Climate Education and Research with William Liu
William Liu ’21 is a senior from Greater Vancouver, Canada, who conducts research in climate science and leads organizations to improve climate education among students.
Living in an area with frequent black bear encounters, William previously volunteered at an NGO that educates about bear safety. While learning about how climate change is diminishing food sources and forcing bears into human areas, he realized that black bears, along with many other species like Canada’s iconic polar bears, are severely threatened by climate change, yet there were no local organizations promoting climate education. Through his interactions with peers, he realized many students held misconceptions about climate change, so he started the nonprofit Keep Polar Bears Cool Foundation to improve climate education within his local community.
Since starting his first organization, William has hosted events at his local library on weekends before COVID-19, encouraging families to reflect on their environmentally harmful choices while cultivating children's interest in climate change through polar bears. His organization had such strong receptions that they were invited to partner with the library to co-host Earth Day, Environmental Day, and Christmas events.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, William has shifted to improving climate education online by starting the nonprofit Climate Education Network (CEN), which compiles and creates resources for students to learn about climate change. “Even though some students do receive basic climate change education in their school, climate change is such a confusing subject that it is very easy to have misconceptions. When you actually attempt to learn about the mechanisms behind climate change, it’s complex but understandable,” he says. “I believe that students will be the decision-makers and policymakers of the future, and decisions cannot be made optimally when there are misconceptions about the nature of the issue, so it is a pretty important issue to be remedied.”
For the Climate Education Network, William has been leading a team to research different aspects of climate change and develop an engaging curriculum for schools. To create comprehensive learning resources, he and his team studied four main aspects of climate change—mechanisms, causes, effects, and mitigation. After designing the curriculum, they contacted thousands of schools worldwide. Now, they are teaming up with middle and high school science teachers working to integrate CEN’s content into their classes.
“What surprised me the most is how many teachers around the world realize the importance of climate change education, yet there are still so few resources that are flexible enough to fit their needs,” William says about his motivation for starting the new organization. With an issue like climate change—which “anyone can contribute to slowing […] down through their personal choices and actions—he finds that “while it’s great to influence the people around you, […] it is more important and rewarding to try and scale up what you’re doing.” Over the past several months, CEN has grown to support over 300 middle and high schools across 22 countries, helping students develop better understandings of climate change through science teachers worldwide.
Alongside running outreach events and compiling resources for learning about climate change, William pursues his interest in climate science through research. In his most recent research project, he examined different machine learning methods for predicting heat waves. “Heat wave prediction is an area I found that’s pretty under-researched […] and heat waves will be one of the most widespread effects of climate change in the future, so I think it’s a valuable area to investigate,” he explains about his research topic of choice.
William is also passionate about machine learning and automation in general: in his free time, he likes to create bots—including “bots that play games, bots that have games you can play with, [and] chat bots”—because “after you program [a bot] once, it can do whatever you want forever as long as you run it.” He also enjoys game development and penetration testing.
On coming to OHS, William says that he initially decided to attend because he found all of his local schools lacking in challenge and rigor. Now, what appeals to him most about OHS is the core curriculum, which he cites as his favorite part of OHS. Currently, William co-leads the Climate Action Project at OHS, and he has previously led the Game Development Society.
Among the many things he wants to learn about in the future, he hopes to continue learning more about climate science and machine learning while working to improve climate change education and advocacy.
5 Questions with William Liu
Pixel Journal: What could you give a 40-minute presentation on with absolutely no preparation?
William Liu: How the greenhouse effect works! This is a topic that’s seemingly simple but very difficult to grasp when getting into all of the details, which is why I’m fascinated with it. A few of the interactions between different factors I’ve explored include the different sections of the atmosphere, bodies of water and soil moisture, and types of greenhouse gasses.
PJ: What’s your favorite OHS class?
WL: I love the entire core sequence! My favorite class is Advanced Topics in Philosophy on Technology and Identity. As a big fan of machine learning and technology in general, I really enjoyed exploring the implications of AI, simulations, and various forms of science fiction, featuring crossovers with philosophical topics such as free will and ethics. I highly recommend that you take it when it’s available again.
PJ: What do you wish you knew more about?
WL: I always try to be as “backend” as I can be in understanding how something works, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job of that when it comes to websites. When it comes to software and computer memory, I’m still clueless and want to explore and learn more.
PJ: What have you created that you are most proud of?
WL: I like exploring a lot of different interactive technologies. My favorite, at the moment, is a game Discord bot I created to encourage more activity in Discord.
PJ: What’s one thing on your bucket list?
WL: There are a lot of things I want to try to automate with machine learning! My bucket list in this category is endless, from Q-learning bots to play games to Generative Adversarial Networks to create art.