Translating climate research into children's books: science communication learning in an undergraduate geoscience course

Abstract. This study evaluates a children’s book assignment in an upper-level undergraduate climate science course in which students translated peer-reviewed climate research into illustrated books for young audiences. The project examined whether this format supported science communication skills, audience awareness, and sustainability competencies often underdeveloped in content-heavy science courses, while also exploring students’ experiences with generative AI tools for image creation. A mixed-methods design was implemented across two cohorts of EENV-242: Climate and Global Change at Susquehanna University. Pre- and post-project surveys measured changes in student understanding, confidence, and engagement, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests, and Cohen’s d. Student reflections were analyzed thematically to identify patterns in learning, communication challenges, audience awareness, and AI use. The largest gains were in science communication, particularly students’ confidence creating visuals that communicate science and combining text and images to tell a compelling story. These effects were statistically significant and replicated across cohorts. Agreement that storytelling effectively communicates complex scientific topics also increased, while climate attitude and understanding items showed ceiling effects due to high pre-project scores. Reflections most often emphasized audience awareness and translation decisions, suggesting that students were not simply simplifying climate science but rebuilding explanations around the needs of young readers. AI tool use appeared less frequently, suggesting that image generation functioned as a normalized part of the creative process rather than the central learning outcome. Together, these findings suggest that children’s book assignments can help students practice the difficult work of translating complex science for non-specialist audiences, while providing a widely applicable framework for audience-centered communication across climate, geoscience, and other STEM courses.