NSHS

How does a forest in Massachusetts impact a coral reef in Australia? The project was an artistic venture incorporating the students of Newton South High School to bring awareness to climate change as a local issue as well a global one.  The project exemplified the various connections between different areas of the world impacted by climate change. We created a sculptural installation that spanned three floors of open space in our school. We illustrated the ties between a seemingly unrelated coral reef (the global component of our project) and a Massachusetts forest (the local component). Our sculpture consisted of a fifty foot cardboard coral reef mounted below a Massachusetts tree with a canopy falling leaves. On the leaves we incorporated responses from our peers at South  on their role in fighting climate change and how they are already making changes to be part of the solution. 

 

Our project also included a short promo video we created to encourage thoughts of change in the minds of South’s students in science. Some students and faculty were also a part of the final video that we created and presented at the conference. Lastly,  we put together a poster that captures the overall focus of our project: connections. It included research on the location of the other schools represented at the UNESCO conference. Each location has ways that it both helps and hurts the earth’s current status, so we want to look at how each individual’s way of life and experience with climate change in their own life differs from our own. The same red string used to connect student’s ideas at south will connect the many countries that have come together to reverse climate change.