LOWELL – Westford sixth-grader Stella O’Brien, whose art is teaching people about the impact of severe weather, is the top honoree in the state’s division of UMass Lowell’s 2025 Cool Science Contest. The competition asks K-12 students to create illustrations that depict the science behind atmospheric events, then displays the artwork on transit buses to educate the public.

As the state’s top contest honoree, Stella, a Stony Brook Middle School student, received the university’s David Lustick Award at the Cool Science Art Exhibition Celebration on Friday, May 16, at the Chelmsford Center for the Arts in Chelmsford. This spring, she and fellow contest winners’ illustrations are being displayed in and on Lowell Regional Transit Authority buses, where passengers and passersby may learn about the scientific concepts behind the weather.

Additional contest winners will be honored at another Cool Science event next month in the Midwest. There, the student artworks will be displayed on Kansas City Area Transportation Authority buses traveling through Kansas and Missouri.

“Cool Science is in its 12^th year. This year, as always, it was inspiring and fun to meet the young artists at the Massachusetts celebration. Their enthusiasm and dedication to learning and creating meaningful artwork is admirable. Each of their posters uses art to engage viewers in a mini science lesson. These young artists give me hope for our future,” said Jill Hendrickson Lohmeier, professor of research and evaluation in the UMass Lowell School of Education.

The contest’s top award is named in memory of the late David Lustick, a Nashua, N.H., resident, UMass Lowell professor and nationally recognized champion of environmental education. Lustick and Hendrickson Lohmeier co-founded Cool Science to study how people learn science in informal settings. Supported by the National Science Foundation, the program is a research partnership between UMass Lowell, UMass Boston, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, University of Kansas, and Kansas City Art Institute.

“We’ve seen the value of blending science and art with our own eyes, and we’ve learned a great deal about ways to teach so that art and science support each other in non-trivial ways. It’s been an exciting project that’s affected hundreds of children and youth and educated broad publics who saw winning posters on public buses in Massachusetts and Kansas,” said Lois Hetland, a professor emerita of art education at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

More than 4,500 students from around the world have participated in Cool Science since the annual program began.

“Each year, the Cool Science project continues to give us new examples of how science and the visual arts can be blended together to effectively encourage and promote learning,” said UMass Lowell’s Stephen Mishol, associate professor and chair of the art and design department. “While often beautiful, the artworks are also engaged, informed and quite sophisticated in their messages, offering new ways to think about and respond to the impact that extreme weather events have on our lives.”

Educators and other professionals from around the country who are interested in integrating art and science to teach youth and others in informal settings gathered for the Cool Science Showcase in Utah this month. There, they shared best practices and brainstormed about how to launch new projects.

“The informed, creative and beautiful youth artwork continues to inspire adults in Massachusetts, Kansas and Missouri. We know youth artwork educates adult viewers. We were also excited to share our learnings with other passionate individuals and organizations working at the intersection of science and art at our Showcase at The Leonardo museum this summer in Salt Lake City,” said Professor Bob Chen, interim dean of UMass Boston’s School for the Environment.

Cool Science is just one example of UMass Lowell’s commitment to the environment.

The university is the highest-rated campus for sustainability in Massachusetts, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. The organization recently named UMass Lowell a platinum campus – the highest possible rating a college or university can earn for its sustainability performance through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System. UMass Lowell is the only higher education institution in Massachusetts and one of eight in the nation to hold the prestigious designation.

These achievements underscore the work of UMass Lowell’s Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy, which advances research in these sectors and promotes community action in solving environmental challenges.

In addition to Stella, contest honorees from these hometowns will have their artwork appear on Lowell Regional Transit Authority bus lines:

• Hazel Mokwete of Winchester, a fifth-grader at the Muraco Elementary School
• Aliaksei Yaromenka of Groton, a fifth-grader at Groton-Dunstable Middle School
• Sury Suraaj of Westford, a seventh-grader at Stony Brook Middle School
• Rylee Siopes of Dracut, a senior at Greater Lowell Technical High School
• Alexis Williams of Lakeville, a junior at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School

Runners-up also honored include:

• Richard Yu of Andover, a fifth-grader at Andover School of Montessori
• Darla Fex of Acton, a second-grader at Gates Elementary School
• Katerina Dostal of Winchester, a fifth-grader at Muraco Elementary School
• Zoya Pathan of Chelmsford, a seventh-grader at McCarthy Middle School
• Tanushri Iyyadurai of Marietta, Ga., an eighth-grader at Dickerson Middle School
• Anvi Warke of Westford, a sixth-grader at Stony Brook Middle School
• Yile Zhang of Zhejang NingBo, China, an eighth-grader at the Stoneleigh-Burnham School
• Alicia Rivera of Westford, a sixth-grader at Stony Brook Middle School
• Ford Choate of Winchester, a sixth-grader at McCall Middle School
• Priyamvada Chakravarthy of Westford, a sixth-grader at Stony Brook Middle School
• Max Cooper of Needham, a sophomore at Needham High School
• Skylar Bergeron of Dracut, a senior at Greater Lowell Technical High School
• Darshell Odies of Brockton, a junior at Southeastern Regional Vacation Technical High School

Stella O’Brien’s winning artwork, depicted here, can be seen on buses in the Lowell Regional Transit Authority fleet. COURTESY PHOTO/UMASS LOWELL