Education
How theater can teach kids about climate change
NEW YORK — Willow is a city kid who loves her neighborhood’s tiny “pocket” park, especially the giant tree, Oakie, whose branches stretch across it.
But she has a problem: The park is slated for redevelopment. And her friends and fellow park visitors — Rio, Kai, Ashe and Frankie — all have different ideas for what the park should become. Willow wants it restored to a nature-filled haven, while Rio hopes for a splash pad, Ashe a basketball court, Kai a vegetable garden and Frankie a quiet spot for accessing free Wi-Fi.
In a theater near Times Square one Sunday earlier this year, my 4-year-old and I watched the young people argue, strategize and reflect, with help from a friendly parakeet who nudges them to work together to save the park. They were characters in “The Pocket Park Kids,” a play for children that uses the idea of restoring a city park in disrepair as an allegory for reversing environmental degradation.
The play got me thinking about how the arts, and theater in particular, can introduce kids as young as preschool to the climate crisis and ways to alleviate it. Anika Larsen, an actress and the play’s co-creator, told me she sees theater as particularly effective at helping people process tough topics without dwelling in despair.
“Artists have always been at the forefront of every movement because we’re able to talk about things in ways that are uplifting and activating and inspiring, as opposed to demoralizing and begetting feelings of helplessness and hopelessness,” she said. Of climate change, she added, “None of us really want to hear about it. It feels too overwhelming, it feels too scary.”
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Larsen, who was nominated for a Tony for her role in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” said she was inspired to develop a climate-themed play after reading “yet another terrifying article about the climate crisis” and moving through feelings of panic and anger. A friend, Andrea Varga, a professor and sustainability faculty fellow at the State University of New York at New Paltz, told her she could have the biggest impact if she looked locally — which in Larsen’s case was Broadway.
Varga also introduced her to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, which became the frame for Larsen’s play. Each character and their vision for the park represents a goal or several (Kai, who worries about his grandfather’s health and wants nutritious food, represents zero hunger, while Rio, a proud Pisces, represents water and sanitation, as well as life below water).
“As a framework for understanding the problems of the world, I think it is elegant,” said Larsen of the global goals. “It’s also a really helpful jumping-off point for taking action, because you identify what are the global goals that matter to you and how you can act within those goals.”
But the play itself does not mention them. “I didn’t want it to be just overt teaching. I wanted it to be an entertaining and well-structured play,” said Larsen. Instead, the actors break character at the end of the production and engage the audience in a discussion about sustainability. Kids in the audience raised their hands and chimed in about ideas for helping save the planet, including composting and using the subway.
Roughly 800 public school students attended the play through a partnership between New York City schools and the New York City Children’s Theater, which put on the production. Lauren Madden, a professor of elementary science education at The College of New Jersey, said that educators can experiment with ways to engage the youngest students in climate action.
“While there are certainly challenges — teachers’ time and resources are always stretched — integrating theater, even in small ways, can support climate education,” she told me in an email. Madden said she’s seen educators use short plays or skits as conversation starters around climate issues, and some schools partner with artists and theaters to supplement their curricula.
Related: ‘Why is the sky fuzzy?’: Climate change lessons need to start as early as preschool
Larsen infused her production with other sustainability lessons too. A board member of the Broadway Green Alliance, which promotes environmentally friendly practices in theater productions, she relied on reused materials for sets, props, puppets and more — “as much Broadway trash as we could,” she said. Newspapers thrown onto the stage during the performance were salvaged from “Back to the Future,” cardboard used on the set and for props was from “Hadestown,” and — spoiler alert — the flowers that help beautify and restore the park were fashioned origami-style from discarded Playbills.
“Once you think of it not as a constraint but as sort of a game,” finding creative ways to reuse materials becomes fun, said Larsen. Ian Garrett, the production’s lighting director who leads the nonprofit Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, initiated a carbon emissions audit of the show. And this spring, “The Pocket Park Kids” offset its emissions by a giveaway of more than 100 trees in New York City.
Now, Larsen is hoping to bring the play to other communities in different parts of the country and world. She’s also thinking about possibilities for telling the story in other media — a book, TV, perhaps a movie.
“I think the key to solving the climate crisis is feeling good while we do it, and I do feel there can be joy in being problem solvers and change-makers,” she said. Or, as the parakeet in the play puts it, “Action is the antidote to despair.”
The play, and more specifically the parakeet puppets, made an impression in my household. A few weeks after seeing the performance, my daughter said to me unprompted: “I really liked that puppet show.” Asked about what she learned from it, she said, “You need to keep the flowers healthy” and “the trees with no garbage.”
Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org.
