University of Tasmania, Australia

Curious Climate program: student and community-led conversations with scientists on climate change

Curious Climate Tasmania (CCT) delivers public-powered scientific engagement, bridging the gap between experts and audiences with credible, relevant information about climate change. CCT is different from most science communication projects in that content is driven by its participants. It asks the Tasmanian community what they want to know about climate change, and responds directly to their questions.

Curious Climate Schools is a component of CCT that since 2020 has involved 1300 students aged 9-18. In 2021, classes worked together to send in 280 questions about climate change. CCT organised 57 experts to answer them - in video, webpage and in person.

CCT is a collaborative project between the University of Tasmania-hosted Centre for Marine Socioecology, the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, ABC, and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Many additional organisations from across the world provided access to an amazing group of experts.

What the Judges Thought

Partnership across many organizations. Initiative on climate literacy, impactful in terms of 82% of participants learned something new through this initiative. It addressed a climate education gap; example in the THE ranking, uniqueness of the project, alignment with university and its sustainability plan. 

Top 3 Learnings

1. Both climate change experts and the public want to understand each other better.
2. Two-way communication can engage and empower people to understand and act on climate change.
3. Interactive climate conversations enable children and adults to reflect on their feelings about climate change.