focuses its work on a limited number of areas, from time to time in response to important developments it may take action on related issues. Sense of place, specifically the Harley School’s home within the Rochester and wider Finger Lakes region, ecosystems, and indigenous heritage informs the work of the Committee, including both how we understand and how we impact our surrounding area and community.  

Area(s) of Focus

An important area of focus for the academic year is for the Committee to develop a sustainability plan that assesses the School’s current baseline of greenhouse gas emissions, and sets one or more goals, including but not limited to a goal, timeline, objectives, and activities for reducing our carbon footprint. Additional goals could potentially be set to address other areas such as food sourcing or waste and recycling, though these could be subsumed under a broader carbon-related goal.

Related Work

Tips on Tutoring

Tips on Tutoring

By Hope Kantor, Harley’s Upper School learning specialist How can parents determine if a child needs tutoring? What are some signs parents might look for? Does your child appear stressed, anxious, or frustrated when they are doing their homework? Are their grades...

The Harley School

1981 Clover Street
Rochester, NY 14618
(585) 442-1770

2024 Niche Best Schools

©2023 The Harley School

Community Programs

Community Programs

Summer Programs

Driver Education

Afterschool

Extended Day

Adult Programs

Rentals

Key Programming

Science and Math Integration

Beyond STEM

Sustainability

Biomimicry

Maker Education

Project-Based Learning

Whole Learners

Social Emotional Learning

Civic Engagement

Mindfulness

Hospice

Arts

Visual Arts

Performing Arts

Giving

Supporting Harley

2023 Events

2021-22 Sustainability Challenge

Harley Fund

Planned Giving

College Counseling

Harley’s Approach to College Counseling is highly individualized and student-centered. Students have direct access to college counselors throughout their Upper School experience, but really, each student is part of a team including faculty, administration, and staff. It’s our job to support each student and we want nothing more than to send students on to the next step of their journey at a right fit school for them. The student centered and driven process is wrapped in care, expertise, and professionalism.

We host college reps during times students are available (no need to miss a class) so they can make connections and learn more about potential schools. We also arrange campus visits for classes as field trips, host an alumni college day (where recent Upper School graduates return to share advice and answer questions), and help connect students with our international alumni network. In fact, representatives from schools all over the world actively seek opportunities to come to Harley and meet with our students!

Our college counselors are accredited and are part of national/global conversations on admission trends. They also attend and present at conferences across the country.

Beginning with our Grade 11 parent night, we offer informational sessions for parents, including one devoted just to financial aid. Our partnership with families is critical, as the college admissions world changes very quickly and having an expert to guide students and families through the process is essential.

View the downloadable College Counseling Guide

Clubs

“Club Rush” is an afternoon every fall in the Upper School when students have the chance to sign up for clubs for the year, and each year it is very different because new clubs are created based on student initiative and enthusiasm.

A few of this year’s choices: Sports Media, Social Action Club, Journalism Club, Feminism Club, Student of Color & Allies (SOCA), Gay-Straight Alliance, Tri M (music honor society), E-Sports Club, Euchre, Key Club (service), Animation Club, Dungeons & Dragons, Sustainability Club, Jewish Cultural Club, Astronomy Club, Biomimicry, and Beyond Soup (social justice/service).

Athletics

​Each and every year, students at The Harley School participate in HAC Athletics, and their success continues to be impressive, both as students and athletes. Our athletic program is an integral part of Harley, teaching student-athletes invaluable lessons about teamwork, time management, persistence, and competition.  Our program allows them to develop physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally as they represent their school on and off the field. They grow, mature, and work hard to be the best teammate they can, while creating lifelong memories with teammates who often remain friends for life. 

Helping our athletes to reach their potential are some of HAC’s best assets: our coaches. More often than not, they are drawn from the ranks of our faculty and  have a deep understanding of the personalities and abilities of the student-athletes on their teams.  

We strive to find the right balance of academics, exercise, and personal growth for everyone.  By offering a variety of sports at many different levels, all student-athletes find a sport they can be successful in. It is with great pride and pleasure that my team and I work to enrich the athletic lives of all our HAC student-athletes. Go Wolves! 

To learn more check out our athletics page.

Student Leadership

Our Upper School is filled with formal and informal opportunities for students to take on leadership roles. Whether following passions or learning new skills, student-driven opportunities take many shapes.

– Independent study: one trimester, full year, and multi-year projects have included automating our solar chimneys, coding handmade musical instruments, or developing a class on financial literacy for underserved high school students.

– Serving on student council

– STEM: Climate curriculum program, biomimicry program, NASA Hunch program

Clubs

“Club Rush” is an afternoon every fall in the Upper School when students have the chance to sign up for clubs for the year, and each year it is very different because new clubs are created based on student initiative and enthusiasm.

A few of this year’s choices: Sports Media, Social Action Club, Journalism Club, Feminism Club, Student of Color & Allies (SOCA), Gay-Straight Alliance, Tri M (music honor society), E-Sports Club, Euchre, Key Club (service), Animation Club, Dungeons & Dragons, Sustainability Club, Jewish Cultural Club, Astronomy Club, Biomimicry, and Beyond Soup (social justice/service).

