Art as a vector for communicating climate science to younger people — Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society

Art as a vector for communicating climate science to younger people (#2049)

Gabby O'Connor 1 , Craig Stevens 1 2 , Natalie Robinson 2
  1. Univ Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
  2. NIWA, Wellington, WLG, New Zealand

We use art as a vector to introduce climate and climate science to primary school age students. The focus here is on Antarctica and polar impacts on climate. The team visited a range of primary schools (5-12 year olds), and gave paired talks around art and climate science and then followed this with a workshop.  The workshop produced material that was then displayed in a gallery setting where parents and decision-makers where invited to view the results.  The art-science pairing is built on a foundation of joint, and multiple, Antarctic field expeditions where both artist and scientist participated. The work has a number of impacts.  (i) Students connect ideas around art and science and the environment without enforcing a boundary, (ii) they pass this on to their family and (iii) they encourage their family to visit the gallery thus (iv) disseminating further, ideas about art and science and climate change.  Challenges included adequately interfacing with existing educational programmes that might overlap, being sufficiently collaborative and maintaining clear art and science objectives.

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