The Gwacheon National Science Museum, in collaboration with seven national research institutions, will host a special climate change program for elementary school students on October 3 in the Inquiry Classroom of the Natural History Hall. Researchers from various fields—including national heritage, plants, animals, agriculture and livestock, marine science, and safety—will serve as instructors, explaining how climate change is altering our daily lives in a way that is easy for children to understand.
This program was organized as part of the “Integrated Response Plan by National Research Institutes for Climate Crisis Risk Management,” a collaborative project among research-oriented autonomous agencies. It will be conducted as an expert training course under the Gwacheon National Science Museum’s “NORIAN” nature-and-city exploration program.
Participating institutions include the National Institute of Fisheries Science, the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, the National Institute of Horticultural and Special Crops Science, the National Arboretum, the National Institute of Biological Resources, the National Institute of Animal Science, and the National Fire Research Institute. The Science Museum explained that it will use research findings and real-world examples to demonstrate how the impacts of climate change extend beyond living organisms and the environment to every aspect of our daily lives—including the fruits and vegetables we eat, the flora and fauna around us, the oceans, and our national heritage.
The lecture is divided into three sessions. The first session, held from 11:00 a.m. for one hour, focuses on culture and plants. The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage will present “National Heritage Guardians—Protect Our Precious National Heritage,” the National Institute of Horticultural and Special Crops Science will present “When the Climate Changes, So Do Our Fruits and Vegetables,” and the National Arboretum will present “The Plant Traffic Light Is On! Climate Change Emergency.”
The second session, starting at 1:50 p.m., will focus on animals. This will be followed by the National Institute of Biological Resources’ “The Story of Korea’s Green Frogs and the Three Viper Brothers,” the National Institute of Animal Science’s “Current Status of Climate Change Research in the Livestock Sector,” and the National Institute of Fisheries Science’s “The Ocean Is Heating Up—Where Have the Fish Gone?” The lecture by the National Institute of Biological Resources will be presented by Researcher Do Min-seok, known on YouTube as “Mr. Snake and Frog.”
The third session, beginning at 3:00 p.m., focuses on safety, with the National Fire Research Institute presenting “School Chemical Safety with 119.”
The program is open to elementary school students in grades 1 through 6, with a capacity of 25 participants per session for a total of 75 participants. Participation is free of charge. Advance registration will be accepted on the National Gwacheon Science Museum website from 10:00 a.m. on September 29 through 5:00 p.m. on October 2. If seats remain available, on-site admission will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis on the day of the event.
Lee Chung-won, Director of the National Gwacheon Science Museum, “Climate change is interconnected with various aspects of our lives, ranging from the fruits and vegetables we eat to the flora and fauna around us, the oceans, and our national heritage,” he said. “I hope that through the vivid stories shared by researchers from diverse fields, participants will gain a new perspective on climate change and find an opportunity to observe and reflect on the changes happening around them.”
The Science Museum plans to continue linking the expertise of research institutions with its own science communication capabilities to transform research findings into science and culture content that is easily accessible to the public, while expanding its collaboration with research institutions.
