Lesley-Ann Dupigny-Giroux was studying geoscience at an age when most kids don't know the meaning of the word. Growing up on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, she went to a British school that emphasized early specialization. By the time she was 8 years old, she was hiking to caves and learning to think spatially.

Dupigny-Giroux said she feels strongly that her early, hands-on experience with geoscience — the study of Earth — played a major role in shaping her future. Today, as the state climatologist, she makes a point of exposing young learners in Vermont to similar experiences.

She's held that role since 1997, when she moved to the Green Mountain State after earning her PhD to become a professor of climatology at the University of Vermont. Her work as the state climatologist involves researching and sharing data and projections on Vermont's weather and climate, including climate change. Working closely with local municipalities and governments, she coauthored the Vermont Climate Action Plan as a member of the Vermont Climate Council.

Over the course of her career, Dupigny-Giroux has earned a slew of awards and recognition, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Geographers' Climate Specialty Group. She served as president of the American Association of State Climatologists from 2020 to 2022, spoke at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference and wrote the water chapter for the U.S.'s Fifth National Climate Assessment.

But Dupigny-Giroux's greatest contribution to the state may be yet to come. Among her other responsibilities, she partners with Vermont's K-12 teachers to foster climate literacy, or the understanding of the climate's influence on humans and vice versa.

It's an area of education she feels is critically important at the earliest ages — when students are insatiably curious about the natural world.

Dupigny-Giroux spoke with Seven Days on July 11, the day after catastrophic flooding devastated homes and businesses across Vermont. She squeezed in the conversation between several calls and media interviews related to the statewide emergency. Looking back on her career so far, she recalled realizing that she could tap into kids' innate sense of wonder about the world while leading a balloon launch in 2008 with students and teachers at Milton High School.

"Younger students possess an inherent curiosity about the world around them," Dupigny-Giroux later wrote by email. Satisfying that curiosity with solid information about the climate sets the stage for students "to engage in the workforce development, civic perspectives and academic exploration needed to continue to address the challenges of climate change adaptation and mitigation."

Sometimes Dupigny-Giroux works directly with K-12 students, as at that balloon launch and last year at South Burlington High School, where she addressed more than 100 students eager to hear her story and learn about Vermont's role in addressing climate change. Phil Surks, the South Burlington High School supervisor for science and technology, said she elevates facts and data over political opinions.

In other cases, she imparts knowledge and support to K-12 teachers. Shelburne Farms' director of professional learning, education and visitor programs, Jen Cirillo, remembers meeting Dupigny-Giroux in 2016 at the farm through UVM's Sustainability Faculty Fellows program. Cirillo immediately invited Dupigny-Giroux to speak at the nonprofit's Summer Institute on Education for Sustainability (now called Foundations in Education for Sustainability Program).

"Lesley-Ann was one of our guest presenters, and the teachers adored her immediately," Cirillo said. "She makes what can be very complex science feel very relatable. The teachers were really excited and started to feel like Oh, I can do this."

Educators said Dupigny-Giroux's ability to instill confidence and knowledge helps them feel comfortable teaching the material. She also develops and shares resources with time-stressed teachers, focusing on applying climate-related data in a way that resonates with young learners.

One of Dupigny-Giroux's presentations, Cirillo recounted, included resources to help students track weather patterns and distinguish between natural cycles and disruptions. The guidance inspired several teachers to develop curricula around phenology, the study of seasonal and cyclical changes in our environment. In the Northeast, the topic is relevant to many who already celebrate the first spring peepers or apple blossoms.

Don Taylor, a sustainability and humanities teacher at Montpelier's Main Street Middle School, attended one of Dupigny-Giroux's workshops. He went on to monitor seasonal changes with his students using phenology wheels. Students picked something they wanted to track over the course of the year, such as bird migrations or tree foliage, and recorded their observations on wheels made out of recycled cardboard boxes.

Cirillo cited this as one example of Dupigny-Giroux's influence on local educators. "She's helping teachers help their students become scientists by instilling a natural curiosity about what's happening in the world and then contributing to the collective knowledge around climate change," Cirillo said.

Cirillo noted that Dupigny-Giroux inspired her on a personal level, too. This fall, Cirillo will help kick off a climate series in Ferrisburgh, where she serves on the town conservation commission. Dupigny-Giroux has signed on as a speaker for the series.

"Lesley-Ann's got a great spirit, and I think that cuts through to a lot of people who are anxious" about climate change, Cirillo said. She praised Dupigny-Giroux's ability to help others stay positive and focused on what they can do in the face of increasingly erratic and extreme weather.

Dupigny-Giroux also partners with other UVM professors on K-12 initiatives. One frequent collaborator is Regina Toolin, an associate professor of STEM education who works with current and future K-12 teachers to improve STEM content.

Toolin noted that Dupigny-Giroux is not big on lecturing. Instead, her approach is interactive; she focuses on crucial questions and introducing the latest technology to engage students and teachers.

"Climate and climate change is everybody's problem," Toolin said. "And Lesley-Ann's one of the experts in the field. Who better to help get that information and technology out to the community?"

Toolin noted that the state's K-12 teachers have limited opportunities to keep up with current science. She works with several UVM professors to bridge the gap between secondary and college-level STEM fluency.

"Students can be highly engaged in doing research, even at an elementary level," Toolin said. "My mantra is always 'I want to see school science look more like real science' — not book science and not kids doing worksheets and reading out of old, dusty science textbooks."

Toolin first teamed up with Dupigny-Giroux in 2008, when the two were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to educate science and math teachers about climate and climate change issues. Part of that project was the balloon launch at Milton High School that Dupigny-Giroux recalled in our interview as a turning point in her understanding of how to introduce kids to climate science.

Some balloons were the size you'd find at a party, while others were National Weather Service balloons the size of a large conference room. As the balloons went up, they sent back temperature information. The activity demonstrated the concept of a lapse rate: The temperature decreases as the balloon rises.

Then a pair of awestruck 4-year-old twins walked by.

Dupigny-Giroux asked the twins if they wanted to write down some numbers. The preschoolers didn't have a fancy term for what they were doing, she said, but they recorded numbers and asked for more data.

"It was the absolute most precious thing," she said. "And they got to practice science."

A 7-year-old boy joined the demonstration. Dupigny-Giroux asked him what the numbers told him. He noted that the balloon was going up but the numbers were going down. "And that's a lapse rate!" she told him.

She smiled at the memory, a bright spot at a time when July floodwaters had just crested Burlington's Intervale a mile away, washing out seven farms.

Her willingness to talk about climate literacy during a statewide climate emergency is just another example of how Dupigny-Giroux has committed herself to the present and future well-being of her community and world. As Vermont faces more climate-related challenges, she's leading the charge to help educators prepare the next generation.

"You get them hooked by all these fun activities, and then it sort of stays with them for life," she said.