Maine TREE and Blue Hill Peninsula Educators Take a Deep Dive into Climate Education

At the beginning of 2024, Maine TREE received a DOE Climate Education Professional Development grant to collaborate with Regional School Union (RSU) 93, the district serving the towns of Blue Hill, Brooksville, Castine, Penobscot, and Surry. Just a few days after school had let out for summer, teachers from the five K-8 schools that are a part of RSU 93 joined Maine TREE and Woodlawn Museum in a custom, four-day local Teachers' Tour of forest, natural history, and marine-based climate change sites and organizations that are important to the five K-8 schools and their local communities. 

The local organizations and professionals we visited shared varying perspectives on how climate change impacts their work and Blue Hill Peninsula as a whole. Blue Hill Heritage Trust conveyed its conservation goals for the peninsula and the educators were able to learn about one conserved property’s natural history from Tom Wessels, an MDI resident and a terrestrial ecologist and professor emeritus at Antioch University New England, who is known for his fascinating approach to Reading the Forested Landscape (as the title of one of his books!). From visits to the local Woodlawn Museum and Wilson Museum, the RSU 93 educators explored the local geologic, maritime, and human history of the Blue Hill Peninsula through artifacts and cultural resources. Though climate and natural history education frequently gets associated with STEM subjects, exploring ways to incorporate natural history and social studies into outdoor and environmental education reinforces a multidisciplinary and diverse understanding of topics and issues as complex and widespread as climate change. 

“I think these four days were amazing. The big takeaway was the sheer number of people and organizations that are on our peninsula that we can work with. Couple that with the resources that you provided. I feel very fortunate to have been able to be a part of this PD.” - Charlie Daniels Blue Hill Community School

The professional development involved sharing curriculum and activities aligned with Maine's Learning Result standards and the schools' current curricula. It focused on outdoor-based learning, especially in forested settings, to develop students' connection and appreciation for the land and resources surrounding their communities. 

If you’re interested in collaborating with Maine TREE for Climate Education Professional Development opportunities are your school or within your school district contact Lena Ives, Director of Education, at lena@mainetree.org.