Decision Literacy
How to think clearly, evaluate choices, and understand consequences.
Introduction
Environmental Systems Literacy is an 18-week curriculum for ages 8–12, built for classroom teachers, homeschool families, caregivers, and after-school leaders. Students take an engineering approach to the planet — learning how natural systems handle energy and matter, how human industrial systems interface with them, and how to identify and fix the failure modes when those two systems clash.
Part of the Literacy for Kids Ecosystem
This curriculum is part of Literacy for Kids, a collection of open-source curricula designed to help children ages 8–12 understand the systems that shape the modern world.
Explore the other literacies
Computer Literacy
How computers work and how to use technology responsibly.
Media Literacy
How to find, interpret, and evaluate information.
Financial Literacy
How money and financial systems affect everyday life.
Civic Literacy
How societies organize themselves and how citizens shape communities.
Emotional & Social Literacy
How emotions, cognition, and social systems shape behavior and relationships.
Legal Literacy
How laws are built, how contracts work, and how disputes get resolved.
Environmental Systems LiteracyCurrent curriculum
How planetary systems work and how human activity interfaces with them.
Health Systems Literacy
How the human body operates as an integrated system of feedback loops.
Core Concepts
The curriculum is organized around mental models that help students transition from abstract environmentalism to rigorous, physical systems-thinking.
There is No "Away"
Earth is a closed system for matter. Students learn to trace the complete lifecycle of materials — waste is a system output that must become an input elsewhere.
Energy Flows, Matter Cycles
Energy from the sun flows through the system and bleeds off as heat, but physical matter must be continuously recycled through the plumbing of the planet.
Straight Lines and Loops
Nature usually reuses its materials in loops. Many human-made systems run in straight lines: take, make, use, throw away. Students learn to spot the difference — and where a return path is missing.
Carrying Capacity
Every system has a limit to how much it can support. Students learn to see resource trouble as demand growing faster than the system can keep up.
Feedback Loops
Students explore balancing loops that stabilize systems and amplifying loops that lead to runaway states — applying systems thinking to the planet itself.
Curriculum Roadmap
The learning progression moves from planetary thermodynamics through biogeochemical cycles, system limits, and circular economics, culminating in a real-world redesign proposal presented to a community audience.
Weeks 1–3
The Planetary Engine
Thermodynamics, energy flow, and the sun
Weeks 4–7
The Plumbing & The Supply Chain
Biogeochemical cycles and mass conservation
Weeks 8–10
System Limits & Load Balancing
Carrying capacity and population dynamics
Weeks 11–14
Re-Engineering the Interface
Circular economics and closing the loop
Weeks 15–18
The Redesign Project
Design, propose, and present a circular solution
Start Teaching Environmental Systems Literacy
Begin with the Welcome page for an overview, then jump into Week 1. Each session is about 20 minutes — designed for ages 8–12.
Found a mistake or have a suggestion? Open an issue on GitHub.