Nurturing Environmental Stewardship with Molly of Denali: How a Multimedia PBS KIDS Series Grounded in the Alaska Native Experience Can Inform Successful Approaches to Environmental Science and Climate Change Education
摘要
Across the globe, there is a pressing need to prepare children for climate change. Children need opportunities to learn about environmental changes, share their ideas for living sustainably on the planet, and build their sense of themselves as agents for change. Media offers a unique opportunity for reaching children, with great potential to engage, explain, and help kids visualize solutions to problems caused by a changing climate. Surprisingly, despite the immediacy of the climate crisis, and its disproportionate impact on the children who will grow up experiencing its consequences, there are few children’s media projects that address climate change. Molly of Denali, a PBS KIDS series for 4- to 8-year olds, is leading the way, creating animated stories that highlight climate shifts in Alaska and show how communities can come together to solve problems. In this chapter, producers and researchers will describe Molly of Denali’s inclusive production model, detail its approach to science education, and share how the series is teaching kids about climate change, drawing from both Euro-American and Alaska Native perspectives. We will also share initial findings from a related NSF-funded project that is documenting rural Alaska Native communities’ priorities and practices around environmental science learning.