Kids for Climate: Raising Public Awareness Through A Primary

Schools-Based Art Project The methodology and evaluation of the 2015 Wellington prototype; a resource

for future partners.

Shawnee Westerman – Policy Intern, Wellington City Council; Summer Research Scholarship recipient, Faculty of Science, Victoria University of Wellington Artist: Stephanie Turk – First Place, Senior.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 SUCCESS OVERSEAS UMass Lowell in Massachusetts, USA, successfully headed a community initiative in which thousands of

schoolchildren created posters illustrating the effects of climate change. The winning posters were

printed on public transport facilities around the region to raise public awareness of climate change. With

450 entries in its second year, the project “reaffirmed the need to provide young people creative ways

to express ideas about climate change”.1

The ‘Cool Science’ project included research into what the students learned and how public transport

users’ understanding of climate change was affected by their art work.2 This found “significant

improvement in bus riders’ awareness and interest in climate-change issues over the course of the

project”.3 In assessing why the art work was so effective at reaching people, it was found that

“Promoting an understanding of the phenomenon through art is a welcome alternative for people who

are better able to learn about science in non-traditional ways.” 4

1.2 A NEW ZEALAND CONTEXT After attending a seminar given by UMass’ Professor David Lustick, Dr. James Renwick of Victoria

University of Wellington (VUW) met with Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC) and Wellington

City Council (WCC) to discuss the possibility of such an initiative in Wellington.

This resulted in joint funding from GWRC and Victoria’s Summer Scholars Scheme, which provides

scholarships for students to undertake a research internship.

GWRC supported the project because of the public transport and climate change focus. The internship

was held at WCC as GWRC did not have desk space available at the time and WCC were heavily involved

with the logistics of the project.

The intern, author of this report, was to contact primary schools and senior management across

Wellington to discuss the idea and to assess the feasibility of such a project, work with Council officers

to develop the logistics of the project and to identify potential sponsors, and set up a project plan, for

implementation during 2015.

1 “UMass Lowell Honors Massachusetts Students Who Created Project’s Art” (4 August 2014) UMass Lowell <http://www.uml.edu/News/press-releases/2014/CoolScience040814.aspx>. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid.

2 METHODOLOGY

This project was managed using a why-how-what approach. This theory of business and leadership

states that the most inspiring leaders, those who make the biggest impact on their organisations and the

world, share a similar trait.

2.1 THE ‘GOLDEN CIRCLE’ 5

Most people begin with the clear-cut – they know what they do or what they sell and they work inwards

to answer the ‘fuzzier’ question of why they do what they do, what their purpose is and why anyone

should care.6 However, the most successful organisations know their purpose from the outset and use it

to guide how they operate and what they do. They are more successful because “People don’t buy what

you do; people buy why you do it”.7

In the context of this project, it was necessary to work out the purpose first, before moving on to the

collaboration phase and then the final product. This meant that a project plan would not work as it

would be too rigid – plans focus on the ‘what’, or the final product, from the beginning and resist change.

Instead, if the purpose of the project is clearly defined from the start, the project will follow the path of

least resistance to an outcome that truly fulfils it.

5 Simon Sinek “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” (TEDx Puget Sound, September 2009). 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid.

2.2 THE ‘WHY’ The purpose of Kids for Climate is to engage children and the public so that awareness of climate change

issues can be raised. Rather than in an apocalyptic sense, it aims to do this in a way that is positive and

creates opportunities for change. Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC agrees that more projects such as this are

needed to face the growing level of public disengagement from the issue of climate change. The ‘doom

and gloom’ scenarios painted by mainstream media about this have turned the public off.8 They don’t

believe there is anything they can do about it so they ignore it.9 A new approach is needed, where

climate change is presented as a challenge that communities can tackle together.

Political polarisation of the issue must be avoided as governments operate on a short political term and

if it is left to them, any action taken will be too little, too late.10 Individuals and communities must start

taking responsibility for their own actions and a programme of community engagement, including non-

partisan projects such as this, is essential for that to happen.11

Wirth and Daschle agree that a bottom-up approach is needed to encourage communities to take

actions that will benefit them in the long run, rather than policy forcing costs on them from above.12

They also believe the psychology of climate change should be shifted from one of burden to one of

opportunity.13 Kids for Climate aims to tackle this shift by promoting actions that people can take at

home to help mitigate climate change, through the eyes of the children whose future is at stake.

