In March 2025, twenty Year 5 students from Marie Havet Primary School in Nouméa, guided by their teacher Audrey Mazeron, participated as co-researchers in WP3 of the MaHeWa project, alongside SOCPacific2R and CLIPSSA. Supported by researchers (Catherine Sabinot, Elodie Fache, Annette Breckwoldt), University of New Caledonia students, Vanessa Montagnat (Direction de l’enseignement pédagogique), and Florian Barthe (Symbiose), they contributed to Task 3.1 by exploring children’s perceptions of marine heatwaves (MHWs) and climate change impacts.
The students crafted two drawing prompts, tested with other Year 5 classes in Nouméa and refined for workshops in La Foa and Thio:
Draw the impacts of climate change on fish, corals, vegetables, and fruits.
Draw solutions fishers and farmers can use to address global warming challenges.
Students in La Foa and Thio introduced a prompt about reef passages, prompting drawings from the Nouméa group. A video, created by the students and their teacher, captured this collaborative effort. Presented on March 26, 2025, at the “Pacific in Transition – Crossed Perspectives on Climate” event at SPC in Nouméa, this work underscores how children’s insights enhance understanding of biocultural values and climate impacts, strengthening MaHeWa’s interdisciplinary research.
