Finally tonight, climate science has come under attack at the federal level recently, but at Stockton University, K through2 teachers are getting the chance to take part in a free 2-day seminar, teaching them how to introduce the lessons in their classrooms.

In 2020, New Jersey became the first state in the nation to include climate change in public school curriculums.

And as Ted Goldberg reports, the lessons today were proving invaluable.

He's puffing up.

Look.

Yeah, he's puffing up now.

Elizabeth Padolski was pumped up to see and feel a striped burfish do its thing.

I got to hold um the puffer fish and it actually puffed in my hand.

So, it was very cool.

You could feel like the burrs on it.

It was a really cool experience.

She's a first grade teacher in Ma's Landing and one of the teachers taking part in a state grant that teaches teachers about climate change and its effect on ecosystems coordinated by Stockton University.

I feel that when you go and actually do the things and learn the things and see, you know, the climate change and how it's changing and see how you can impact, you know, the kids, that's the way that you can teach it best.

It gives more just relevance like this stuff is here.

These kids see this water all the time and they don't know what's at the bottom.

So, getting to bring those little things back.

Britney Field teaches in Egg Harbor Township.

I just love seeing what's here.

I've grown up just a little south of here, but the water's been my thing since as far back as I can remember, so the more I can see, the more I love it.

These teachers set up and reeled in a sane net through Great Bay.

Their objective was to count the different kinds of sea life that showed up, mostly juveniles of familiar species.

We're getting a chance to to follow some of these early what we call young of the year individuals or YO individuals as they start moving into the adult populations.

And the sampling that we're doing today that we're demonstrating for the teachers is exactly the same as we would do as part of uh various research projects for the state.

And also sea life you might not expect.

I'm just looking inside of the sponge just to make sure that there we're not missing anything.

Um, any kind of little invertebrate, any interesting crab.

How often do you get those fun little surprises?

50/50 shot.

While the specific program with various teachers is fairly recent, Stockton has been monitoring the water in Great Bay going back decades with several real world applications.

When you sample multiple sites over, you know, a nice uh time window, you can really start to see uh patterns emerging, species again that are maybe, you know, moving into New Jersey waters from the south.

And then you also get an idea of of species that might be expanding their range north.

What fish are here?

What fish have come up from the south?

Are fish beginning to migrate north?

They can then go back and look at data sets in their own classroom with their students and think about what changes are we seeing over time.

After making their measurements, the crabs and everybody else were thrown back into the water.

It's up to the teachers to decide what to bring with them when they're back in the classroom in Little Egg Harbor.

I'm Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News.