Furthermore, the use of art is important as it is a unique medium for expressing and understanding

information. Art promotes a creative approach to the issue and encourages community engagement and

discussion not bound by political ideologies. In public policy, it is well known that the public must always

understand the problem.14 The problem with climate change is that it is a multi-faceted, multi-

disciplinary issue concerning large amounts of complicated scientific research and modelling and large

amounts of uncertainty. For the public to understand it and then be willing to help stop it, the issue can

be presented through a less threatening medium, such as art, and in simple terms so it is

understandable. Children are invaluable in this respect as they possess a clarity of thinking that allows

them to address issues in ways that they, and the wider public, can understand.15

8 Interview with Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC, Distinguished Fellow – Faculty of Law and Centre for Public Law, Victoria University of Wellington (Shawnee Westerman, Wellington, 18 February 2015). 9 Ibid. 10 Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC, Distinguished Fellow – Faculty of Law and Centre for Public Law, Victoria University of Wellington “New Zealand’s Defective Law On Climate Change” (Old Government Buildings, Wellington, 16 February 2015). 11 Interview with Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC, above n 8. 12 Timothy E. Wirth and Thomas A. Daschle “A Blueprint to End Paralysis Over Global Action on Climate” Yale Environment 360(online ed, 19 May 2014). 13 Ibid. 14 Interview with Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC, above n 8. 15 Ibid.

2.3 THE ‘HOW’ This project was implemented using a prototyping methodology. Prototyping is a way of exploring the

future by doing and presenting a concept before arriving at the finished product.16 This allows fast, real

world feedback learning and adaptation, which is important to ensure the project’s development is

guided by the public’s response and evolves into something that best achieves its purpose.17

The prototyping methodology suits a project such as this because it encourages leaving the building and

collaborating with stakeholders, which is necessary when schools, the Regional and City Council, and

other organisations are involved.

Prototyping encourages collaboration and actions so that the project’s development is based on real

world feedback, while also drawing on multi-disciplinary research. The process builds in elements which

appeal to the diverse stakeholders and help them to promote the project to their networks, leading to a

more appealing final product.

Furthermore, it allows people and organisations to be drawn in from the beginning. Unlike a ‘big design

up front’, which is then forced upon stakeholders and the real world, collaborative prototyping aligns

the project along the way to achieve a shared will and vision.18

Reporting on a prototype, or real world action is also more useful to future partners than a detailed but

yet to be realised plan. For these reasons, a project plan for 2015 was not drawn up and this report,

evaluating the methods and results of a prototype, was submitted in its place.

To begin the process, an initial plan outlining the purpose of the project which was taken to GWRC,

Enviroschools, Capital E, school holiday programme managers, park rangers, City Arts, WCC External

Relations, Cable Car managers, media and other parties to determine where interests were and what

could be done without a budget now, and again in the future when there may be some funding. The

results of these discussions are discussed below.

2.4 THE ‘WHAT’

2.4.1 Contact primary school principals and senior management to discuss the idea

Primary schools are difficult to get in contact with due to their already tight time constraints and full

curriculums. This was compounded by the timing of the internship, which began in late November 2014,

and spanned the end of the school year, summer break and start of the New Year’s first term.

Progressing the project without any input from schools was not going to be realistic as their needs

would play a large role in its design.

Therefore, a prototype of the project was imagined that could be run with school holiday programmes

throughout January 2015 and relevant Council officers contacted. Karori and Nairnville school holiday

programmes were still finalising their schedules and so were able to set aside an afternoon each.

16 Otto Scharmer Theory U (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., California, 2009) at 203. 17 Ibid. 18 Otto Scharmer Theory U, above n 16, at 205.

In the future, the project would fit well into school curriculums under the existing Ministry of Education

guidelines, which state that “Education for the environment will occur when children act on their

learning in ways that maintain and improve the quality of the environment, such as when they use skills

developed in the arts to advance an environmental issue.”19

Discussions were held with the Wellington City facilitator for Enviroschools to explore this future

potential. Enviroschools is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that encourages environmental

education through an action-based approach.20 Registered schools create ways for children to plan then

implement sustainable projects to help catalyse change in their wider communities.21 Their facilitation

of those projects into the curriculum is a good model of what would be needed for Kids for Climate and

they have indicated that it would be difficult to get schools to take it on without a push from an

organisation such as themselves, as curriculums are already packed. Therefore, collaboration with

Enviroschools in the future is recommended.

2.4.2 Work with Council officers to develop the logistics of the project and to identify potential sponsors

2.4.2.1 Holding the competition

As both school holiday programmes had a range of children from 5-12, the competition was broken up

into Junior (ages 5-8) and Senior (ages 9-12) categories, with a supreme winner and a number of runners

up in each. Children were allowed to enter as pairs within their age groups to encourage group

discussion and allow the youngest to get help from their peers.

