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The colorful art about rising sea levels appearing on local MeVa buses is the work of Rayne Valentine, an East Boston sixth-grader, named as the top winner in the Massachusetts division of the annual Cool Science contest.
Co-founded by UMass Lowell, the competition asks K-12 students to create illustrations that depict the science behind extreme weather, then shares the artwork on local transit buses to educate the public.
“Youth learning about science, and then using that knowledge to create art others can learn from, is the essence of the Cool Science project. Our research consistently indicates students learn a lot, and adults that see their artwork on buses also learn from them. It has become a profound intergenerational learning opportunity,” said UMass Lowell’s Jill Lohmeier, School of Education chair, associate professor of curriculum and instruction and co-director of UMass Lowell’s Center for Program Evaluation.
Valentine, who attends Mario Umana Academy, is the 2023 recipient of the university’s David Lustick Award, presented to the contest’s top climate educator in the Bay State. During the past three months, the illustrations created by Valentine and fellow contest winners were displayed in and on Merrimack Valley and Worcester Regional transit authority buses, where passengers and passersby could learn about the science behind extreme weather patterns and conditions.
A celebration of the competition’s Massachusetts honorees took place last Friday at Chelmsford Center for the Arts.
The contest’s top award is named in memory of the late David Lustick, a former Nashua, N.H., resident, UMass Lowell professor and nationally recognized champion of environmental education. Lustick and Lohmeier co-founded Cool Science to study how people learn new information outside of the classroom. Partnering with UMass Lowell in the initiative are UMass Boston, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, University of Kansas, and Kansas City Art Institute. The program is supported by the National Science Foundation.