This story about climate change and theater was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter on climate and education.
Five years ago, Traya Health, a holistic hair loss solution, was born out of a deeply personal health struggle faced by co-founder Saloni Anand and her husband. What began as a quest for personal well-being has blossomed into a pioneering brand that challenges conventional wisdom in the hair care industry. Saloni shared Traya’s science-first approach in a session at the ETBrandEquity Brand World Summit 2025.
The genesis of a solution
Saloni Anand, co-founder of Traya, recounted the origins of the brand. Her co-founder, armed with a biomedical chemistry background, embarked on extensive research to address his uncontrollable hypothyroidism. During this challenging journey, a surprising side effect emerged: his hair began to grow back.
“About two years later, we realised that this is something awesome, and everything out there in the industry is not able to grow hair, but we could, so there’s some potential to explore this,” Anand shared. This discovery spurred intensive research into hair science, revealing critical insights that would become the bedrock of Traya’s unique approach.
Dispelling hair loss myths: Traya’s foundational learnings
Traya’s deep dive into hair science led to three fundamental revelations that shaped their model:
Diagnosis is key: “We learned hair loss is genetic mostly, but has multiple types. Not everyone has hair loss because medically multiple types of it require diagnosis.”
Follicle potential: Hair regrowth is possible if follicles are still present, meaning it’s achievable for most individuals not in very advanced stages of hair loss.
No magic bullet: “There is no magic molecule for one product that can grow everyone’s hair. It’s a wider thing that’s happening. It’s more like diabetes than anything.”
Analysing the existing hair industry, Anand observed, “More than 10,000 products on Amazon today sell with the label of hair fall and are topical. Selling you a shampoo, conditioner that has wrongful claims, promising 30-day results, sometimes even worse.” This landscape, rife with superficial solutions, solidified Traya’s mission: “We are here to grow hair, and we will do everything it takes to get that emphasis.”
The “three sciences” model: Traya’s holistic prescription
The first year was dedicated solely to building formulations. This led to Traya’s distinctive model: a hair solution built on diagnosis and a holistic approach. The brand name, “Traya,” is Sanskrit for “three sciences,” embodying their core philosophy: Ayurveda, Allopathy (Dermatology) and Nutrition.
The consumer journey begins with an online diagnosis. The solution provided is a customised kit incorporating elements from all three sciences, including a diet plan, recognising that hair loss often stems from internal imbalances.
Initial skepticism from investors was high. Saloni and her husband launched Traya with personal funds. Six months later, with tangible results from their first critical trials, they secured their initial investment.
Breaking the rules: A D2C brand of the future
Traya today stands as a largely scaled, profitable brand, having served over 10 lakh Indians. A distinctive aspect of its D2C model is that 100 per cent of its revenue comes directly from its platform. “If you download the Traya app, take a long diagnosis. They buy a gift. If the consumer cannot choose which product they are buying. We tell them what they should buy,” Anand stated, emphasising their doctor-led, personalised approach.
Eighty per cent of Traya’s revenue comes from repeat customers. “This happened because we did not have the baggage of how,” she noted.
Education, retention and AI: The pillars of growth
Anand highlighted three critical pillars for modern D2C success:
Believe in education: Traya faced the challenge of educating consumers on why previous topical solutions had failed and why a holistic, science-backed approach was necessary. “Our journey from zero to one crore per month is really smooth. We really had to build these fundamentals,” she revealed. This rapid scale was driven by a deep commitment to educating their audience. Traya’s culture prohibits discussing competitor brands, focusing solely on their consumers. “The moment you do that and you just focus on your consumer, you have the ability to do something,” she added.
Retention over acquisition: Traya defines itself internally as a “habit building organisation,” treating hair loss as a chronic disease. Their North Star metric is retention, supported by a data-tech engine and over 800 hair coaches who ensure adherence and usage. “Back in 2023, when we were having that growth chart, we reached a point where we saw retention numbers there, and we cautiously stopped all our marketing scale up,” Anand disclosed. This move underscored their commitment to long-term customer success over short-term acquisition. “How can you be a D2C brand in 2025? That’s not too little but is just too little today to differentiate. Can you add a service there? Can you add a community? How can you be more than just a product gone?”
Embrace AI: While acknowledging AI as a buzzword, Anand firmly believes it will be a pivotal theme in brand building. Traya, despite its 800-person team, has already seen impressive results from integrating AI. “Three months ago, I took a mandate at Traya that no more tech hiring, and we are about since then, we have done zero tech hiring, and we’ve increased the tech productivity four times,” she shared, emphasising the transformative power of AI in consumer evaluation, discovery and shopping.