Slips were given to parents asking for copyright permission to display the children’s art in public and on

social media, and asking for a reporter to be able to photograph them. These were attached to the

children’s entries, along with a short caption for their posters. This gave them an opportunity to explain

the message they were portraying through their art.

At the beginning of each session, a short PowerPoint presentation was given asking what the students

already knew about climate change. This gave them an opportunity to discuss it with their peers and fill

in blanks. The effects of climate change were discussed briefly, with the focus on actions they can take

to help stop it. This was done to get the children thinking about those opportunities before they started

on their posters. The official challenge was to “create a poster that shows us what you can do to help

stop climate change, or what you want a sustainable future to look like”.

Time only allowed an hour and a half for the presentation and poster-making session and many of the

children went overtime or rushed their posters. Ideally, 2-3 hours would be set aside to spend on the

project and the students would be allowed to take them home and submit them the following week.

In the future, it would be best to split children into Junior (5-7), Intermediate (8-10) and Senior (10-12)

groups from the beginning so that they can take part in discussions suitable to their level of

understanding. This could be done by making the competition part of the existing school curriculum so

19 Ministry of Education Guidelines for Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools (Learning Media Ltd, Wellington, 1999) at 41. 20 “The Enviroschools Foundation” Enviroschools <www.enviroschools.org.nz>. 21 Ibid.

that students could work with their classmates of the same year level under a teacher’s guidance. As

discussed under 2.4.2.1, this would probably need to be done in collaboration with Enviroschools.

Another option could be to hold workshops where interested children from around the region meet at a

location such as Capital E - this was suggested by their marketing manager. She said that in the future, E

Central may be able to hold workshops combining kids from different schools for the competition. They

have resources for 3D imaging and video so the project could be expanded to include these as well as

posters if desired.

2.4.2.2 Displaying the art

2.4.2.2.1 Public Transport

City buses are owned by NZ Bus, not GWRC. It is unlikely that NZ Bus would offer funding for the

competition unless it had a public transport focus. Without funding, the costs for four weeks of display

are as follows:22

Panel Type General Bus Premium Bus Production and

Installation

Bus back $3000 $6000 $455

Kerbside $1500 $3000 $800

Roadside $3000 $6000 $1250

However, GWRC does own the region’s trains, so it would be straightforward to display the art works

here. They would be shown in the display boxes inside the trains, which are A3 portrait size with a

10mm bleed at the top and bottom, and a 5mm bleed at the edges. There are 350 display boxes in total,

with two per carriage.

There are no designated buses for particular routes. This means that the competition cannot be focused

on a particular area and we cannot guarantee that students will see the art works in their suburb. Trains

are more predictable and the art works would be seen by commuters every morning and evening.

Due to the small number of participants in the pilot, trains were not utilised as both holiday programs

were relatively central and the entrants may never have seen their art. In a future iteration that includes

schools from around the region, trains would be a more effective method of displaying the art, along

with other exhibition options.

22 iSite Media Bus Format Guide (November 2014) at 15.

2.4.2.2.2 Public Exhibition

2.4.2.2.2.1 Location

The other possibility was to display the top entries in a public exhibition. This could be along the

waterfront, in parks and gardens, along walkways, in community areas, in the city or in galleries. Due to

the flexibility of scale and location, this was the preferred option.

The Wellington Cable Car offered free display of art work in its Lambton terminal, as long as the display

did not include corporate logos/advertising. There is plenty of wall space for free standing display

boards. These are not provided; however, they can be hired for little to no cost and can be set up to

create an eye-catching exhibition.

With an estimated 3000 visits per day, the Cable Car was a good location for audience numbers,

reaching both locals and tourists. In the future, it could be a good location for a display stand with

information on the project and maps for people to find the art work, especially if there are exhibitions at

locations like the Botanic Gardens, which are accessible from the Cable Car. It would be good to see

some outdoor exhibition spaces where people viewing the art are doing so from a place where they are

already connecting with their environment.

There is also a possibility of displaying art in parks and gardens in the future. Boards must be provided

and installed by an approved contractor, and access permits are provided by park rangers. They have

said they would be on board with this, provided the art did not affect corporate advertising. Several sites

should be selected, as it is possible that some will not be suitable, and a month’s notice of the exhibition

given to rangers. The Botanic Gardens’ Treehouse is also available as an exhibition space.

