Before arriving at the K-12 Climate Education Summit, seventh grader Normajean DePalma and her classmates in Lebanon Township had hatched plans for a farm-to-table initiative to combat food insecurity. With inspiration from Somerville High School students presenting at the “Local Voices, Global Choices” summit, the school district's plans for greenhouses and hydroponic grew wider wings.
“I want to build a bird shelter and bath,” she said, noting the idea came from the high schoolers’ presentation about their rain garden. “I learned a lot about wildlife and why we should protect animals, because their survival also affects us.”
The summit is an annual highlight of K-12 programs delivered by the Rutgers Center for Mathematics, Science and Computer Education (CMSCE). More than 100 students and educators from five central New Jersey school districts participated in the summit on March 18 at the Lifelong Learning Center in New Brunswick.
“It was a very proud moment to see that the kids want to understand climate change and they want to get involved and do meaningful projects at their schools,” said Brielle Kociolek, iSTEM coordinator at CMSCE and one of the event organizers.
Somerville High School junior Matthew Shannon was surprised to learn from New Jersey State Climatologist David Robinson that New Jersey remains on the verge of drought, with rainfall levels below normal in 19 of the past 22 months.
“We’re experiencing a lot of low rainfall levels, so I’m interested to learn more about that and bring that back to my classmates and we can do a little more research about it,” Shannon said.
He is involved in the school’s rain garden, funded by a state Department of Education climate change education grant and designed to address runoff and flooding that greatly affects the town and school property.
Real-World Applications
With climate change education now part of every K-12 subject in New Jersey – the first state to require it – Rutgers is helping schools translate the mandate into hands-on learning.
Rutgers is a partner in the Central New Jersey Climate Change Learning Collaborative, which provides climate education training, resources and technical assistance to teachers in Hunterdon, Middlesex and Somerset counties through a state DOE grant.
In the current grant cycle, 540 K-12 teachers attended professional development workshops led by Rutgers faculty and expert partners in the collaborative: New Jersey Audubon, the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership and the Raritan Headwaters Association. 
CMSCE has secured DOE grant funding expected to total nearly $1 million over three years, with the program entering its third year April 1, said CMSCE Associate Director Edward Cohen, who organized the summit along with Kociolek. A third of the annual grant covered the cost of substitutes for participating teachers or paid teachers $50 an hour to attend sessions on their own time, he noted.
Somerville High School students taught one of the four sessions that participants cycled through, showing younger students how to make solar ovens to cook s’mores using a cardboard box, aluminum foil and heating lamps.
“They’re like greenhouses!” exclaimed Andrew Antony, a fourth grader at Village Elementary School in Montgomery Township.
Sayreville used its 2024–25 DOE climate change education grant to give middle school students research experience in climate change topics such as recycling, rising sea levels, erosion and air pollution, and to start an environmental club. This academic year, the climate change research project was expanded to elementary school students.
Dylan Ceron, a fifth grader at Sayreville’s Samsel Upper Elementary School, chose to study deforestation because he’s concerned about animals losing their habitats. “It’s kind of sad that we’re cutting down resources. I really like animals and I want future generations to experience the animals we have today,” Ceron said.
Dunellen Public Schools was the third district at the summit with a DOE climate change education grant. The district used the funding to create a garden and aquaponic and hydroponic systems at John P. Faber Elementary School. Lebanon Township has applied for a grant for 2026–27 for its sustainable initiative.
“Talking and networking with other people opens your mind and turns off the tunnel vision,” said Sayreville Middle School science teacher Laurie Centimole, who started the school’s environmental club last year and has seen involvement grow to 50 students.
Participants at the summit heard from illustrator and author Tom Yezerski, who discussed his children’s book, Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story. Once a massive garbage dump where fires burned regularly, the Meadowlands estuary in Bergen County is now a restored ecosystem.
The session on wildlife gardens presented by New Jersey Audubon Education Program Manager Roberta Hunter made a strong impression on Noah Civico, another fourth grader at Montgomery Township’s Village Elementary School.
“I never knew you could have a garden that helps the ecosystem,” Civico said. He is confident he can get approval for a community garden at Montgomery’s municipal center. “Oh, I get things done,” he said.
