FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 20, 2014
EDITOR’S NOTE: You are invited to send a reporter, photographer or camera crew to cover this event, or arrange pre- or post-summit interviews with Janice McDonnell, 4-H Science, Engineering and technology agent, by cell phone at 732-586-1130, office telephone at 848-932-3285 or by email at mcdonnel@marine.rutgers.edu.
Four Montana teens visit Rutgers to learn to design their own youth climate program for similar summit in their home state
High school students from across New Jersey will be joined by four of their counterparts from Montana for the annual Rutgers 4-H Climate and Environmental Change Teen Summit on Rutgers George H. Cook Campus, Thurs., March 27.
The summit, which attracts about 150 teen participants, representing close to 20 schools and clubs, is co-sponsored by Rutgers Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences and 4-H Youth Development. It begins at 10 a.m. at the Cook Campus Center, 59 Biel Road, New Brunswick.
The teens work with Rutgers scientists to learn about climate change science and to develop community service projects that allow them to apply their climate change knowledge in their local communities. The four Montana youth will be on a three-day visit to Rutgers from March 25-28 to gain in-depth climate science information in order to design a youth climate workshop at the upcoming 4-H Congress in Bozeman, Montana, in July. The highlight of the trip to Rutgers is the Teen Summit on March 27 in which the visiting teens get to engage in hands-on climate science activities with their New Jersey counterparts.
Among the four visiting students is a direct descendant of the Blackfeet Tribe who is concerned with environmental impacts on tribal lands and believes the 566 Tribal Nations in the U.S. must be an important part of a discussion on climate change. Another visiting teen is a champion dogsledder, the 2014 winner of the 350-mile Montana Race to the Sky dogsled race, who has personally witnessed changes in climate expressed in Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska.
Teams of students from each of the schools will discuss climate change research and the career and research opportunities associated with related climate change sciences. The students gain important expertise that will enable them to plan service projects related to climate change and provide some leadership on this issue in their local communities.
Rutgers leads the 4-H youth development program whose goal is to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics education in New Jersey. The Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences is part of the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers. The institute is home to the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence in a Networked Ocean World (COSEE-NOW), which works with 4-H to implement the summit.
About Rutgers 4-H Youth Development
The Rutgers Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development program uses a learn-by-doing approach to enable youth to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills they need to become competent, caring, and contributing citizens of the world. This mission is accomplished by using the knowledge and resources of the land-grant university system, along with the involvement of caring adults.
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