By bolstering public climate education and creating new jobs in sustainability, the recently adopted Maine Won’t Wait climate action plan ensures that the children who will inherit this state are going to be involved in the fight for its future.

Part of the plan, created by the Maine Climate Council, includes doubling the number of jobs in the clean energy and energy efficiency sectors. According to a Department of Energy Survey, Maine has 2,928 jobs in clean energy and 8,879 in energy efficiency. While the energy efficiency sector has grown 2.7% in the past year, Maine still only holds .04% of energy efficiency jobs in the United States. The Climate Action Plan sets a goal of 30,000 jobs in the clean energy/energy efficiency sectors by 2030.

Finding qualified candidates for these new jobs may prove difficult. The Department of Energy survey reported that 38% of energy efficiency employers found it “very difficult” to hire new employees for their sector; 43% described it as “somewhat difficult.” Employers reported that these challenges come primarily from a small applicant pool, and a lack of candidates with the necessary experience, skills or qualifications.

If Maine is to have enough qualified candidates to fill its expected 30,000 jobs in sustainable energy by 2030, it will need to educate students for these fields. In 2030, this year’s eighth-graders will be graduating college and looking for job, making it vital that schools start preparing them for potential careers in these markets, the Climate Council states.

The Climate Action Plan lays out a strategy to “develop enhanced educational opportunities for climate science and clean-energy careers in Maine public schools.” In order to prepare students for this growing job market, the Maine Climate Council has made it a priority to increase offerings in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and CTE (career and technical education) programs, as well as expanding programs to connect students to emerging workforce pathways in climate and energy-related fields.

As a coastal town, Brunswick sees the effects of climate change first hand. This exposure has prompted Brunswick schools to take action, educating students about the effects of climate change and ways to mitigate them.

Satchel Toole, a Brunswick school alum and current program manager at Efficiency Maine, works to help the company achieve its goal of reducing the cost and environmental impact of energy in Maine. Most recently, he has been returning to public schools, this time to help them switch to sustainable lighting.

Toole currently occupies one of the 8,879 jobs Maine has in energy efficiency and is a product of the Brunswick education system. He is one example of the way Brunswick schools are training students to be prepared for the emerging job market in sustainability.

A passion for the natural world

For Toole, a desire to protect the environment didn’t come directly from school.

“A lot of my initial interest in the environment came early on, and not necessarily in the classroom,” he said. Instead, he credits the landscape of Maine with inspiring his love of the natural world.

Teachers at Brunswick’s Kate Furbish Elementary School are heeding Toole’s example by providing their students with exposure to the outdoors in order to ignite their passion for the world around them.

The elementary school is named after Catherine Furbish, a botanist who spent her 60-year career traveling Maine and cataloging its flora through detailed watercolors. Furbish’s admiration of Maine’s natural beauty is incorporated into the physical space of the school through a collection of her own watercolor murals. Depictions of classic Maine flora adorn the school’s hallways, helping to bring the outdoors indoors so that students are connected to nature, even while in school.

When outdoors, the new natural playground at Kate Furbish School provides students with a safe space to connect with their environment. The playground is designed to promote interaction with the natural landscape around it. Instead of the bright plastics and synthetic materials found on a typical playground, Kate Furbish’s natural playground is dotted with plants and groves of trees.

Jeanne Stinson, a teacher at Kate Furbish, said that the positive impacts of the natural space go beyond fostering a love for the environment: “The playground is something that the kids can have an impact on. It belongs to everyone and they all work together to make it their own. This experience leads students to be more cooperative, creative and democratic; all-important 21st century skills that would prepare them for any 21st century job market.”

Building skills for a 21st century job market

Brunswick schools teach science in a way that combines both the 21st century job skills identified by Toole, such as interpersonal communication and critical thinking, with the knowledge needed for jobs in sustainability.

This modern science experience starts young with the students at Kate Furbish Elementary School. The Brunswick School Department has adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, a set of goals developed by scientists nationally. Teachers at Kate Furbish apply these standards to enrich their science lessons.

The manner in which first-grade students learn about the change from day to night is an example of Next Generation Science Standards in action. When teaching this lesson, Stinson provides her students with scientific evidence and “has students use real scientific practices, such as observation,” to evaluate the way the sun chases the moon, turning night to day. Through critical thinking and evaluation of evidence, this lesson, “promotes awareness and fosters natural curiosity,” according to Stinson.

This multifaceted approach to science education grows with the students. At the middle and high school level, students engage in experiential learning opportunities that combine science content with 21st century job skills.

One way experiential learning prospers is with support from the Brunswick Community Education Foundation. BCEF is a nonprofit organization that fosters innovation in Brunswick schools by funding teacher-initiated projects to enrich the education of Brunswick students.

BCEF board member Susan Olcott identified the experiential component of BCEF grants as a key element of their success. She said that “when you do something active, it imprints that experience onto your life experience.”

In a 2017 grant from BCEF, Brunswick High School received money to create an outdoor classroom on the mudflats at Maquoit Bay. Since, 2017 the project has grown to become a collaboration between Brunswick High School, the Town of Brunswick and the Tidelands Coalition. As a part of this grant, students not only learn about marine resources and the dangers of invasive species, but also have a formative interaction with the mudflats. Olcott says that this exposure shows students that while mudflats may not be as picturesque as much of the Maine coast, they are still immensely valuable to Maine’s environment. “When students see that the mudflats are just as valuable as beaches, they are more likely to protect them.”

Connecting students with workforce opportunities

Another critical element to preparing students for emerging sustainability jobs is connections to workforce opportunities.

Toole said he wished that he had more opportunities to be exposed to the world of sustainability. He said that “connecting with professionals in the field, can inspire students and push them to explore their career options.”

One program at Region 10 Technical High School does just what Toole describes. The pre-apprenticeship program at Region 10, taught by Jason Darling, is a class that teaches students how to navigate the professional world. Darling describes the structure of his class as, “how to find a job, how to get a job and how to keep a job.”

The pre-apprenticeship class is split into two parts: half the week, students can be found in Darling’s classroom, and the other half they are on a job site, gaining direct exposure to their technical field.

In the classroom, Darling teaches students from a wide variety of professional interests. He said that he will have, “a solar tech, sitting next to a medical student, sitting next to a metal works student,” in his classroom at any given time.

His job is to teach students the “soft skills” that will help them in any job, such as critical thinking, work ethic and interpersonal skills.

During the second half of the week, Darling’s students are on the job site. Region 10 is a registered cooperative education program, meaning students have the ability to work during their class time. This gives students the opportunity to directly apply career skills learned in the classroom to real job experiences.

The combination of career knowledge and experience that Darling’s class provides makes students highly marketable in a modern job market. Darling has recognized this and has launched the “Making Connections Project” as a way to connect students with professional employers through Region 10’s school website. Darling describes the project as an Indeed.com for Region 10.

The pre-apprenticeship program connects Brunswick students to emerging workforce pathways. The program benefits any student who wishes to pursue a professional career, including students interested in the emerging sustainability market.

Margaret Chingos is a student at Brunswick High School.

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