On March 13, 2009 about 70 students from 10 Boston area schools brainstormed solutions to global climate change and suggested responses for industry and special interest groups at the New England Aquarium's Teen Ocean Summit.

In groups of five or six students from each school, students had to decide actions for stakeholder groups—including the auto industry, environmentalists, island nations, agriculture, sustainable energy, and fossil fuels—to address rising sea levels across the globe. The students had to debate and discuss their various ideas, set them to paper, and then draft a concise action plan. From there, the students wrote and performed a public service announcement. The most compelling and informative message won a majority of votes from all of the students and teachers involved.

During the day, the high school and middle school students held some sophisticated discussions about restricting production of "gas-guzzling" cars to building more hybrid vehicles to encouraging geothermal, wind, and solar technology on agricultural lands. They also had to be savvy about their particular interest group and what kinds of changes might be positive and negative for their business or industry.

View Album
For young people expected to inherit the challenges of global climate change, the Teen Ocean Summit offered an opportunity to debate the ongoing problems and forecast solutions. The experience challenged their skills in science, writing, public speaking, debating, understanding current events, and even dramatic skills for the final presentation. It was a unique day to bring all of those elements together while also mixing students from fairly affluent suburbs with those from inner city high schools.

Each student group had a facilitator from the New England Aquarium.  These facilitators were either staff members from the Education Department or teen interns.  The schools included Quincy Upper High School, O'Bryant School and English High, all from Boston; Brook Farm Academy in West Roxbury; Innovation Academy Charter School in Tyngsboro; Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School in Lowell; South High School in Worcester; Montessori Middle School in Falmouth; Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High in Lincoln, Mass., and Manchester-Essex Regional High School in Manchester, Mass.

The Teen Ocean Summit was held at the University of Massachusetts in the Student Campus Center and was funded by the Lowell Institute and National Grid.