Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE) 2019 Winners
2019 Winners
EPA Region 1
No 2019 winners.
EPA Region 2
Aaron Baker, High Point Regional High School
Sussex, New Jersey
As a teacher with 20 years of experience, Aaron Baker has developed a unique environmental high school curriculum that challenges his students to recognize how their actions affect the environment and inspires them to pursue environmentally sustainable changes at High Point Regional High School and in the larger community. Students in Aaron's classes participate in hands-on, inquiry-based projects, activities, labs, and field experiences. They learn about renewable energy sources, waste management, and greenhouse gases by building their own biogas generators using bottles, balloons, and goat and llama manure. The biogas produced is used to fuel Bunsen burners that the students use to cook marshmallows for s'mores. They also build solar ovens that cook meals to explore the science of passive solar energy.
Students explore the topics of water pollution, water-borne disease, and water purification by building a variety of water purification systems that are later tested to determine their filtration efficacies via bacterial culturing before and after filtration and disinfection. Field excursions are conducted in the forest surrounding their school to sample and assess pollution levels in the stream; sample tree density and distribution; and evaluate air pollution by examining the abundance and distribution of lichen. Students help organize a STEM Activity Fair for elementary students and their families and participate in a riparian restoration program developed in collaboration with the Wallkill River Watershed Management Group. Trees are planted along the local Papakating Creek to mitigate the effects of deforestation and to combat the presence of the invasive Reed Canary Grass.
Aaron continues to incorporate sustainability lessons into his classes and his students are currently developing a food waste diversion program at their school and are coordinating with a local pig farmer to develop a plan for cafeteria food waste to
go to the farm instead of to a landfill.
AnnMarie Mills, Islip Middle School
Islip, New York
As an 8th grade environmental education teacher at Islip Middle School with more than 17 years of experience, AnnMarie Mills uses a unique hands-on approach to engage and inspire her students. AnnMarie's students are introduced to her "Outdoor Nature Centered Classroom" where they learn about relatable local environmental issues by investigating the Lake Athasca ecosystem located on their school's grounds. As part of the curriculum, students use scientific skills and participate in several hands-on lessons to investigate the lake's ecosystem. Lessons incorporate the use of scientific equipment including waders, dip nets, seining nets, plankton town nets, water quality testing kits, binoculars, magnifying glasses, dichotomous keys, rulers, and digital microscopes.
Students use these tools to collect information on the lake's water quality, biodiversity index, and to perform a macroinvertebrate survey. Living organisms that the students collect include fish, tadpoles, eels, snails, clams, and plants that are brought into the classroom for further study in a lesson on life cycles. Using their scientific investigation skills and understanding of how delicate their lake's ecosystem is, AnnMarie's students explore the potential for the occurrence of a fish kill through a series of laboratory experiments that examine the effects of nitrogen-based fertilizers on water quality.
In partnership with Molloy College's Crab Club, AnnMarie's students also study the native horseshoe crab in their Ecology Unit. Live horseshoe crabs are kept in a tank in the classroom and serve as the basis for hands-on exploration to demonstrate the interconnection of the horseshoe crab to other local wildlife and population.
EPA Region 3
Brittany Bauer
Wyoming County East High School New Richmond, West Virginia
During her 8-1/2 years as an educator, Brittany Bauer has been working to create a learning environment at Wyoming County East High School that engages and inspires her 10th through 12th grade students to become active environmental stewards. Brittany's students participate in classroom and field projects that focus on addressing local environmental issues, including assessing the health of the Guyandotte River by collecting water samples and data on macroinvertebrates, evaluating their personal consumption and waste generation to identify ways to reduce littering in their community, and cleaning up 26.2 miles of roadside and streams.
Brittany also facilitated the development of a student-run recycling program with the school's Friends of the Earth Club. Students organized school-wide recycling pep-rallies, created a commercial, developed educational presentations, created a recycling rap, and worked with other schools, local businesses and members of the community to expand the collection program. Community members bring their recyclable materials to the school for sorting and weighing and proceeds from the aluminum recycling are used to fund Environmental Steward Scholarships.
