There are some great teachers in our schools and one of those is grade nine class teacher Roxane Esch of Fernie Secondary School. Roxane is a lovely woman who cares deeply about her students. Part of her curriculum includes inviting Council members to her class for the annual presentation of Energy systems.

The premise of the presentation is that the students are pitching their idea to sell, contract or partner with the City of Fernie local government. The class is split into four groups, each one has to choose a type of Energy production, research and then showcase their company to us. We listen to the presentation and then ask inquisitive questions. The students have no idea of what will be asked and responses are marked on a variety of indicators such as eye contact, strong response, behaviour, knowledge, content, power point presentation content, and confidence displayed.

These are grade nine students and they are all quite impressive. I found all quick on their feet to making up responses to the questions. Councillor Levesque and Qualizza and I were very tough with enquiries that I was sure would stump them however they responded quickly with phrases and solutions that sounded plausible.

VIZ Energy had Dawson, Brendan and Simon who spoke about their acquisition of the Elko Dam from BC Hydro and their plans to produce energy and sell it back to Hydro to go on the grid. They presented drawings of the site and spoke on how this would be accomplished.

N Kenergy was Isaac, Zoe and Nick with their presentation of Solar Energy. Their idea was to provide solar panels for individual homes. When asked if they had considered that the Elko Dam project would be huge competition they replied that basically they could handle that.

Totally Nucleur had Emma, Sam and Paige. They idea was to turn waste to energy and feel this is the wave of the future as it would reduce waste, provide energy and reduce the size of landfills.

Industria Inc, had Kate, Layne, Hailey and Jaime talking about reducing emissions, removing metals and minerals and producing energy that would be positive in every way.

Environmentally friendly, ecology, reducing the financial impact on families, were some of the phrases heard from each group who also presented letters from different government approval agencies for their projects. One also had cards made up with name of the company, all had reached out to companies like Kimberly’s Sun Mine to learn actual information on their project.

It was obvious that the students had put serious thought into each presentation and although at times there were hints of nervousness for the most part they were well dressed, held correct posture, spoke clearly and made eye contact.

What is so important about this excise is not the content because with today’s technology information is at the students fingertips, what is significant is the student’s ability to take that information and deliver it in a self-confident way .

Dress, posture, eye contact, strong voice is what has to be projected, when these young teens are ready to score the job of their dreams what they have learned in this grade nine class will serve them well. These are tremendous skills to possess because it’s what can catapult the student into the future they desire.

Thank you Mme Esch, for caring, you are the teacher your students will always remember.