Tuesday, 1 Mar.

Children, Young People and the Environment

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The proposed session(s) draws together new and emerging research exploring the complex, nuanced and multiple relationships between children, young people and the environment. We aim to bring together research engaging children and young people of all ages, from a range of international contexts. We particularly encourage papers that explore geographies of children and young people across the following themes:

• Environment and risk

• Climate change and crisis

• Climate activism and climate justice

• Climate change education

• Climate/science communication

We also welcome papers based on creative methodological practice, as well as reflections on specific opportunities and challenges faced by geographers working in this area.

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• Mark Ortiz, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill - Chapel Hill, NC; "Will you please let us have our memes": The Digital Politics of Youth Climate Publics 

• Kathy Reilly, ; Narrating Childhood: Mapping Environmental Risk 

• Catherine Brown, ; ​Nature views from the classroom window associated with lower behavior problems among children 

• Bita Minaravesh, University of Southern California; Addressing Discrepancies in Environmental Determinants of Childhood Development through Intersectional Geography 

• Corey Martz, University of Denver; Story Maps, COVID-19 Lockdowns, and Young People’s Relationships with Nature 

Content creators as educators: From vlogging and podcasting to augmented reality and animation

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A 2018 Pew Research Center study of American YouTube users found that 87% of respondents use the site to learn something new and 43% use it to learn about what is going on in the world (Smith et al 2018). The YouTube ‘university’ is a highly engaging and competitive market for education. At the same time, ongoing pandemic-related restrictions have shifted learning online, requiring quality digital media content that can replace lectures and solutions to student inequities that make accessing learning materials difficult. To further complicate the evolving situation: how do we – as educators – foster a sense of belonging, of place, amongst our students while using placeless virtual platforms. Blended or hybrid learning, flipped classrooms and digital place-based learning techniques, while not new approaches, do offer new ways of addressing the challenges of this shifting environment. And there are important lessons to be learned about engagement, storytelling and production value, from YouTubers, content creators and podcast personalities.

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• Dianna Gielstra, Prescott College

• April Luginbuhl Mather, Cuyahoga Community College

• Jennifer Cook, Louisiana Sea Grant