Bridging the Carbon Gap
Join students at Hunter College High School and Stuyvesant, two schools in New York City, on their journey to gain knowledge about climate change, a topic that is not taught enough to young students across the U.S. We interview climate activists, experts, and researchers about their work and experiences, and use our knowledge to think about how a climate change themed high school education can be created. This podcast is created in collaboration with newyork.thecityatlas.org.
Bridging the Carbon Gap
NYC high school students describe their lack of climate education
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In this introduction to our upcoming series of interviews on the role of education in a democracy, Catherine Du interviews four of her ninth grade classmates at Hunter College High School in New York City to find out what they think of the education on climate change they've received so far.
Catherine Du 00:02
Welcome back to another episode of Bridging the Carbon Gap. My name is Catherine Du, and I'm a freshman at Hunter College High School.
The core of our podcast has always been to explore climate education, because most New York City public schools do not have a government-assigned climate curriculum. I interviewed four other freshmen at my school to see what their experiences with climate education have been.
Student 1
I feel like overall it's been introduced, but maybe not to the extent that it should be. I'm aware of it, but it's kind of a background topic.
Student 2
I feel like so far all they have taught me is basic, like surface-level stuff, without really going into like the root cause or like what we can really do about climate change.
Student 3
I'm aware of climate and what's going on in general, but I haven't really done anything about that, and there hasn't been any projects that have, like, motivated me to do anything more.
Student 4
During elementary school and middle school, we were taught about climate education, but they kept on repeating the same thing, kind of over and over again, so I never felt like I was learning anything new, and when I did want to do something about climate change, I feel like I didn't know where to start, and I didn't really have the resources to start. They kept on saying climate change was bad, but they never really, like, explain, like, you know, the political and, like, more of the economical and, like, the scientific background behind all of it, which I feel like would have propelled me to understand more about climate change myself.
Catherine Du 01:53
For the next few episodes, we will be focusing on people who have jobs in the climate education movement. The first episode of our season will be released on june 20, and it will be an interview with Dr. Morgan Phillips, the founder of The Miracle Inn, and a climate educator.