Second Form Science Empowers Lawrentians to Tackle Climate Change

This year, Lawrentians have come from 32 U.S. states and 38 countries/territories. Has climate change affected their home nations of Barbados and Bangladesh in the same way? Ireland and India? How Japan and Jamaica? The answer, as students in Inquiries in Biological and Environmental Sciences (IBES) found out, is no.

The curriculum of this yearlong class, required for all Second Formers, was re-considered over the summer by IBES Coordinator Danny Concepcion ’02 and fellow science teachers Sean Dory, Elizabeth Fox, Nicole Lantz, Steve Laubach, and Katie Livingston. Throughout the fall students learned about ecosystems, how they are affected by climate change, and, with new emphasis, how the impact of climate change varies in different geographic areas. The students were given the opportunity to discuss these issues using specific examples that Concepcion hopes “will act as a launching point for climate activism.” Lawrentians should understand that their actions could have a “positive effect on the equitable distribution of resources that help to limit the effect of climate change on different groups of people.”

Concepcion said he and his team ultimately want students to have the tools and resources to become actively involved in mitigating climate change. “But they need to understand that it affects different people in different ways. And to be aware of that climate change for one person might be that there’s less snow on the ground and for another it could be that they are sick or starving because the lake where they used to get their food and water has dried up," he explained.

As a culminating project, students did case studies on a specific locale to learn how it (and its residents or indigenous species) are affected by climate change.

Neither Kingsley Hughes ’24 nor Sonia Singhal ’24 had previously thought much about how the impact of climate change might vary. Hughes, who chose to study endangered Caribbean Acropora palmata coral, said, “I think the most important thing I learned this year is the multiple ways climate change has affected the earth and everything that inhabits it.”

Singhal, who also studied coral, agreed. “I knew what climate change was, but didn't realize how it would impact certain people's personal life,” she said. “Also, one of the most eye-opening things I did this term was to observe certain organisms in their natural habitat. The places I chose I had been before but was not aware of what was going on around me.”

Concepcion is proud of the growth his students achieved, thanks to their enthusiastic class discussions and thoughtful work. “I think the fall term of IBES went quite well and I am proud of the growth they achieved,” he said. “I'm ecstatic that students were engaged and passionate about discussions around climate change and its inequitable impact on different people and I hope that it inspired them to be active members of our global community.”

For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.