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Integrating field data, remote satellite imagery, scientific analysis, and multimedia visual representation to document Arctic ice that is disappearing due to climate change, this artwork is the outcome of a four-year collaboration involving art, design, and polar science between artist Cy Keener, landscape researcher Justine Holzman, climatologist Ignatius Rigor, and scientist John Woods. With this work, Keener and Holzman’s goal is to make scientific data tangible, visceral, and experiential. They ask how artistic and creative practices can contribute to scientific endeavors while making scientific research visible to the public.
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Youth as Climate Change Messengers: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
Artwork created by children can effectively communicate science content, especially for topics that are of universal concern for the public but may cause apprehension, like climate change. This commentary describes artwork from a youth art contest about climate change in which the winning art was displayed on public buses. Young artists learned about climate science while creating images that adults and youth easily engaged with in public spaces. Thus, we suggest that connecting youth with science through art, and then using youth-generated art to engage the general public in science learning can be an effective vehicle for science communication.
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- PAR ID:
- 10342315
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Communication
- Volume:
- 43
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1075-5470
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 814 to 823
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Community and citizen science on climate change-influenced topics offers a way for participants to actively engage in understanding the changes and documenting the impacts. As in broader climate change education, a focus on the negative impacts can often leave participants feeling a sense of powerlessness. In large scale projects where participation is primarily limited to data collection, it is often difficult for volunteers to see how the data can inform decision making that can help create a positive future. In this paper, we propose and test a method of linking community and citizen science engagement to thinking about and planning for the future through scenarios story development using the data collected by the volunteers. We used a youth focused wild berry monitoring program that spanned urban and rural Alaska to test this method across diverse age levels and learning settings. Using qualitative analysis of educator interviews and youth work samples, we found that using a scenario stories development mini-workshop allowed the youth to use their own data and the data from other sites to imagine the future and possible actions to sustain berry resources for their communities. This process allowed youth to exercise key cognitive skills for sustainability, including systems thinking, futures thinking, and strategic thinking. The analysis suggested that youth would benefit from further practicing the skill of envisioning oneself as an agent of change in the environment. Educators valued working with lead scientists on the project and the experience for youth to participate in the interdisciplinary program. They also identified the combination of the berry data collection, analysis and scenarios stories activities as a teaching practice that allowed the youth to situate their citizen science participation in a personal, local and cultural context. The majority of the youth groups pursued some level of stewardship action following the activity. The most common actions included collecting additional years of berry data, communicating results to a broader community, and joining other community and citizen science projects. A few groups actually pursued solutions illustrated in the scenario stories. The pairing of community and citizen science with scenario stories development provides a promising method to connect data to action for a sustainable and resilient future.more » « less
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Satija, S; Ghosh, A (Ed.)Through Youth Advocacy for Resilience to Disasters (YARDs), we offer a case study of a middle-school science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) programme to engage youth in disaster resilience planning through mapmaking and advocacy. From 2021 to 2023, we designed and implemented a 14-session curriculum that empowers middle-school youth (ages 11–14) to advocate for infrastructural improvements that can benefit their communities by learning about disaster resilience from the perspective of environmental justice and equity. Youth explore virtual mapmaking and data visualisation to understand the assets and vulnerabilities in their communities related to disasters. Finally, they develop an action plan and present their plan to local civic and government leaders to advocate for change. This curriculum was piloted as an after-school programme in the fall of 2022 and twice as a summer camp in 2022 and 2023. Results from student surveys, field note observations, and focus groups show that there was increased self-efficacy among the participants for advocacy behaviours related to natural disasters and an increase in their understanding of and feelings of importance of the programme topics. This article can help inform others working with youth on successes and challenges with programme development around disaster resilience.more » « less
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Public artwork, from vibrant wall murals to captivating sculptures, can enhance the aesthetic of urban spaces, foster a sense of community and cultural identity, and help attract visitors. Despite its benefits, most public art is visual, making it often inaccessible to blind and low vision (BLV) people. In this workshop paper, we first draw on art literature to help define the space of public art, identify key differences with curated art shown in museums or galleries, and discuss implications for accessibility. We then enumerate how existing art accessibility techniques may (or may not) transfer to urban art spaces. We close by presenting future research directions and reflecting on the growing role of AI in making art accessible.more » « less
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470211044825
