Chatham Supervisor, Student Discuss Climate Change On NPR

CHATHAM, NJ — Last year, New Jersey became the first state to mandate climate-change education into its public schools. A faculty member and student from the School District of the Chathams discussed the local impact for a national radio audience.

Science supervisor Kristen Crawford and senior Naomi Boyd joined National Public Radio's "Here & Now" broadcast Friday to discuss how Chatham integrated climate change into its curriculum. The segment, available here, showed the nation an example of how New Jersey schools have incorporated the new requirement.

Chatham schools have educated students about climate change through myriad subjects — not just science. For instance, English classes have read books on the subjects, while German students have examined how other countries have dealt with climate change. Even kindergartners have learned about the issue.

"When you talk about climate and climate change, a kindergartner is not going to understand what that is," Crawford said, "but they can understand how to dress the bear for the weather. So one of the things that we might do at a kindergarten level is just talk about what is climate and how is climate related to weather? And then building on on top of that, how climate is kind of changing and what happens when climate changes."

Boyd — part of Chatham's Green Team — said she's excited to welcome climate change into the curriculum. The senior has taken an active role in engaging in activities that will help educate others about climate change.

Boyd will study biology at University of Massachusetts Amherst Honors College and plans to examine the impact climate change has on birds.

“I think it's kind of a welcome challenge because I think so many people in [my] generation are really interested in this issue and they're really willing to work to
solve it,” Boyd said. “And I think we will definitely come up with a solution very soon at the pace we're going.”

Listen to the full interview.