ACE Introduces Mass Climate Education Initiative at PBS Forum

Rebecca Anderson

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November 9, 2015

our climate pic.png

Today, ACE Executive Director Matt Lappé and North Carolina Program Manager Melinda Lilly take the stage at the WGBH Forum for Digital Media on STEM Learning: Climate Education to share two exciting new initiatives aimed at educating and engaging youth nationwide on climate change.

“We’re launching Our Climate Our Future…with a goal of reaching more than 1 million high-school-aged youth by the end of 2016.”

– Matt Lappé, ACE Executive Director

In January 2016, ACE will launch a new online multimedia climate education resource. Our Climate Our Future brings the award-winning ACE Assembly on climate science and solutions into classrooms across the country and beyond. This online multimedia experience includes ACE’s signature mix of dynamic animation, music, video and interactivity.

Matt Lappé says, “We’re launching Our Climate Our Future, a digital multimedia climate education experience that’s modeled after our award-winning live ACE Assembly, to fill a critical gap in climate education and awareness across the country. We’re co-launching the initiative with our partner, NextGen Climate America, in January 2016, with a goal of reaching more than 1 million high-school-aged youth by the end of 2016.”

Melinda OLA

In the last five years, ACE has brought its award-winning, live climate education assembly to 2 million high school students at over 2,500 schools across the country. Despite 97% of scientists agreeing that climate change is real and caused by humans (Anderegg, 2010), only 57% of the U.S. public agrees (Gallup 2014). ACE seeks to bridge this gap through its innovative youth education and leadership programs.

ACE and NextGen Climate America will also announce their joint commitment to launch a new youth climate competition that dovetails with the start of Our Climate Our Future. The Get Loud Challenge, also launching in January 2016, will engage and activate more than 500,000 youth to take immediate climate action. The competition’s goal is to draw widespread attention to the issue of climate change through highly visible online and offline actions. The Challenge will run from January through May and will leverage gamification to motivate youth competitors to take actions like: having a climate conversation with a parent, generating and sharing viral content on social media, or showing up with friends to local legislative offices to demand climate action from elected leadership.

Check out the WGBH Forum online. You can also learn more about Our Climate Our Future here.

Reb, ACE Headshot

Rebecca Anderson

Chief Education and Research Officer

Rebecca is ACE’s Senior Head of Education and Research. She came to ACE in its inception in 2008. Rebecca develops ACE's science content, manages ACE’s online climate education resource, Our Climate Our Future, and ACE's teacher network and works with schools in the Reno-Tahoe area. Prior to ACE, she did paleoclimate research in the Arctic and Antarctica.

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