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Florida Climate Stories Panel Highlights Storytelling as a Powerful Tool for Climate Literacy

On Saturday, October 11, 2025, the David C. Anchin Center for the Advancement of Teaching hosted Florida Climate Stories: Growing Climate Literacy for Young People, a dynamic panel event focused on the role of storytelling in helping students understand climate science, community impact, and hopeful futures. Held in TECO Hall at the USF College of Education, the session brought together educators, university researchers, and local environmental journalists to explore practical, classroom-ready approaches to climate literacy.

This event was part of statewide Florida Climate Week programming and was supported through a Spencer Foundation grant led by Dr. Alex Panos, Associate Professor at the University of South Florida.

The panel featured a strong lineup of speakers representing multiple sectors of climate communication and education, including Alex Panos, PhD (USF Associate Professor), Kristin Valle Geren (USF doctoral candidate), Max Chesnes (Tampa Bay Times), Anna Hamilton (The Marjorie), Jessica Meszaros (WUSF), Luke Vischio-Duffy (USF student), and classroom teachers Elvira Randall and Katharine Werthwine. Together, panelists shared narratives that highlighted both local and global climate impacts, while also emphasizing the importance of engaging young people with stories that build understanding, empathy, and agency.  

Attendees left with concrete takeaways for practice, including examples of story-based learning strategies, resources for teaching climate topics through narrative, and ideas for integrating environmental journalism, lived experience, and community-centered climate stories into instruction.