Climate Talk: Empowering the next generation to find their voice

The world is in the midst of a climate crisis. As put by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in March this year: “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.” The Climate Talk project is focused on developing a programme for Transition Year (TY) students on science communication, science and media literacy, and multimedia skills, with a focus on communicating about the climate crisis. The students will be taught to become confident and proficient science communicators on topics of importance to them. They will learn how to spot misinformation and disinformation and become media and science literate. They will also be taught hands-on multimedia techniques to create content to distribute what they learn. We will run onsite, hands-on workshops with the TY students and through this, a new generation of science communicators will be fostered; meanwhile, we learn from them and inform best practice on how to engage with this generation. At the end of the project, we will have a repository of multimedia tools that students and educators can apply to any scientific content. By empowering these students to speak on sustainability, and to have agency to discuss the topics of importance to them, we can also help reduce climate anxiety. The project will culminate in two showcase and competition events where the students will show off their new content to the other participants in the programme, and their own families, and compete for the top prizes.