{"id":9290,"date":"2026-04-15T07:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/can-penguins-help-teach-kids-about-climate-change-new-research-says-yes-rutgers-university\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:06:32","slug":"can-penguins-help-teach-kids-about-climate-change-new-research-says-yes-rutgers-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/04\/15\/can-penguins-help-teach-kids-about-climate-change-new-research-says-yes-rutgers-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Penguins Help Teach Kids About Climate Change? New Research Says Yes – Rutgers University"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newsroom<\/a>
A Product of the SEBS and NJAES Office of Public Outreach and Communication
Office of Public Outreach and Communication<\/span><\/a><\/span>
Ad\u00e9lie penguins in Antarctica. Photo credits Oscar Schofield
Penguins waddling across Antarctic ice might seem far removed from a classroom in New Jersey, but a new study shows that these charismatic birds can be a powerful hook for teaching young people about climate change \u2014 and inspiring them to see themselves as future scientists.
The study was led by researchers at Rutgers University, including affiliates of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute<\/a> Janice McDonnell, Associate Dean of Research Impact at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Oscar Schofield, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. In addition, the lead author, Marissa Staffen, and co-author Matthew Newman are both county agents from the Department of 4-H Youth Development at Rutgers.
Published in the Journal of Geoscience Education<\/em>, the study evaluates a program called Data to the Rescue: Penguins Need Our Help!<\/em> \u2014 an eight-session after-school club designed for middle schoolers in grades 5 to 8. The program invites students to join a virtual research team studying real penguin population data from Antarctica, collected by the National Science Foundation\u2019s Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program at Palmer Station.
Students work with actual scientific data using an online tool called CODAP to graph and analyze how Ad\u00e9lie, Gentoo, and Chinstrap penguin populations have changed over time \u2014 and why. The program ends with a creative \u201cData Jam,\u201d where students turn their findings into poems, art, videos, or other projects to share with their communities.
The program directly connects climate change in the polar regions \u2014 where warming is happening much faster than the global average \u2014 to real consequences like sea ice loss and shrinking penguin populations. It also draws lines from those distant changes to local impacts like sea level rise and extreme weather, helping students understand that what happens in Antarctica doesn\u2019t stay in Antarctica.
\u201cThis program shows that when you give young people real scientific data and a compelling story \u2014 in this case, penguins \u2014 they don’t just learn facts, they start to see themselves as part of the solution. Building that sense of identity and agency in students, especially for young people that don’t see themselves represented in STEM, is one of the most important things we can do for both STEM education and climate action,\u201d said Staffen.
Students in the Data to the Rescue program explore real penguin population data collected at Palmer Station, Antarctica, connecting distant ecosystems to local climate change impacts. Photo credit Matthew Newman
Over three years and across 46 program sites in the U.S., 1,571 youth took part. The study found that after completing the program, students showed a statistically significant increase in \u2018science identity\u2019 \u2014 meaning students felt more like they belonged in science. This was especially meaningful given that the program intentionally reached out to groups underrepresented in STEM, including girls, Black and Hispanic youth, and students from low-income communities.
Students who started with little knowledge of polar science showed the biggest gains in learning. Many who began by answering \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d to questions about the Arctic and Antarctic finished the program with real, substantive answers.
Interestingly, overall fascination with science dipped slightly by the end of the program \u2014 but the authors suggest this may reflect a more realistic understanding of what science actually involves, including the hard work and challenges, rather than a loss of interest. Students with lower initial fascination actually showed gains.
The implications of this research go beyond penguins. The program offers a replicable, low-cost model for informal science education that can be run in after-school clubs, community centers, summer camps, libraries, or 4-H programs \u2014 and all materials are available for free in both English and Spanish. The authors argue that building climate literacy and data skills in young people, particularly those from underserved communities, is essential for developing an informed public and a diverse STEM workforce capable of tackling global challenges like climate change. Explore Data to the Rescue<\/a> resources and read the full study here.<\/a>
This article was written with assistance from Artificial Intelligence, was reviewed and edited by Oliver Stringham, and was reviewed by Marissa Staffen, Janice McDonnell, Matthew Newman, and Oscar Schofield, co-authors on the study.<\/em>
Filed Under: 4-H Youth Development<\/a>, Extension<\/a>, Marine and Coastal Sciences<\/a>, NJAES\/RCE Department<\/a>, Research<\/a>, Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute<\/a>, SEBS Departments<\/a>, Staff<\/a> . <\/span>
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NewsroomA Product of the SEBS and NJAES Office of Public Outreach and CommunicationApril 14, 2026 by Office of Public Outreach and Communication Ad\u00e9lie penguins in Antarctica. Photo credits Oscar SchofieldPenguins waddling across Antarctic ice might seem far removed from a classroom in New Jersey, but a new study shows that these charismatic birds can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}