A dozen Wisconsin K-12 teachers went back to school for the last year to learn more about the connections between the health of humans and the health of the planet.
The K-12 teachers from Madison, Middleton, Milwaukee and Montello were part of the Planetary Health Partnership, a new professional learning program offered by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI), Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE) program in the School of Education.
GHI Director Jonathan Patz sees multiple wins in PLACE’s Planetary Health program–for Wisconsin, teachers and their students, human well-being and the health of animals and ecosystems in an age of global environmental crises. “These students will be future,” he says. “If they can learn how the health of humans and the planet are connected while they are young, they are most likely to continue the vital work to preserve the health of both.”