FY 2019 Annual Report • September 1, 2018 - August 31, 2019
CONNECT4CLIMATE:
BUILDING KNOWLEDGE, EMPOWERING ACTION
Research on climate change education shows that more emphasis is needed on building personal
relevance and supplying students with methods for action. Informing youth about the changing
climate isn’t enough without empowering them to become critical thinkers and problem-solvers
and giving them strategies to engage.
Last year, thousands of EPI students throughout the Americas worked alongside scientists to help
answer questions that can advance protection of threatened and endangered species and habitats,
while gaining the necessary knowledge and tools from EPI educators to take action on climate
change in their own communities.
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MADE CLIMATE CHANGE VISIBLE AND RELEVANT
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EPI connected students, teachers, alumni, and community members with on-the-
ground impacts of climate change at our field sites. In Yellowstone Winter Ecology
programs, students qualified snow types and explored the impacts of climate change
on snowpack in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Students in Mexico’s Coastal Ecology program connected ocean water temperature
readings with marine mammal distribution.
MONITORED AND PROTECTED CLIMATE-THREATENED SPECIES
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Students in Costa Rica’s Sea Turtle Ecology program created shade structures or relocated
exposed leatherback sea turtle nests—even slight elevations in sand temperature can
affect the developing embryos.
In Belize, students helped TIDE determine wake-free zones for boats by recording
manatee sightings.
FOCUSED ON CLIMATE LITERACY
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During the winter in Yellowstone National Park, students bundle up and classify
snowpack, learning how different types of snowpack affects different species.
In the warmer months, Yellowstone Wildlife Ecology Program students work with
Gallatin National Forest rangers to monitor amphibian populations, species that
are particularly susceptible to the decreased moisture levels associated with rising
temperatures and longer summers.
EMPOWERED STUDENTS TO TAKE ACTION IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES
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EPI Galapagos alumni in the Mola Mola Eco Club conducted beach profiles to track
beach erosion and analyze the impacts of sea level change on green sea turtle
nesting habitat.
EPI Mexico alumni in the Californios Verdes Eco Club launched a successful public
education campaign with the “Deplastificate Alliance,” which resulted in the ban of
three of the most commonly used single-use plastics in Baja California Sur.