Current Opportunities
Opportunities For Youth
Scientist To Go Meetups
Our Scientist To Go program allows for students to virtually meet with a wide range of scientists and to learn a little bit more about what they do. These 45 minute sessions include presentations from the scientists and Q&A opportunity for students. Current meet ups can be found here
Email Drew at [email protected] for more details or to join the email list for future events.
Community Science Challenges
Students participating in community science can connect with professional scientists and other classrooms across the Northeast, get outside to make careful observations of local ecosystems, and contribute important data on impacts of climate change. Join us for the Vernal Pool Community Science Challenge this Spring!
Email Meggie at [email protected] to get your class involved right away or get information on future events.
In-Person LabVenture Programs
Request a visit to our LabVenture Program for your 5th or 6th grade classrooms at LabVenture.gmri.org
Professional Learning Opportunities
GMRI Educator Camp (at the Ecology School)
Sign up for our Educator Camp in August, and join teachers from across Maine and New Hampshire to experience locally relevant and climate-focused programs that support STEM inquiry. Explore concepts, skills, and content that link our LabVenture, Community Science, and Findings from the Field programs. Design your own learning pathway through building background knowledge around changes to local ecosystems, collecting, contributing, and analyzing data, as well as communicating findings, and developing new questions for investigation. Experience our wide range of programs, gain ideas for adapting these programs to your students’ needs, and access classroom-ready, standards-aligned curriculum resources. Join a community of formal and informal educators and build new connections to support you through the school year. This event is FREE, but space is limited so register now!
Where: The Ecology School, Saco, Maine
When: Monday, August 14th – Wednesday, August 16th, 2023
Who: Educators and teachers of late elementary through early high school aged youth
Meals will be provided, along with $225 stipend for classroom teachers, and mileage reimbursements. Housing at the Ecology School is available for those who are interested in a sleep-away camp experience.
If you have any questions, email Meredyth at [email protected].
Connected Learning Ecosystems
Are you a librarian, after school educator, museum or nature center educator, 4-H staff or volunteer, or classroom teacher looking to deepen your STEM programming and offerings?
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), 4-H, Maine State Libraries, Wabanaki Youth in Science, and Gateway Community Services, with funding from NASA, are looking to grow and support Connected Learning Ecosystems (CLE) across Maine. CLEs will be a space for communities of educators and learning facilitators to work together to build a climate and data literate generation, with the knowledge and skills needed to address the challenges that face us!
CLE members will work together to enhance their own understanding of climate, data, and a range of STEM skills and knowledge that kids need. This community will work together to engage kids all over Maine in place-based, locally relevant investigations of ecosystems and climate change, connecting formal and informal learning spaces. Educators across all these spaces have so much to share with one another in support of their own professional learning and the learning of the youth they work with. All the project partners are excited to help forge new connections.
The project team will offer a range of events and opportunities for educator networking and professional learning. In addition, CLE members will be supported to devise events and regular meeting structures based on community member needs and interest. Early conversations will focus on meet-up and professional learning needs and interests of the group.
Membership Includes:
- A small participation stipend
- Reimbursement for mileage to in-person events
- Connections with regional and statewide communities of peers working together to enhance STEM learning for Maine Youth
- Connections with supportive and engaged project team that includes staff from institutions from Maine to California
Express interest in being part of a CLE HERE.
If you have any questions, email Molly at [email protected].
Self-Paced Professional Learning Opportunities:
LabVenture Professional Learning Module:
Educators build knowledge of climate and ecosystem change and the components of data and science inquiry that help us investigate those changes through a four part module (each part will take 60-90 minutes). This work features local datasets that add to the story of climate driven ecosystem change in the Gulf of Maine and connects these local stories to global patterns. Check out the module here.