The Governor’s Institutes of Vermont’s Winter Weekend, at Goddard College February 10-12th,
2012, was attended by seventy-nine young people from thirty-three Vermont high schools.
During their weekend-long residency, each student chose between engineering, information
technology, arts or current issues to study and immerse themselves, and to take on intellectual
challenges and hands-on tasks.
VT EPSCoR funding provided scholarships for students in the two Science, Technology,
Engineering and mathematics (STEM) related weekends. On Saturday, February 11, 2012 VT
EPSCoR Graduate Research Assistant, Peter Isles, led a workshop for a select group of highschool
students at the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont’s Winter Weekend. This is the first time
a VT EPSCoR graduate student has led a workshop during the Winter Weekend Session.
Peter’s workshop was focused on issues involved with climate change adaptation in the state,
particularly around the question of climate change impacts on the lake, and how best to mitigate
those impacts. Participating high school students shared their ideas about how climate change
might impact the lake, and what forms those impacts might take. The group, under Peter’s
direction, then worked on narrowing down these large questions into more specific problems
that could be addressed with a combination of research and/or policy solutions. Peter explained
that “In a broad sense, the goal of the workshop was to give participating students ideas about
how to break down a large problem like “Climate Change Impacts” into more manageable and
achievable pieces that could lead to real-world solutions, and how to integrate science and
policy in an adaptive management framework.”
All of these themes were presented within the context of the overarching VT EPSCoR Research
on Adaptation to Climate Change (RACC) project. Isles explained that this “was an ideal
framework for tying together high school students from a wide variety of interests and
backgrounds”.
Interested students were encouraged to pursue their studies and become involved with the
RACC project’s high-school program through the VT EPSCoR Center for Workforce
Development and Diversity (CWDD) at Saint Michael’s College, for further opportunities.
The workshop was well attended and the students were “engaged with the topic”, according to
Isles. A number of the participants expressed interest in furthering their curiosity and becoming
involved with RACC and through the CWDD.
Peter is a PhD candidate at the University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and
Natural Resources and joined the VT EPSCoR RACC project in September 2011. He is a
graduate of Columbia University where he received his MA from the Department of Ecology,
Evolution and Environmental Biology.
For further information about VT EPSCoR or the VT EPSCoR CWDD, please visit
https://uvm.edu/epscor
VT EPSCoR Graduate Research Assistant, Peter Isles, leads a workshop on Adaptation to Climate Change in the Lake Champlain Basin to a group of high school students at the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont’s Winter Weekend on February 11, 2012 at Goddard College.
VT EPSCoR Graduate Research Assistant Peter Isles (4th from left) with a group of Winter Weekend high school participants at Goddard College interested in getting involved with Research on Adaptation to Climate Change (RACC).