Just as many of today's jobs may not exist in twenty years, there are many future jobs that don't yet exist. Given that we don't exactly know what future jobs will be, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) does not take a traditional approach to education and career preparation. Instead, we look at key skills that will enable young people to succeed in a rapidly changing world: critical thinking, problem solving, collaborating, and communicating.

We work closely with the formal education community to develop and deliver authentic and personally meaningful science learning experiences during the critical middle school years. We believe that students learn science by doing science, so we design programs that enable teachers to become coaches as students collect meaningful data to inform evidence-based decisions. We operate at population scale, offering programs across the state at no cost to schools or families, to ensure that all Maine students have an equal opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills essential for college, careers, and citizenship in the 21st century.

Our education team is garnering significant national recognition for an approach that places students at the center of their learning by engaging them with highly personalized and immersive technology-rich learning environments. By competing nationally for funding from major education-focused foundations, our work is informing the national dialogue on best practices in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education.