Saloni Anand concluded by summarising her key takeaways for aspiring D2C brands: “Think more than product solutions. Think of efficiency. Think science, if your product works, everything else will fall in place. Think AI. Think of the review word and think of retention first.”
Ministers are facing calls to not cut education plans for children and young people with special needs and disabilities (Send).
Campaigners say education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are “precious legal protections”, warning that thousands of children could lose access to education if the plans are abolished.
The government has said it inherited the current system “left on its knees”. Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson described it as a “complex and sensitive area” when asked if she could rule out scrapping EHCPs.
But Neil O’Brien, the shadow education minister, has criticised the government for “broken promises and U-turns”.
An EHCP is a legally binding document which ensures a child or young person with special or educational needs gets the right support from a local authority.
Full details of the proposed changes are due in October, but ministers have not ruled out scrapping the education plans, insisting no decisions have been taken.
In a letter to the Guardian newspaper, campaigners have said that without the documents in mainstream schools, “many thousands of children risk being denied vital provision, or losing access to education altogether”.
“Whatever the Send system’s problems, the answer is not to remove the rights of children and young people. Families cannot afford to lose these precious legal protections,” they added.
Signatories to the letter include the heads of charities, professors, Send parents including actor Sally Phillips, and campaigners including broadcaster Chris Packham.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Ms Phillipson saidL
“What I can say very clearly is that we will strengthen and put in place better support for children.
“I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to parents, to disability rights groups, to campaigners and to others and to colleagues across Parliament as well, because it’s important to get this right,” she added, but said it is “tough”.
Mr O’Brien, the shadow minister, said the government had “no credibility left”.
“This is a government defined by broken promises and u-turns. They said they would employ more teachers and they have fewer. They said they would not raise tax on working people but did,” Mr O’Brien said.
Data from the Department for Education released in June showed that the number of EHCPs has increased.
In total, there were 638,745 EHCPs in place in January 2025, up 10.8% on the same point last year.
The number of new plans which started during 2024 also grew by 15.8% on the previous year, to 97,747.
Requests for children to be assessed for EHCPs rose by 11.8% to 154,489 in 2023.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have been clear that there are no plans to abolish Send tribunals, or to remove funding or support from children, families and schools.”
The spokesperson added that it would be “totally inaccurate to suggest that children, families and schools might experience any loss of funding or support”.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is bringing a fresh wave of innovation to South Korea’s public education sector. big tech companies are actively developing AI-based solutions for public education and forming partnerships with schools alongside edtech startups.
According to the information technology (IT) industry on Sunday, Naver launched a digital public education support system called Whale UBT in April 2025 and integrated it into the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education’s teaching-learning platform, Gwangju AI-ON. Naver also plans to expand adoption to other regional education offices
Whale UBT allows for the unified management of various test items – including diagnostic and unit assessments – within a single platform. A database of about 400,000 questions provided by four educational publishers is available, enabling teachers to create customized tests based on students’ levels.
It also features automatic grading.
To date, AI education platforms were adopted more rapidly in private education, where entry requirements are comparatively less restrictive. The use of AI tools in public education was initially determined by individual teachers; however, their implementation has been rapidly increasing at both the school and district levels.
This trend is driven in part by the increasing sophistication of AI solutions. These tools now go beyond simply marking answers right or wrong – they can analyze step-by-step processes for descriptive questions, improving both convenience and educational outcomes.
A good example is edtech startup Turing Co.’s math learning platform, Math King. Turing signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Association of Future Education Study in February 2025 to promote adoption of Math King in Korean schools.
Math King can generate personalized problem sets for each student in just one second, and AI analyzes even the descriptive answers in homework assignments. The system automatically generates consultation reports that can be sent to parents and includes recommendations for future learning directions.
“We are using Math King for advanced classes, and it has eliminated the hassle of creating customized math problems,” Gyeonggu High School teacher Park Jun-hyung said. ‘I can now manage nearly twice as many students.”
AI solutions also help with administrative tasks, significantly reducing teachers’ workloads, particularly for writing student records.
While many teachers have already been using tools like ChatGPT informally for record writing, new, more convenient solutions are now being developed. These specialized AI tools offer stronger security than ChatGPT.
Edtech startup Elements launched inline AI in April, a solution specifically designed to assist with student record writing. It employs a local Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) system, ensuring that data is not sent externally. The AI updates student records automatically based on data from teachers and students.
Given the rapid growth of the AI education market, adoption in public education is expected to accelerate even further. According to market research firm Straits Research, the global AI education market is projected to grow from $4.43 billion in 2024 to $72.45 billion in 2033.
By Ahn Sun-je and Lee Eun-joo
[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
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