Best Practice Page

BP 3.4 Environmental Career Preparation (in development)

Best Practice: 3.4. Environmental Career Preparation: The curriculum connects to environmental career readiness.

This best practice is in process of development during the pilot. But you can still include environmental career preparation actions in your project story and get credit for them. Contact GreenStep Schools to discuss how to document your accomplishments.

Meanwhile, please make use of our MN GreenStep Schools Advisor and resources.

Interested in contributing to this Best Practice or being a Reviewer? Contact Jonee Kulman Brigham

Take Action

Implement Best Practice Actions in a Project

While the organization of Best Practice Actions is underway, consider these ideas to expose students to the many careers related to the environment and sustainability and how they can learn more.

Suggest search terms they might use in general career exploration databases, for example sustainable, green, environmental, climate, energy, and more.
Consider how any career can be an environmental career, not just environmental science. Give examples of the environmental or sustainable leaders in a variety of career areas.
Bring community members working in environmentally related fields into the classroom.
Consider representation in the career examples that reflect the diverse populations working in the environment.
Expose students to the range of higher education (trade schools, 2 year, 4 year) that offer specialties in environmentally related areas of work

Share your Story

Document Project in a Project Story

Document the best practice actions you took in a project story which also describes the team, partners, and process. See the projects page.

You can submit one story per best practice action, or combine several actions into a single story. For example, a waste reduction project might include multiple best practice actions across different categories such as a waste audit, a reuse and donation program, and educational resources. If you conceived of these in an integrated project, you can document them that way. For each action included in a project story, attach the data sheet (future) for that action.

Submit Annual Review

The annual review for this best practice includes

Confirming that Best Practice Actions are still active. (Eg. are programs still in operation and working? Are event or time based actions repeated each year?)
Amending the documentation with any changes
Adding any lessons learned from the prior year to share with others.

To submit the annual review, send in the datasheet (future) for this best practice with updated calendar year in the update column to reflect which BPAs are still active.

Resources

GreenStep Advisor

Contact Jonee Kulman Brigham for assistance

GreenStep Resource Organizations

Explore GreenStep Resource Organizations for this best practice based on types of assistance they offer. As more resource organizations join, there will be more offerings and an ability to sort by type and topic of support. In particular:

For a comprehensive resource, see the Minnesota Association for Environmental Education, which hosts a searchable database of resources called the EE Portal to support environmental education.
Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTS) website includes an excellent clean energy careers page with information on a wide range of careers related to clean energy with examples, needed education (from high school diploma, trade school, college), and pay ranges. Short videos give an engaging introduction to what it is like to work in each field.

Online Resources

Sustainability can be integrated into many careers. General career exploration resources can be helpful and searching environmental or sustainable key words across disciplinary categories may open up new ideas. For example, Minnesota State CAREERwise

Any career path can provide a way to make a positive impact on the environment.

For example, Project Drawdown's Job Function Action Guides show how employees in any field can bring their unique skills and opportunities to be part of climate solutions. This and similar approaches can help students integrate their environmental concerns and interests with their chosen career paths.

Organizations promoting diverse representation in the workforce may have outreach for K-12 Settings.

For example, National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) operates NSBE Jr. - which offer both mentorship programs and scholarships.
And the mission of the STEM Center for Girl Innovators is "...bridging the gender and diversity gap in STEM fields by providing academic tutoring, coding lessons, and mentorship for adolescent Somali girls. )

Resources Consulted

This Best Practice Section was informed by a number of resources listed below in the drop down.

In progress

Works Cited

Open the drop down menu to see the works cited.