2.4.2.2.2.2 Display Boards

Toi Poneke Arts Centre has a set of free-standing display boards in their possession that can be booked

for Council projects at no cost. Displayways, a company that WCC has contracted before, also have

display boards available for hire. The cost for these is $36 per board, for one week. As there was no

budget, the Toi Poneke boards were utilised for the pilot; however, in the future an investment in hired

boards is recommended for the following reasons:

The first issue encountered while setting up the exhibition was that the display boards were

unstable when standing unsupported and there was no way of securing them to the wall - this

was solved by cable tying them to wooden crates behind the fold, as shown in the photos below.

In the future, it would be better to hire boards that come with a support structure and/or to hire

someone with experience to install them.

The second issue was that the combination of white printer paper on the grey carpet

background was not as eye-catching as desired. It would be preferable to have a black paper

background which would be striking against the white posters and to have all captions and extra

material printed on card and/or laminated for professionalism.

If the budget allowed, the display could also be digitised then printed straight to a board to avoid having

many different pieces stapled on.

A budget of around $100 was suggested by City Arts as enough to ensure that the works are installed

well. They have also suggested covering the display boards with black paper and have the opinion that

digitising would create distance between the viewer and the work, whereas there is an immediacy and

naturalness to displaying the real thing.

2.4.2.2.2.3 Curating the exhibition

The City Arts department offered to advise on this. The aim was to demonstrate the four attributes that

appealing projects have in common: visuals, narrative, dialogue and experiences. This was done by

including some information on the project itself, its ‘story’ and its context, as well as pictures of the pilot

day at Nairnville. The posters made for striking visuals and post it notes supplied alongside the display

created a way for people to share their experiences. Lastly, the content of the posters and media

coverage of the pilot and prize giving created dialogue by encouraging people to discuss the project.

WCC were able to provide all the necessary stationery for setting up the exhibition. In the future, it

would be necessary to budget for this.

2.4.2.3 Prize giving

The posters were judged by Laura McKim from GWRC, James Renwick from VUW and Cr. David Lee of

WCC, who is in charge of the climate change portfolio there. A supreme winner was chosen from both

the junior and senior categories and these entries were awarded a Zoo Crew pass and Zealandia family

pass, kindly donated by Wellington Zoo and Zealandia. There were four-five highly commended entries

from each age group, which were also displayed in the exhibition. A photo of the top entrants is shown

below.

The holiday programmes supplied the contact details for the top entries so they could be contacted and

invited to a small prize giving ceremony, held at the Cable Car exhibition. Almost all of the children were

able to attend with their parents, and Laura, Daniela Biaggio from the Zoo and Cr. Lee spoke and

presented prizes and certificates. Parents were supportive of the project and many said they looked

forward to being a part of it again in the future.

2.4.2.4 Media

The utilisation of media is vital to ensure public engagement, which is a key purpose. It is the most

effective way of getting word out and is able to involve people who may never see the actual exhibition.

The Wellingtonian covered the project in two articles. The first covered the afternoon at Nairnville

holiday programme and included some background on the project and interviews with the children

taking part. The second covered the prize giving and exhibition, and focused more on the people and

organisations involved in it.

The University’s press office published a release on the project as well. This was circulated on VUW web

and Facebook pages.

WCC also published a press release on the project to the Council’s news web page.

In the future, media should play a larger role in this project. For example, a kids TV channel could

sponsor it and cover the workshops, then broadcast the prize giving and winning posters and/or videos.

2.4.2.5 Identifying future partners

Future partners of the project in the future could include GWRC, Enviroschools, the Deep South Science

Challenge, and possibly an organisation such as Meridian. This was suggested by the marketing team at

Capital E, who are also interested in being a part of the project in the future.

One option could be to secure an adopting agency to implement the project, with a backing sponsor

such as Meridian to fund it.

GWRC are interested in collaborating on the project in the future and can provide resources and

contacts, particularly in regard to displaying the art. Although bus display is unlikely, it is not impossible

and they can facilitate this. They can also help with messaging, displaying information and media

coverage and, while it is unlikely they would be able to provide funding, they are keen to help where

they can.

Enviroschools would also be unable to fund the project and implement it independently. However, with

a clear project outline, they would be able to get schools interested and their Wellington City facilitator

believes the project would thrive in a school context as the students would have the time and resources

to explore the topic more deeply before starting their posters. Like GWRC, Enviroschools are keen to

provide support where they can through collaboration, but are unable to champion the project.

Also contacted were Ministry for Environment, NIWA and the Ministry for Business, Innovation and

Employment. These agencies were not interested in discussing the matter and referred it to existing

community funding schemes. No applications were made for these, however, due to the uncertain

nature of the project’s future and it is possible these organisations may be more interested in the

project once it is ready to pilot at a larger scale.

