Connecting and Empowering Kids in a Changing Climate 

Imagine a sixth grader from Maryland. She goes to school, spends her afternoons watching YouTube videos, and then after dinner hops on her PS5 to play games with friends. After doing some homework, she heads to bed, smartphone in hand. The global supply of Takis is secure for the foreseeable future. Every year the graphics on her video games are getting better, the storytelling more complex, and the digital world more immersive.

Like everyone else in her school, this student is growing up in a changing climate.  She’s heard doom and gloom predictions for as long as she can remember, but nature feels more like something that she has seen in documentaries than something she is a part of.  As an average American kid, she spends 60 times more time on screens than playing outside.

This student has never seen a polar bear, never snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef. She doesn’t know anyone living on a river delta in Bangladesh. She would love to go to Disney, but hurricane season isn’t canceling any plans for her.  Whatever temperatures may be doing around the glove, in her apartment the temperature is a comfortable 72 degrees year round. In our temperate climate, advancements in HVAC technology have outpaced rising temperatures.

Climate change is a massive and complex issue. Climate activists, teachers, and environmental educators have attempted to raise awareness and inspire action in various ways:

• Distant disasters: We focus on extreme examples far away—sad-eyed polar bears on shrinking icebergs, coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef, or flooding in low-income neighborhoods along river deltas in faraway countries.
• Fear-driven messaging: We show cities submerged underwater, superstorms wreaking havoc, and mass extinctions that threaten Earth’s biodiversity, making the future of humanity seem uncertain.
• Negative solutions: We offer guilt-based advice—don’t leave the tap on, don’t forget to turn off the lights, don’t drive unless absolutely necessary.

The results, or lack thereof, speak for themselves.

For some middle school students, climate change feels like someone else’s problem. For others, it feels like impending doom. For many, it’s just background noise: one more problem that doesn’t seem real. Most kids realize that no matter how efficiently they brush their teeth, it won’t stop a global disaster.

As humans, we protect what we love, and we love the things we know and feel connected to. In today’s world, the average child spends as much time on a screen in a single day as they spend playing outside over the course of two months. If we are going to see a shift in environmental behaviors and actions, we need to help people get connected to the natural world around them—enjoying nature and loving the planet we share.

As we have tried to avert a global climate crisis we have focused on what feels like quick solutions: convince people that climate change is disastrous, tell people what to do in order to avoid the worst case scenarios.  However, we are missing an essential ingredient.  People need to care.  

Maryland has over 3,000 miles of tidal coastline.  Rising sea levels are of huge concern. We can talk to a student about the economic impacts, nuisance tidal flooding, etc… but if a student has never gone swimming or wading in the bay, eaten a crab, or watched a flock of migratory birds fly over in the sunset, then we are relying on fear as a motivator.  What if we could rely on love? 

Meaningful change is built on connection and empowerment.  It’s time to shift our messaging away from doom and gloom and start getting people connected to nature and the power of their actions.

At NorthBay we strive to connect kids to nature.  We empower kids to know that their choices matter. We believe that connected people care about their actions, and empowered people use their actions carefully. 

If you  were to visit us at lunch you’d probably overhear a conversation where we wrestle with tough questions: how do we engage students in complex climate science in a way that is empowering? How do we present the facts in a way that leads to helpful action instead of crippling anxiety?

At NorthBay, we’re approaching climate change education differently. This year, we’re rolling out a new lesson called “Get Outside” to engage thousands of 6th-grade students. Our focus is on fostering connections to nature by spending time outside and measuring climate change in local environments. From there, we are exploring positive actions within students’ control.

Instead of looking at distant extremes, NorthBay is partnering with students to observe climate impacts in their own backyards, from air and soil temperature changes to bloom times of native species. When do the Osprey return? When do the black-eyed Susans start blooming? By collecting this data over time, students become part of a larger, community-wide study. They act as citizen scientists, contributing to a project that’s bigger than themselves.

Positive action is far more motivating than negative action.  Everything about our messaging, even from the title of the lesson “Get Outside” is framed positively.  Middle school students may not control what their families eat or how they commute, let alone how national governments make and abide by climate agreements. However, many students have agency over how they spend their free time. Going outside reduces their carbon footprint and builds a connection to the natural world. Time spent outdoors helps them form core memories and positive associations with nature.

We believe that action stems from connection. People protect what they love, and they love what they know. By getting students outside, we help them build relationships with nature, fostering a lifelong commitment to environmental protection.

Our climate is in desperate need of help. If we are going to give it the help it deserves, we need to start by getting to know and love the world around us. We need to get outside.