Kids do climate research on their school playground

Plus: ChatGPT keeps making waves [View this email online]( [NPR Education]( January 22, 2022 This week, young people who are taking on climate research and a new comic that addresses the climate crisis from a kid's perspective. Plus, catch up with ChatGPT, that bot that does homework. --------------------------------------------------------------- Science teacher Sarah Slack wants her students to build research skills that could help cool down their own urban neighborhood. Mohamed Sadek for NPR Happy Sunday, Abē Levine here, incoming intern and new kid on the Education Desk. This week, we’re localizing the conversation on global warming to one middle school in Brooklyn. [Anil Oza]( followed a group of eighth graders as they took the temperature of different spots around their school playground. It has hardly any trees and is in a neighborhood ranking high on the city’s [heat vulnerability index]( which assesses the risk of death due to extreme heat waves. While increasing temperatures have global impacts, in American cities a legacy of [race-based urban planning]( has left particular neighborhoods and populations more vulnerable to the health impacts of a warming planet. At J.H.S. 223 The Montauk in Brooklyn, science teacher Sarah Slack wants her students to connect those dots. "I think the most important thing that would come out of doing this kind of work is for students to realize that they don't have to fix climate change, but they have the ability to make things better in their own communities," she told Anil. Slack’s students take the temperature of pavement, concrete, dirt, and grass. “Which one of these is going to be the hardest to find out there?” she asks as they head out the door, digital thermometers in hand. It's an easy question. “Grass,” several students mutter at once. Join Anil, as he pounds the pavement with [a mic and a thermometer](. Anil is headed to the Short Wave daily science podcast, where I was previously. — [Abē Levine]( Intern, NPR Ed [Read More]( A climate comic book Talking with kids about the realities of climate change isn’t easy. Check out this new comic, [A Kid’s Guide to Climate Change](. It’s told through the experience of a student named Gabe, who jumped into learning and activism after his family fled a wildfire near his home. There’s a printable PDF! NPR news editor and graphic novelist [Malaka Gharib]( drew the comic and NPR climate correspondent [Lauren Sommers]( wrote it. Below, you’ll find a lightly edited conversation I had with them about turning journalism into art. Abē: Malaka, is this the first comic that you've created for NPR? Malaka: No, I've made a lot of comics for NPR. At the beginning of the pandemic I did a [guide to the Coronavirus]( for kids, and it went viral. It ended up being a real resource during the pandemic, it was translated into multiple languages and used all over the world. And so after that, my editors were very supportive and had me draw in between my writing and reporting and editing, mostly on the pandemic and the Coronavirus. Abē: How was the writing process for the climate comic different from putting together a typical audio or written story? Lauren: We collaborated a ton. From the very beginning, we were talking about how we could tell this story. We talked to a number of psychologists who specialize in kids and climate change. We know kids connect with other kids. So that's when we started making calls, hunting around for kids in the U.S. who had experienced climate change and were doing something in their community. Malaka: I want to say that Lauren wrote the comic script for this, which is an incredible thing to do. It's not radio reporting. And she was able to get three disparate concepts – Gabe's story, how climate change happens, and what to do about it – all in this concise format. Abē: In audio journalism, we have this concept of writing for the ear – writing how you speak and in a way that is easy to listen to. Is writing a comic book similar? Malaka: With audio journalism you really have to build scenes and it's very character driven. And that's how comics should be, too. Sometimes in my own work and my own reporting, if I have to do a radio piece, I just pretend that I'm writing a comic script and it feels similar. Abē: Was there a guiding intention for you both as you were drawing up this comic? Lauren: We came up very quickly with priorities about what to help kids do, which is not as simple as ‘go change a light bulb and feel better’. It's more about how to validate their feelings and help them find other people, because that's how people can deal with those feelings in a more constructive way. Abē: Any future projects in the works? Malaka: On [Life Kit]( we have a guide on [how to take care of older people]( in the pandemic. I'm making a paper doll on how to dress for exercising in the cold. It's written by [NPR’s] [Wynne Davis]( so I'm turning Wynne into a paper doll version of herself. People can print it out and cut out the little outfits and put it on Wynne. Abē: Awesome. Well, it's been illuminating and something to look forward to as I continue to do journalism. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Headlines abound about ChatGPT in schools. A short roundup to keep you up to speed… AI shows up in the classroom. The AI bot ChatGPT can write anything from code to poetry to lesson plans. If you want to get more grounded in the debate over whether it should be banned outright or strategically integrated into teaching and learning, I get into it with the professor who tweeted "AI has basically ruined homework." [Listen here.]( — [E]( Bowman, Correspondent, NPR Ed Bot back better. Some big school districts almost immediately banned ChatGPT. But computer science student Edward Tian took a different tack. He built a new bot to detect when ChatGPT is doing the writing. Listen to his ideas [here](. — [Janet Woojeong Lee]( Producer, NPR Ed Can it help teachers? I was dialed into this conversation between the hosts of Hard Fork, a New York Times technology podcast, and a veteran high school English teacher about how she’s embracing the bot as a learning aid - for herself! — [Abē Levine]( Intern, NPR Ed And for a little pick-me-up... Here’s an adaptive swing ride for the soul… A group of fifth graders in Minnesota wanted their school playground to be accessible to everybody (young Minnesotans do brave the weather, don't ya know). They managed to raise $300,000 for upgrades. Read about the kid-led campaign [here](. Until next week! --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. [Listen Live]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Twitter]( What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [npred@npr.org](mailto:npred@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! [They can sign up here.]( Looking for more great content? [Check out all of our newsletter offerings]( — including Music, Politics, Code Switch and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Education emails. 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