AI Policy
Our resources are created by teachers and reviewed by scientists. AI is one of the tools that helps our team, and the teachers who use our site, work more efficiently. People stay in charge of every resource.
SubjectToClimate’s resource library was built by our team of experienced teachers and scientists. All of our lesson plans and materials are created by classroom teachers, and every resource is reviewed by real scientists and educators.
Our team uses AI tools to work more efficiently on parts of our content development process, such as drafting resource synopses, formatting documents, and tagging metadata. In every case, a member of our team reviews, edits, and approves the final content to ensure it meets our standards for accuracy, scientific integrity, and appropriateness for students and educators.
AI does not replace the teacher voice, scientific expertise, and care that our team brings to every resource. It is one of many tools we use to build and improve our site, and our team is always in the driver’s seat.
Long before generative AI became popular, our site used AI in features like our search tool. We’ve recently launched two additional AI-powered features on SubjectToClimate and our State Hubs. Both are optional, and you never have to use them to access any of our resources.
Adapts one of our lessons to your location, local climate context, and classroom needs. The original lesson always stays exactly as its author wrote it. Customization is available on all SubjectToClimate teaching resources.
Helps you search our library to find materials that fit what you’re teaching. This is great for users who prefer conversational search.
We integrate AI thoughtfully, balancing what it can do with a strong focus on ethical principles: privacy, fairness, human dignity and agency, and sustainability.
Currently, the only AI-customized content is from our localization feature. While it is customized based on credible sources, AI-customized content should be read by the teacher before it reaches students. We include teaching tips and where the sources come from.
Any resource our team creates with help from AI is reviewed and approved by a member of our team before it’s published.
If a less energy-intensive approach can do the job, we use that instead.
The Customization Tool was shaped by interviews and surveys with teachers about what they wished they had. It’s built to support teachers’ judgment, not replace it. The tool adapts existing, vetted resources and does not write new lessons from scratch. Every adapted version ends with a list of the sources it drew on, separating SubjectToClimate Approved Sources from general web sources, so teachers can see where the information came from. Teachers stay in control: they review, edit, and decide what reaches their students.
No. The original teaching resource always stays exactly as its author wrote it, and it remains the version in our library. A customized version is created only when a teacher requests it, for that teacher’s use. Every adapted version carries a clear statement: “This is an adapted version and does not represent the original author’s work.”
Lessons written for SubjectToClimate by other teachers are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license, which allows adapted versions to be shared for noncommercial purposes.
If you’re a lesson author and would prefer that your lesson not be available for customization, or that your name not appear on adapted versions, contact us at content@subjecttoclimate.org.
No. The Scientist Reviewed designation applies only to the original teaching resource as published. An adapted version is AI-generated and isn’t reviewed by a person each time, so it doesn’t carry the designation. To help teachers judge adapted content, every output lists the sources the tool drew on and separates SubjectToClimate Approved Sources from general web sources.
Yes. Customization is currently available on all SubjectToClimate teaching resources. For partner resources, we link to the original and don’t adapt or change anything; the customization tools just provides local examples and action items for how a teacher may bring relevancy with the resource in the classroom, but we make it clear that: “This is an adapted version and does not represent the original author’s work.” If you’re a partner with questions about how your materials appear on our site, contact us at partners@subjecttoclimate.org.
The tool starts from the lesson you chose and keeps its learning goals. It reads the original lesson and finds local examples, data, and organizations for your location. It prefers sources in this order:
To find local material, the tool runs a small, live web search, with at most two searches and four web sources per customized lesson. It is instructed never to use Wikipedia or other crowd-edited sites, forums, social media, or video sites. It links a page only if that page actually contains what the activity asks students to use, and otherwise leaves the link out. It must not invent organizations, laws, links, or local facts, and it may only include Indigenous knowledge that comes from a cited source, preferably one written by or with Indigenous communities.
After each lesson is generated, we automatically check the links and remove any that lead to a missing page or a fill-in form. Every customized lesson ends with a “Sources used” list that separates “SubjectToClimate Approved Sources” (our library, government and university sites, the National Climate Assessment, and our partners) from “General Sources from the Web,” followed by a “Review before teaching” box.
Yes. Our original teaching resources are teacher reviewed and scientist approved. The customization tool just provides local data and action opportunities and are created on demand, so please read them before using them with students, just as you would any new material.
To help, every customized version includes teaching tips, a “Sources used” list, and a “Review before teaching” box. Because each version is AI-generated and isn’t reviewed by a person each time, please check local facts and links before using it with students. We’re constantly improving the output. If something looks off, use the feedback buttons on the customized version so our team can fix it.
It depends on the tool.
Customization Tool: The only thing you enter is a location, and it doesn’t have to be your own. Customized versions are saved so they can be reused when another teacher requests the same customization. This helps us save energy by not creating duplicate content.
Resource Finder: The Resource Finder is a back-and-forth conversation powered by a third-party tool called DocsBot. Conversation transcripts are available to the SubjectToClimate team, and we review them to improve the tool.
Please do not enter student names or other personal information into any AI feature. See our Privacy Policy for how we handle your data.
AI tools do use energy. Precise per-use figures for the models we rely on aren’t publicly available yet, so we focus on what we can control: we only use AI where it adds clear value, and we prioritize lower-impact and renewable-powered models. Our approach is to reduce our footprint from the start, not to offset it after the fact.
We’re committed to keeping track of our emissions. Every year, our Carbon Emissions Taskforce completes an emissions audit of our operations, including our AI use, and our team of climate scientists reviews it. Being a 100% remote team also helps keep our footprint small, with no offices to power and no daily commutes.
The Customization Tool is designed with this in mind. It doesn’t generate every request from scratch. When a teacher asks for a customization that has already been created, the tool reuses the saved version, so no new AI computation is needed. That’s a deliberate choice to cut down on unnecessary energy use. We’ll keep watching this as better data becomes available and will share what we learn.
This is a living policy. We review it as AI tools change.