Middle School Students help to Demystify a Study on Ocean Heatwaves!

Science outreach · October 2025

Students and a researcher decode together the 2016 marine heatwave in the Pacific

Our colleague Cyril Dutheil worked with the middle school class (3ème B) of Collège Olympe de Gouges in Cadaujac to make a complex scientific study about marine heatwaves more accessible. This science outreach work was published in the journal DECODER, which is dedicated to making research available to everyone.

The students working on their article.

Together, they analysed the exceptional marine heatwave that hit the Southwest Pacific in 2016. Their work reveals a paradox: this extreme event occurred during an El Niño episode, which normally cools this region.

What made this ocean heatwave special was the rare combination of two climate phenomena:

This collaboration between researchers and students perfectly illustrates how science can be made accessible to all, while shedding light on crucial climate mechanisms that help us understand the changes in our oceans.

Read the entire article here.