First graders at Slackwood Elementary School in Lawrence Township, N.J., learned about cause and effect in nature. Credit...Desiree Rios for The New York Times
By Cara Buckley, The New York Times, June 15, 2023
Standing at the front of her classroom at Slackwood Elementary School north of Trenton, N.J., one afternoon in June, Michelle Liwacz asked her first graders to consider a problem: Antarctica is getting warmer. What could the penguins that live there do to adapt?
The children, most of them age 7, murmured excitedly. One boy said the birds could cool off in the water, but reconsidered after remembering all the hungry orcas awaiting them there. “Maybe they could migrate to another cold place, like the United States in winter?” the boy, whose name is Noah, asked. A girl named Aliya suggested that humans give them floaties. Gabi thought maybe the penguins could build igloos. A few of them, Gabi added, could live inside her fridge.
As the school year draws to a close, New Jersey has the distinction of being the first, and so far only, state to require that climate change be taught to all students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The topic is woven into lesson plans across most subject areas, even physical education classes.
Comments (0)