Hospice

Unlike this class, death is not an elective. Although it is one of two universal human experiences, our culture often ignores, denies, or misconstrues the true nature of death and dying. What happens when we bear witness to this natural process in the cycle of life and develop our ability to be fully present with others when they need us more than ever? It has the potential to change us deeply and fundamentally while shining a brilliant light on the path of our own lives.

With the support of their classmates, teacher, and comfort care home communities, senior students are offered the chance to care for others who truly need their purposeful, non-judgmental attention. In the home-like setting of a comfort care home, opportunities for learning extend beyond a traditional classroom rubric and conventional methods of evaluation. In this course, students will certainly find tangible “learning outcomes” by studying the medical/physical processes associated with dying and the basic nursing assistant skills of comfort care. The ultimate goal, however, will always be rooted in true relationships and connection, which occurs only through empathy and compassion.

Learn more about the Hospice Program at Harley HERE.

Capstone/Independent Studies

This program utilizes environmentally-focused approaches to education and hands-on learning in order to foster the next generation of leaders through a lens of sustainability and problem-solving.

Food & Farm: These year-long and trimester-long classes are held outside as much as possible, allowing students to become leaders in our various growing spaces. They cover environmental justice issues as well as hands-on work such as planning and overseeing planting, harvesting, and preparation of the gardens.

Past year-long focus projects have included: Creating a native plant shade garden in the Wild Wood area, redesigning our hydroponic system, overhauling Harley’s high tunnel, and improving the irrigation system for the MicroFarm.

Culinary Arts: These classes have a two-fold purpose: to give students practical skills in cooking and the science behind different techniques in the kitchen, learning about food justice, food sourcing, labor topics, and sustainability.

Past topics have included: Examining a plant-based diet, looking at the carbon footprint of different meals and food preparation methods, proposing a low carbon footprint menu to the dining hall, links between food labeling and environmental issues of food production.

Beekeeping: This one trimester class provides hands-on training in beekeeping, how to be a beekeeper, and safety and other techniques for working with bees. Once trained students help with all aspects of Harley beekeeping such as hive inspections, honey collection and extraction, and teaching students in Lower School about our hives.

Students pick a research topic addressing honeybee health and the larger environmental picture.

Social Justice

At Harley, our students learn how to evaluate social systems in order to identify complex problems in society through a lens of social justice. They take a hands-on approach to working for a fair, equitable society by researching, exploring and evaluating different perspectives, and offering solutions—both theoretical and practical.

Our faculty integrate social justice into our broader curriculum to assist students in gaining a foundational knowledge about what makes a democracy function. By gaining skills in ideating supportive pathways they become more exposed and experienced to how communities can undergo healing and restorative actions.

 

Capstone/Independent Studies

Students may create independent studies with supervising teachers throughout their Upper School experience or, during Grade 12, they can design Capstone projects—intensive collaborations with Harley faculty and off-campus mentors—involving rigorous academic study and culminating in public presentations. They are empowered to create their own curriculum, set goals, and work on time management skills in order to accomplish their objectives.

Independent Studies run the gamut from The Psychology of Sports to Furniture Design to The Neuroimaging of Alzheimer’s Disease. Capstones, meanwhile, are as diverse as the students who pursue them: Fictional Rochester, Autobiographical Art, Biomimicry Education, Organic Fuel, and Rochester Refugees. 

Indicative of Upper School curiosity and creativity, pursuits such as these distinguish our graduates in college. Through deep dives of this sort, Harley students master more than speaking, writing, and computing: they learn to communicate, advocate, collaborate, organize, listen, and empathize. 

About

About Harley

Fast Facts

Our Faculty & Staff

History

Horizons at Harley

Dining Services

Key Programming

Science and Math Integration

Beyond STEM

Sustainability

Biomimicry

Maker Education

Project-Based Learning

Whole Learners

Social Emotional Learning

Civic Engagement

Mindfulness

Hospice

Arts

Visual Arts

Performing Arts

Main Menu

About

Academics

Key Programming

Enrollment

Community Programming

Alumni

Athletics

News

Giving

My.Harley

Enrollment

Enrollment at Harley

Enrollment Events

Virtual Tour

How to Apply

Affording Harley

Transferring to Harley

Refer a Students

Academics

Divisions

Academics at Harley

Nursery

Nursery 3

Nursery 4

Lower

Middle

Upper

College Counseling

Visiting Reps

Student Counseling

Library

Letter from the Head of School

Letter from the Editor

Features

Central Work that Matters: DEI

Harley Black Alumni Network

Climate Crisis Curriculum

Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells

Letter from the Head of School

Letter from the Editor

Features

Central Work that Matters

Affinity Group Forms

Climate Crisis Curriculum

Citizen Scientists

Joy Moss: Storytelling Roots

In Every Issue

Class Notes

Diane Donniger Award

By the Numbers

From the Archives

What’s (Who’s) New at Harley

Divisional Highlights

Alumni Profile: Vandebroek

Alumni Profiles: Keller

HAC Athletics

2021 Lives of Great Purpose Awards

1000 Words

Commencement 2022

Reunion 2022

In Memoriam

Retirements and Fond Farewells