3 EVALUATION

As discussed under 2.2, the purpose of this project was to facilitate public engagement with climate

change through a positive approach that promotes action from communities. Therefore, the number of

people it reached, or its audience, is a good indicator of success. Furthermore, the project should have

prompted positive responses and acknowledgement of opportunities for communities to help stop

climate change.

3.1 AUDIENCE The direct audience includes the children who took part in the competition, the people who have

worked on it and those who view the exhibition itself. There were 67 entries, many of which were

submitted by pairs, and approximately 3,000 people use the Cable Car and potentially view the art each

day, so the project had a moderate direct impact.

However, the indirect audience can also be powerful. This includes the numerous people who heard

about the project through meetings or read about it in the newspaper, as well as the families and

teachers of the children who took part and anyone who has talked about it with their friends or

colleagues.

The Wellingtonian has a readership of between 60,000-80,000 so, with two articles published, there is a

large pool of people who would have read about the competition and possibly discussed it with others.

Still more have heard about it through the WCC and VUW press releases.

A Facebook page was also set up for the competition as a way of garnering interest and measuring

success. It was suggested that this would be a good tool to take to future partners of the project as it

contains all images and information associated with it in one easily accessible location. Furthermore, it

holds a record of people who have connected with the project and their reactions to it. This had a

moderate impact, with 57 ‘likes’ and posts reaching up to 200 people. This has the potential to be more

successful in the future if it is integrated with the competition from the beginning. All press releases

should include the link so people can follow it to find more information and the page should be shared

by the backing organisation’s account to reach a wider audience. From there, it could be used as a

platform to announce details of the competition, judging, exhibition and prize giving/opening ceremony

to the public.

3.2 FEEDBACK Post-it notes and pens were attached to the exhibition so that the public could leave comments. Some

kind of feedback mechanism is essential to gauging success as it indicates what impact the project had

and whether it did in fact carry a positive message of engagement. This was suggested as an alternative

to a survey, which would not have been able to be completed in the given time frame; however, a

survey would be a powerful evaluation tool for future iterations of the project.

A total of 21 messages were left, all of them positive. Some of the best responses are listed below:

“It is a great project to help us understand the importance of environmental problems”

“What awesome posters by awesome kids. An inspiration to us all! I will definitely be getting

“greener-wise””

“Lovely to see young kids contributing to the debate and working to keep our world greener,

cleaner and safer!”

“Great posters, your message is very clear”

“Wonderful posters – a blueprint for global change. Thank you!”

“Great design guys I love the way you have filled the whole page with colour and given us some

ideas about what we can do to help”

With acknowledgement of the positive message for change and actions we can all take to help, this is a

clear indication that the project achieved its purpose in this respect.

3.3 CONCLUSION Although the project varied significantly from its original specifications, the end result was a successful

prototype and a number of contacts within various organisations interested in collaborating on the

project again in the future. This will be far more useful to future partners than an untested plan. Public

engagement is the best way to test a project that aims to engage the public and, in this, Kids for Climate

had a positive response and a relatively wide reach. With a backing sponsor, its potential is huge.

Climate change is arguably the hardest issue to face mankind and the hardest to solve. It will require

actions not only from the government but from communities themselves and engagement programmes

such as this are the way forward.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. James Renwick and Nigel Taptiklis for their suggestions and advice as

supervisors to this project, as well as Laura McKim. I would also like to thank Greater Wellington

Regional Council, Victoria University of Wellington and Wellington City Council for providing the

resources necessary to make this project a reality.

Bibliography

Timothy E. Wirth and Thomas A. Daschle “A Blueprint to End Paralysis Over Global Action on Climate”

Yale Environment 360 (online ed, 19 May 2014).

iSite Media Bus Format Guide (November 2014).

Ministry of Education Guidelines for Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools (Learning Media

Ltd, Wellington, 1999).

Simon Sinek “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” (TEDx Puget Sound, September 2009).

Interview with Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC, Distinguished Fellow – Faculty of Law and Centre for Public Law,

Victoria University of Wellington (Shawnee Westerman, Wellington, 18 February 2015).

Sir Geoffrey Palmer QC, Distinguished Fellow – Faculty of Law and Centre for Public Law, Victoria

University of Wellington “New Zealand’s Defective Law On Climate Change” (Old Government Buildings,

Wellington, 16 February 2015).

Otto Scharmer Theory U (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., California, 2009).

“The Enviroschools Foundation” Enviroschools <www.enviroschools.org.nz>.

“UMass Lowell Honors Massachusetts Students Who Created Project’s Art” (4 August 2014) UMass

Lowell <http://www.uml.edu/News/press-releases/2014/CoolScience040814.aspx>.