By: Connor Wahng

With rising temperatures throughout Antartica, penguins can no longer live in their natural habitat. Standing at the front of the classroom at Slackwood Elementary School near Trenton, New Jersey, teacher Michelle Liwacz asked her first-grade students to provide a solution to a problem: penguins are losing their homes.

Everyone murmured excitedly while thinking of solutions. One boy said that the penguins could cool off in the water but took it back after thinking of their predators in the water. Another student said that they could migrate to another cold place. Gabi, an enthusiastic kid, added that a few of them could live in her fridge.

As the school year ends, New Jersey is the first state to implement climate change curriculum for elementary schoolers. The state’s method of teaching hopes to connect students with current events at an early age, teaching them how to solve problems instead of only focusing on the issues.

“When we shield them from so much, they’re not ready to unpack it when they learn about it, and it becomes scarier than when they understand they’re in a position where they can actively think about solutions,” said Lauren Madden, a professor of elementary science education at the College of New Jersey. “When you take kids seriously that way, and trust them with that information, you can allow them to feel empowered to make locally relevant solutions.”

At Slackwood, parents said that they were delighted when they heard about climate change education.