Program Rewards Art that Raises Awareness about Climate Change
04/07/2016
Media contacts: Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu and Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu
* Media Advisory *
Friday, April 8, 3 p.m.
What: Schoolchildren from across Massachusetts who are this year’s Cool Science contest winners will be honored for educating commuters and the public about climate change during a ceremony with their teachers and parents at UMass Lowell.
The Cool Science competition asks students in elementary through high school to create artwork that depicts concepts associated with climate science. The contest’s winning entries are displayed through June on and inside Lowell Regional Transit Authority buses, where they are viewed by thousands of patrons daily.
Submissions to this year’s contest totaled more than 1,100 – more than double the number received in 2015 – signaling the program’s growing popularity and effectiveness in engaging K-12 students in the topic. Entries from across the state came from 65 schools, youth organizations and home-schooled students.
The event will feature an exhibition of the students’ art, both in a gallery exhibit and on and in an LRTA bus that will be parked on site. Artwork on the side of the bus was created by Hannah Nicolson, a ninth-grader from Hadley who attends the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School. Other students scheduled to participate in the event are from Amherst, Becket, Beverly, Chicopee, East Freetown, Everett, Hanson, Holyoke, Lee, Lowell, Milton, Needham, North Andover, Weymouth, Whitman, Winthrop and Woburn.
Cool Science is led by professors from UMass Lowell’s Graduate School of Education and UMass Boston who are conducting research on the program’s effectiveness as an educational method, both for students and the public.
Where: O’Leary Library Learning Commons, South Campus, 61 Wilder St., Lowell. Contact UMass Lowell media relations for directions and parking information.