UMass Lowell Program Teaches Science through Public-Transit Campaign
04/02/2015
Contacts: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
* M E D I A A D V I S O R Y *
WHAT: UMass Lowell will honor schoolchildren from across the state – winners of the annual Cool Science contest – for creating artwork that is educating public-transit passengers about the effects of climate change.
The competition asked elementary-, middle-, and high-school students to create posters that depict concepts behind climate science. The contest’s winning entries are displayed inside Lowell Regional Transit Authority buses and commuter terminals through June, where they are seen by thousands of patrons daily. Now in its third year, the public-education initiative caught the eye of The Advertising Club of Greater Boston’s Hatch Awards, which honored the program.
This year, Cool Science received more than 500 submissions from students at 28 schools around Massachusetts.
The event will feature an exhibition of the students’ art, both in a gallery display and on and inside an LRTA bus that will be parked on site. Artwork on the side of the bus was created by Mi Choi, a sophomore at Belchertown High School. Other students scheduled to participate in the awards ceremony are from Chelmsford, Holbrook, Lowell, Marblehead, Milton, North Andover, Rochester, Somerville, Taunton and Tyngsborough.
Speakers are scheduled to include Nashua, N.H., resident David Lustick – who was recently honored at the White House for his work on Cool Science – and Westford resident Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier, both associate professors in the university’s Graduate School of Education, who are leading the program with Prof. Robert Chen of UMass Boston.
WHERE: O’Leary Library Learning Commons, Mezzanine, South Campus, 61 Wilder St., Lowell. Contact UMass Lowell media relations for directions and parking information.