Higher Ground J.D. Allen, Sabrina Garone

Ask your NPR station to play Higher Ground's third special program distributed nationally by American Public Media from January to May 2024.

We are teaming up with an after-school program for Bridgeport middle schoolers to explore how students perceive the global climate crisis in their neighborhoods.

We are headed outdoors to make observations — to see Bridgeport through the eyes of its youngest residents. The eighth-grade student scientists will record what they find, helping them better identify with the global climate crisis in their neighborhoods.

The student scientists are still learning how to identify and use reliable information about climate change. These teens are trying to figure out what their role can be in addressing this seemingly overwhelming problem.

The student scientists identify air pollution as an avoidable sign of climate change in their neighborhoods. So, we start to bring their research and questions to Bridgeport's policymakers to see how the ideas of middle school students can help protect their city.

The quality of the water — either what falls from the sky when it rains, floods from the coast when it storms, or bubbles up the tap to drink — is on the minds of our student scientists. So, they build an innovative prototype to reuse water.