Lens on Climate Change was a summer and after-school filmmaking program for middle and high school students from diverse communities across Colorado, New Mexico and Puerto Rico. Under the guidance of near-peer college student science and film mentors, participating students developed short films featuring how climate and environmental change impacts their communities and daily lives (Gold et al., 2005; Oonk et al., 2017). The program guided students through all steps of developing a science-based film?including identifying a relevant film topic, conducting background research, interviewing experts, developing a storyboard and film script, collecting footage, and editing the film. Films were screened at a festive public event where students could respond to questions from community members. Throughout the program, students also participated in career panels and discussions with mentors and experts about careers in science and technology.

In total, 244 students produced 53 short films around topics like drought, wildfire, Uranium mining, and mountain pine beetle infestation with the help of 90 mentors during twenty program implementations in either a compacted summer program or an after-school program format. The student films were entered into film festivals, screened as part of school district TV channels and on social media platforms, and all of the films are featured on the program website.

A comprehensive eBook (Sharing Science, Vachon et al.) was developed as a resource for educators which includes worksheets, activities, seven presentations, and eleven short instructional videos on how to facilitate a filmmaking program, featuring many examples from the Lens on Climate Change program. Over 80 educators participated in three educator workshops and learned how to engaging students in a filmmaking program around science topics. A mentor training was developed to prepare all mentors for their role, and the training program has been adapted and is being used by other mentoring programs. Mentors gained important professional and personal skills through their participation in the program (Boyd et al., 2021).

The Lens on Climate Change program was designed as a place-based education program built on the premise that the exploration of climate and environmental change through a more personal lens would inspire student awareness and engagement in topics affecting their communities. The program design was grounded in place and culturally-responsive design to make the program meaningful for all students, which was particularly relevant for participants with Native American background (about 25% of summer program participants) and participants in the Puerto Rico implementations. Student reflections and research data supported the importance of these design elements for participants (Littrell et al., 2019; 2020; Gold et al., 2020).

The experience of participating in the program was transformative for students (as defined by Pugh et al, 2010). Research showed significant transformational impact on student awareness around climate change (e.g., the students are more likely to think about, talk about and act on climate change in their community) over a demographically matched comparison group of students who did not engage in the program (Littrell et all., 2021).

Research also indicated that students gained important knowledge around climate science topics as they created films around a topic of personal relevance (Littrell et al., 2020, Gold et al., 2020). Participation in the program inspired action to address climate and environmental change as students gained a stronger sense of both collective and personal responsibility (Littrell et al., 2020), as students were empowered to take personal actions around an environmental challenge (Littrell et al., 2019), and as students felt empowered in their individual behavior change and spreading hope (Tayne et al. 2020). Reflections that students completed at the end of the program highlighted the importance of incorporating solutions to environmental challenges in a climate education program to inspire hope in participants (Tayne et al, 2020).

The Puerto Rico Lentes en Cambio Clim?tico implementations included a focus on community resilience, and the final screening events were held as large community gatherings. Reflection data illustrate the capacity of the program to inspire and instill a feeling of agency as participants envision community resilience and share it with their community (Leckey et al., 2021).

The Lens on Climate Change model of empowering students to take ownership over their own learning through filmmaking and storytelling is applicable to many other science fields (Gold et al., 2020). Evaluations showed that the power of storytelling in learning about local science topics was especially important for students who were traditionally not academically motivated. Teachers in our professional development workshops also stressed that the storytelling was very helpful for English Language Learners (ELL) and could be easily incorporated across subjects (e.g., language and science or technology and science).

The compacted summer program and the school year, after-school program both seemed to be impactful for the students. But the summer programs were able to draw students into the experience even better through a focused implementation (Littrell et al., 2021).

Last Modified: 06/18/2021
Modified by: Anne U Gold