K-12 Students Teach Lessons Behind Climate Change

09/19/2022

Contacts for media: Emily Gowdey-Backus, director of media relations, Emily_GowdeyBackus@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, assistant director of media relations, Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu

A sophomore from New Bedford is the top winner in the Massachusetts division of this year’s Cool Science contest, a UMass Lowell program engaging K-12 students about the effects of the climate crisis.

Angele Semedo, a sophomore at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, is the 2022 recipient of the UMass Lowell David Lustick Award, presented to the competition’s overall winner in the Bay State. Semedo, and the contest’s other Massachusetts winners, will have their artwork displayed in and on Merrimack Valley and Worcester regional transit authority buses throughout the year.

Cool Science is just one example of UMass Lowell’s commitment to climate change education and sustainability. The university is ranked No. 24 on the Sierra Club’s 2021 “Cool Schools” list of more than 325 environmentally friendly U.S. colleges and universities. And, earlier this year, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS), renewed UMass Lowell’s status as a “gold” campus. These achievements underscore the work of UMass Lowell’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy (RISE), which advances research in the field and promotes community action in solving environmental challenges.

The researchers behind Cool Science are studying how effective the student artwork is in teaching people about science.

“One of the great things about Cool Science is the intergenerational dynamic. Kids learn from adults and then teach other adults what they learned through their art. Their art is engaging, so adults are receptive to looking at it, thinking about it, and ultimately learning from it. Putting youth art on buses is a great way to spread informal science education to the general public,” said UMass Lowell Education Associate Prof. Jill Lohmeier, chair of curriculum and instruction, who presented the Lustick Award to Semedo.

Supported by the National Science Foundation, Cool Science teaches young people in the Northeast and Midwest about science and art by asking them to illustrate factors driving the climate crisis. The top submissions then appear in and on transit-authority buses across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Kansas and Missouri on view to tens of thousands of passengers and passersby each day. More than 4,300 students have participated in Cool Science since the program began in 2012.

The program’s top award is named in memory of David Lustick, a former Nashua, N.H., resident, UMass Lowell School of Education professor and nationally recognized champion of environmental education. Lustick and Lohmeier co-founded Cool Science to study ways people learn new information outside of the classroom.

Lohmeier continues this work with UMass Lowell Associate Prof. Stephen Mishol, acting chair of the Art and Design Department; Prof. Robert Chen, interim dean and professor in the UMass Boston School for the Environment; and researchers from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, University of Kansas and Kansas City Art Institute.

In addition to Semedo, contest winners from these hometowns will have their artwork appear on Worcester-area bus lines:

• Acushnet: Ryleigh Demelo, a sophomore at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School;
• Arlington: Ellie Khazan and Ari Parmer, third-graders at the Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School;
• Marlborough: Maria Tanaka, a seventh-grader at Notre Dame Academy;
• Needham: Lani Wang, a senior at Needham High School.

Runners-up also honored include:

• Arlington: Colin Libby and Ollie Czekaj, third-graders at the Cyrus E. Dallin Elementary School;
• Belchertown: Emily Mileski, a home-schooled fifth-grader; Lexi Booke, a home-schooled seventh-grader; and Lexi Krieger, a sophomore at Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School;
• Chicopee: Nawres Al Saedi, a sixth-grader at Hampden Charter School of Science;
• Hadley: Sarah Nicolson, a sophomore at Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School;
• Lakeville: Jae Walden-Stotts, a sophomore at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School;
• New Bedford: Gabriela Gonzalez Javier, a sophomore at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School.

Contest winners from these hometowns will have their artwork appear on Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority buses:

• Chelmsford: Zoya Pathan, a third-grader at Byam Elementary School;
• Freetown: Emma Andrade, a junior at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School;
• North Andover: Alice Lobel, a fifth-grader at Annie L. Sargent Elementary School;
• Salem: Alice Peterson, a seventh-grader at the Phoenix School;
• Rochester: Owen Flynn, junior at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School;
• Westford: Naomi Weinbeck, a sixth-grader at Stony Brook Middle School.

Runners-up from the following hometowns were also honored:

• Brookline: Elizabeth Huang, a third-grader at Heath School;
• Gloucester: Karina Dysthe, a fifth-grader at the Phoenix School;
• Lakeville: Josephine Graber and Keith Furlong, juniors at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School;
• Salem: Fiona Kinsey, a fourth-grader at the Phoenix School;
• Tyngsborough: Rebecca Negron, a junior at Greater Lowell Technical High School;
• Westford: Trinity Abdelmalek, Amelia Berlinski and Vivian Xu, sixth-graders at Stony Brook Middle School.