Teens Take Action on the Ocean & Climate

Students from the Alaska SeaLife Center Delegation are working on a project to communicate how ocean acidification is expected to impact local marine animals such as northern sea otters and Kittlitz’s murrelets.

Students from the Aquarium of the Pacific delegation in California work diligently on converting a car with a combustible engine to an electrically powered vehicle that they can use as an outreach tool to educate audiences about the carbon footprint of Los Angeles.

Students from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab delegation plant smooth cord grass in Mobile Bay, Alabama. Their project is addressing the impacts of rising sea levels on critical coastal habitats through both marsh restoration in the Mobile Bay area and education programs for elementary students.

Students from Grady High School, part of the Georgia Aquarium Delegation, are researching the impacts of climate change on loggerhead sea turtles in the south Atlantic ocean.

Bay High School students working with the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory-Marine Education Center (GCRL-MEC) in Mississippi are creating an outreach program to help other students better understand coastal climatology. Here the delegation is shown at the NOAA National Data Buoy Center in Mississippi.

Students from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Delegation display crabs they trapped in Elkhorn Slough, an estuary in California. They are studying the impact of ocean acidity on green and yellow shore crab populations.

Sometimes it takes a sea star, a jelly, and a turtle to teach! Students from the Mystic Aquarium Delegation in Connecticut are focusing their efforts on communicating ocean and climate science through a series of community projects.

The Student Summit delegation from the National Aquarium in Baltimore is developing an informal education plan to communicate information about Chesapeake Bay marsh restoration and the effects of climate change and sea-level rise on the marshes.

Students from the Delegation of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher are creating a film and curriculum to educate the Coastal Carolina community about the effects of climate change and to inspire more climate-friendly actions toward the environment.

These students from the Oregon Coast Aquarium Delegation are researching the impact of dead zones, hypoxia, and acidification on marine invertebrates and the resulting effects on Newport, Oregon’s local fisheries.

Students from the Suquamish Tribal Early College High School, part of the Seattle Aquarium Delegation, monitor a tribal beach. The students are working on a project to raise community awareness of how ocean acidification impacts the Suquamish community

–economically, environmentally, socially, and culturally.

These students from the South Carolina Aquarium Delegation of the Coastal America Student Summit are researching how rising sea-levels are affecting local sea turtle populations.

The Texas State Aquarium Delegation to the 2011 Coastal America Student Summit is comprised of students from the Foy H. Moody High School in Corpus Christi. They have an action plan to raise public awareness about the restoration of oysters in South Texas.

Students from Veracruz, Mexico, are working with the Veracruz Aquarium and their local community to learn about the perception of climate change among the youth population in Veracruz.

Students from Assets High School comprise the Waikiki Aquarium Delegation for the 2011 Coastal America Student Summit. They are studying Oahu’s aquifers and changing rainfall patterns. Here they are teaching a group of elementary students.

These students are Community and Urban Science Enrichment Interns, part of the student group representing the New Jersey Academy for Aquatic Sciences Delegation for the 2011 Coastal America Student Summit. The students explore their catch during a Virginia Beach field ecology excursion.