Educating learners about the science of climate change can be challenging because of the socio-ecological complexity of the issue. Some studies show that increased knowledge about climate change can lead to decreased concern because increased information can overwhelm learners and make them feel powerless to effect change. This article describes a Communities Take Charge (CTC) education and action program for middle and high school learners that integrates science content on carbon, energy conservation, and climate change and provides climate action experiential learning, critical reflection, and community engagement. The authors developed this project by modifying and integrating two effective programs: one focused on education and one focused on action. First, they used the Human Energy Systems (HES) unit titled "Carbon TIME (Transformations of Matter and Energy)", which provides empirical evidence on how to best support student explanations about matter and energy (Parker, Elizabeth, and Anderson 2015). This curriculum has been validated in schools across the country. The full Carbon TIME curriculum and the adaption by the authors of this article are both available for public use. Second they paired the adapted HES unit with the Classrooms Take Charge (CTC) web based platform. Pilot programs of this platform demonstrated increased engagement in climate action for both civic and academic audiences. In addition, the CTC module encourages classroom engagement with a local sustainability organization, providing guided reflective prompts to accompany this service learning activity. Research shows that service learning and participation in community change can inspire empowerment and agency. Teachers wrote that organizing and managing the service projects required a good amount of effort but was also rewarding, both for the organizations and the students.