Scientists gather all the time at conferences and meetings to share ideas, research, and discoveries. But how often do high school students get to actively participate in these meetings – especially ones with global consequences? This week, scientists and world leaders met at the Rio+20 Summit in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, to discuss environmental protection and sustainable development. And youth from around the world were there too, through a global videoconference that was the culmination of the SCEnaRioS (Science Centers Engagement and the Rio Summit) project. During the Summit, youth from TechnoMuses (Canada), Museo Interactivo de Economia (Mexico), Museu da Vida (Brazil), Madatech (Israel), and of course the Miami Science Museum, gave presentations to the world about their concerns for their respective environments.

Each presentation was the result of a team project between science centers around the world, so in addition to those science centers that presented live, lots of others were involved in this global collaboration – including Chabot Space and Science Center (California), SciPort (Louisiana), Experimentarium (Denmark), Museo Nazionale della Scienza (Italy), Kankhomba Secondary School (Mozambique), Questacon (Australia), Macau Science Center (Macau, China), and Science Centre Singapore, and of course the Miami Science Museum’s partner, Maloka Interactive Center (Colombia). The SCEnaRioS project is based on the convictions that youth will be an essential part of the solution to global problems, and that global partnerships and collaboration between youth is a big part of ensuring a better future for the Earth.

Partnerships? Check. Informed youth? Check. Solutions to environmental problems? In progress.

Bogotá, Colombia is over 1500miles away from Miami on a different continent. But Digital WAVE students had the unique opportunity to interact via virtual worlds with students at the Maloka Science Museum in Colombia. Our two museums have a partnership through SCEnaRioS (Science Centers Engagement and the Rio Summit) and ASTC (Association of Science-Technology Centers) to engage youth in climate change issues and its impacts on water and coastal management. Students met for the first time through Second Life to get to know each other and learn about each other’s environments. Their avatars met at the Digital WAVE island’s campfire, where both the U.S. and Colombian flags fly.

Some funny things happen along with the learning, when you meet across cultures, languages, and distances. Colombian students laughed when Miami’s students asked if they would be affected by rising sea levels or hurricanes as Miami would – Bogotá is in the Andes Mountains, at 8,500 feet above sea level! But Colombian students became very serious when they added that some communities in Colombia are already being affected by climate change. Melting glaciers are causing rivers to flood so badly that livestock are dying and being washed away. Miami students then showed off some of the virtual climate change simulations they are designing. One student even created a virtual dog as his simulation’s mascot – of course everyone wanted to know how to make the avatars pet the dog! Colombian students were also treated to a tour of the Digital WAVE island’s virtual reef, where they saw how climate change causes coral bleaching.

As the project continues, teams will collaborate to create real and virtual world videos to communicate their perspectives on how these issues affect their lives and surroundings. Project results will then be presented at the upcoming Planet Under Pressure conference in London and at the Rio+20 conference in Rio, Brazil, to illustrate the unique contributions science centers can make to help implement United Nations global policies. These students, as well as the rest of us, have a big – even global – project to accomplish.

For more about the Digital WAVE program: http://www.miamisci.org/~digitwave/about/

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