Our school visits and workshops through a teacher’s eyes

Lucy Somerville, our administrator, tells us about organising site visits and workshops and their benefits from an educators point of view.

It will be two years in December since I made the decision to step away from my teaching career. At that time, I would never have imagined being in the profession I am today, but every day, I am thankful that I am. 

One of my key goals as an educator was embedding Learning for Sustainability across my teaching practice and I understand the barriers schools face in accessing resources and opportunities for students to engage with local sustainability projects. These opportunities give valuable purpose and relevance to learning, and help to motivate and engage students within this context.

Whilst my current role at Earth Energy Education is primarily focused on organising our visits and workshops, and developing learning materials, I’ve been fortunate enough to step away from the office to participate in some of our workshops and visits across Scotland, England, and Wales during the 2023/24 academic year.

My key takeaways from attending these workshops and visits are:

- Even the youngest learners know far more about renewable energy and the importance of living sustainably than we often give them credit for. Older generations could take notes from these young people.

- Learning opportunities are dramatically enhanced when you step outside the classroom. At university and during my time as an educator, we often discussed outdoor experiential learning, but having the opportunity to be a fly on the wall to this really deepened my appreciation for the positive impact it can have on learners.

- When learning is centred around a local project, it becomes a huge motivator for students. Even those who teachers mentioned are typically difficult to engage showed a keen interest when they realised the relevance to their local area.

- Schools across the UK face significant barriers with funding, and our visits and workshops are helping them overcome this challenge.

- Many of the teachers I spoke with mentioned feeling less confident when it comes to teaching STEM subjects, and a big part of that was not having enough resources or equipment. They pointed out how much of a difference it makes when students have functioning, quality equipment to practise with and apply their learning to.

- Connecting with engineers and professionals in the industry was incredibly motivating and eye-opening for the young people. Learning about alternative career paths in these fields inspired them, which is so important, as they will ultimately be the ones driving these industries forward.

One of the things I’m most proud of in my job is that we are helping to remove the barriers preventing teachers, schools, and learners from accessing valuable learning resources which are sometimes right on the schools doorstep. I wish this opportunity had been available to my colleagues, our learners, and me when I was teaching, as I would have jumped at the chance.

As my colleague Sarah puts it, “We bring a little magic for a few hours,” and I think that perfectly sums up what we do for young people, teachers, and schools.