Marji Puotinen

I am a research scientist studying how coral reefs are at risk from climate change.  In my spare time, I ask kids 'what do penguins and coral reefs have in common?' to teach them about the impacts of the overheating of the earth and what we can all do about it while having fun- feeding like corals by catching jelly snakes with our tentacle arms, overheating in penguin huddles, 'bleaching' me as I wear a coral costume, and making corals out of play dough and LEGO.  Periodically, I reach out to kids (and parents and teachers) around the world via international drawing contests - see https://kidscareaboutclimate.org).  The 2021 contest had 2,629 entries from 33 nations on 6 continents and from 213 schools.  Our partner 15 Trees (15trees.org.au) planted a tree for each entry.  We made a GIANT (7m high by 4 m wide) banner of all the drawings mosaic'd to form a picture of a penguin planting a tree on the earth.  The banner has visited 29 schools, 6 nations so far and 2 COP climate meetings.