Virtual learning with Fonda-Fultonville Middle School students

To accommodate schools adhering to COVID-19 classroom guidelines, we began offering our education program remotely. Here, our Education Program Manager Jaimi DeFeo reflects on her first virtual class with Fonda-Fultonville Middle School, and the importance of continuing to learn about climate change amidst the pandemic.

Normally around this time of year, we would be planning field trips with schools near our development sites to talk about renewable energy and biodiversity. However, with COVID-19, we have had to make other arrangements to engage local students with our educational programs.

Last month, we had a chance to do a virtual class with four 6th grade classrooms—approximately 50 students in total—at Fonda-Fultonville Middle School. We talked about climate change and the role fossil fuels play, renewable energy with specifics on solar energy, careers in the solar industry, and even how to calculate and interpret a carbon footprint. The students were engaged with identifying sources of energy and were made aware of how much they may use in their own lives. 

It’s always such a pleasure to talk with students about these important topics. It’s necessary for all of us to know about them if we are going to make any kind of real change, especially for the kids of our generation. I read the other day that the ones who will be dealing with the effects of climate change the most are the ones who aren’t even born yet. That was a profound and accurate statement. It’s vital that we all have an awareness about our consumer habits with energy, and how it seeps into every part of our lives. It’s essential to be able to make informed decisions.

These students will grow up hearing about climate change and energy concerns from a young age, which will hopefully give them leverage about ways to mitigate it and make better choices. This will put them at an advantage, as climate change is now the challenge for their generation, because as we all know, knowledge is power.

So, we will continue to work with local schools however we can, whether through field trips, workshops, online or with our videos, letting them know of our mission to help change the world’s main energy sources. Renewable energy is the only way forward. And if not now, then when?