Erin Towns

Erin Towns is an experienced and adventurous social science teacher at Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine USA. Erin is a 2018 National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and alumni of numerous global professional development programs who uses world travel experiences to create experiential lessons and strategies for students and teachers that address contemporary global and environmental issues. She values using inquiry based social studies and science methodology in the classroom and she continually pushes students to take action using informed knowledge and discourse that promote and encourage public awareness and engagement. Her students regularly share solutions oriented geo-inquiry projects with local school administrators, city councils, business leaders, state legislators, and public officials using storytelling with the goal of inspiring others to act. Erin shares knowledge and curriculum ideas that connect climate change phenomena and social, policial, and economic conflict with educators at state and national levels. Erin is an active member of the Maine Council for Social Studies and serves as Teacher Ambassador of The Camden Conference in the Classroom Program, a foreign policy organization in Maine which serves fifteen schools and promotes public discourse on topics of global relevance. Her greatest passion is exploring outside of the classroom with her diverse community of students and watching them make connections between the human and natural world. She is humbled and grateful for the opportunity to build relationships with these phenomenal young women and men who consistently amaze her everyday with their hard work, humor, and creativity. Erin will integrate what she learns about the Greenland Ice Sheet’s contribution to sea level rise into social studies curriculum and citizen science research projects related to the Gulf of Maine.