Full-Circle: Group 2

Youth Training for Climate Action (YTCA)

Group Members:  Bruce Molnia, U.S. Geological Survey; Aaron Deslatte, Indiana University; Maloy Kumar Devnath, University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Omar Faruque, UMBC; Sarah Jewett, UMBC; Barbara Klein, Texas A&M University; Sanjay Purushotham, UMBC; Michael Walsh, Texas A&M University.

Shared Ideation Drive

PROGRAM MODULE MOCKUP

WORKSHEET 

LESSON PLAN

Abstract:

The Youth Training for Climate Action program is an engaging, gamified educational initiative that equips teenagers with the knowledge, tools, and motivation to address environmental justice and climate challenges. By integrating real-world data from sources such as the EPA’s EJScreen, NOAA, and other federal resources, the program fosters climate literacy, leadership, and community engagement through interactive missions, outdoor activities, and a leveling-up system featuring XP and badges. To further enhance accessibility and impact, a mobile application will be developed to centralize resources, streamline participation, and amplify the program’s reach. The app will act as a comprehensive hub, providing real-time data, progress tracking, collaborative tools, and actionable steps for students to lead climate initiatives effectively.

Deliverable: Training module centered around a database application, to be used in existing programs in schools, community organizations, and local governments.

Goal: Communicate climate risks and available actions in digestible nuggets, pulled from multiple governmental, NGO’s, or academic sources. This is through an interactive AI application that utilizes gamification tools and storylines to engage people from all walks of life and curate geolocated climate science, data, and information to help train and mobilize actors (mostly teens) as community-focused climate resource ambassadors.

Climate Phenomenon: Sea level rise contributes to coastal and inland flooding, accelerated coastal erosion, warming ocean temperatures, tropical storm energy amplification, increased drought, accelerated sea ice and glacier melt, and increased wildfire susceptibility.

Geopolitical Impacts: Displaced populations, urban interface wildfires, loss of local water sources (glacier melt and retreat), supply-chain disruptions

Target Audience: Youth, who identify as ‘global citizens.’ We use existing school and community-based programs as the delivery vehicle: such as the “Climate Ambassador” programs many local governments have used and the “Summer Experience” at Indiana University which recruits high school students to train as environmental/climate “leaders” who can communicate the need for collective urgency and efficacy for climate action.

The application tool is a database of information that is fed via existing websites and geo-coded data tools.  API and linking tools to put resources from multiple sources in one location.  This mobile version (see fig1 &2) utilized the Markov Blanket/Circle of Influence to organize information into actionable items from the individual to the Global (images 1, 2 & 3).  This database application is the base for the training module and will use AI and API tools to be up-to-date and a collective resource.  This training module is an educational tool that utilizes the database platform to create localized climate ambassadors. It is a common organizational and training template/module used by schools and local organizations.

Scientific Findings & Change Theory

Human beings have well-understood information-processing limitations – we can’t focus on all risks all the time; it is often paralyzing to do so (Simon 1996). Cognitive and political science research has amassed evidence that humans use directional, motivated reasoning processes and social identities to selectively process information (Druckman and McGrath 2019; Fischer et al. 2022; Kunda 1990). This can aid in making quick decisions but we often misdiagnose or overlook the implications of longer-term challenges because they are perceived as more ambiguous or uncertain (Palmucci and Ferraris 2023). However, when we can isolate a single risk – like to an individual’s own health, or that of their family or neighborhood – they can transform uncertainty into risk, which can be probabilistically understood (Deslatte et al. 2024). Cognitive science research on active inference posits that humans use generative models and iterative, evidence-gathering, and evaluation efforts to minimize risks or surprises (Parr et al. 2022; Smith et al. 2022). While some individuals may be only able to focus on risks to themselves, their own actions and impacts, or those affecting their families, that may be enough, in the aggregate, to increase community climate resilience (Friedman et al. 2024). Others, when presented with messaging that turns uncertainty into risk, can extend the boundary of their model further out and focus on the actions and impacts on their locality, region or even the planet (Bostrom et al. 2019; Parr and Friston 2019).

Existing Environmental Data Tools/Resources

Human Impact | Communication Theory | Audience Focus

The stories from specific locations, current and personalized choices based on AI, pulled Geo-location service. This allows each individual to customize their news, within a specific place.

Identity:

A recent UNICEF-Gallup poll of 55 countries found that more young people identify as ‘global citizens’ than older people do. On average, 27 percent of young people say they identify most with the world, in comparison to just 14 percent of those aged 65 and over. Overall, the younger a person is, on average, the more likely they are to identify as a global citizen – that is, as someone who identifies most with the world as opposed to a nation or local area. (https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/stories/global-identity-mindset-climate-success)

Existing Media – Impact/Content (Land/Human/Sea):

Training Module (WIP)

  • Provides Action Items
  • Local Impact Goals
  • Think Globally / Act Locally
  • Ambassadors in Schools/Local Government

Evaluation

  • Educational Measure within Programs
  • Site and use analytics
  • Training Module – Number of ambassadors
  • User-defined measures of program performance (e.g. CO2e-reductions, Low-Income and Disadvantaged Community (LIDAC) engagement, co-production, reduced community risk over time).

References