Students in Brittany's classroom also learn about the value of biodiversity in the Appalachia region by participating in hikes with naturalists to identify local medicinal plants, keystone species, symbiotic relationships, and the effects of invasive species.
Brittany's dedication to environmental education has earned state and national recognition, including the Environmental Award for Community and Education from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP). Through her efforts, her students have also received several recognitions, such as the Youth Environmental Protection Rhododendron Award for Environmental Impact and the 2018 WV DEP Youth Environmental Hall of Fame Award. The Friends of the Earth recycling program also placed first in two categories during the 2018 Pepsi Recycling Rally Action competition.
Jared Fritzinger, Old Donation School
Virginia Beach, Virginia
For the past 8 years, Jared Fritzinger has taught Civics and Economics classes to academically gifted 8th grade students. Six years ago, Jared collaborated with his Earth Science colleagues to develop a curriculum that incorporated key citizenship and service-learning concepts with a focus on environmental sustainability. This led to the creation of the Capstone Project, a service learning, student-centered, interdisciplinary sustainability program that helps connect students to real-world experiences.
During the Capstone Project, students work in groups to identify a need in the local community and then identify how to address that need. Students must incorporate and adhere to the Three Pillars of Sustainability (economic development, social development, and environmental protection). As part of the 2018 Capstone Project, Jared's students developed the Capstone EcoBus in which students identified the need to collaborate with elementary school teachers in 2nd through 5th grades to help them incorporate sustainability practices into their science curriculum. Working together, the students proposed the concept of a mobile sustainability classroom housed in a decommissioned school bus. Jared's students were intrinsically involved in every step of the project, including planning, fundraising, financing, design, and construction.
Past student Capstone Projects have addressed healthy school environments, environmentally friendly agriculture practices, human contributions to ocean litter, school gardens, recycling, and STEM education. In the 6 years since the program's inception, students have built community gardens, worked to have their school courtyard designated as an official schoolyard habitat, built bat houses and hummingbird feeders, planted pollinator gardens, utilized discarded Christmas trees to shore up sand dunes against erosion, woven mats and blankets for homeless people utilizing yarn made from recycled plastic bags, lobbied the Virginia House of Delegates to ban balloon releases within the state borders, designed rain barrels that operate automatically based on the moisture readings of soil sensors, created wind turbines for automobiles that charge interior electrical components, and collected 1,500 discarded cellular telephones for recycling.
EPA Region 4
Carrie Settles Livers, Brookwood High School
Snellville, Georgia
Carrie Settles Livers, a science teacher at Brookwood High School, believes that students best engage in learning when curriculum is applicable to real-world experiences. Students in Carrie's Natural Resource Management course participate in experiential learning opportunities including maintaining and troubleshooting the classroom's two aquaponics lab systems and using engineering and design principles to build their own mini-aquaponics systems. During the aquaponics project, Carrie's students learn about the importance of sustainable farming practices and how agricultural farming using scientific concepts of genetics, botany, physics, and environmental engineering can help tackle issues that contribute to food deserts in their community.
Carrie has formed local community partnerships to bring environmental businesses into the classroom as guest speakers. Guest speakers have included the National Sales Director from Organic Valley Farms who spoke about his show company's sustainable business model; the Chief Executive Officer of Hatponics, Inc., who shared his startup story; a representative from the University of Georgia's extension center who delivered a lesson on fall gardening; a water consulting firm contracted by the County government who spoke about water conservation; and the City of Snellville's Economic Development Advisor who spoke about his honey bee farm and concerns of colony collapse disorder.
The students' interaction with City officials led to an exciting partnering opportunity that involved collaborating on the creation of a new City Market. Students were charged with preparing and submitting green building designs to the City Council. Three of Carrie's students are serving on a special council that provides feedback during the building of the City Market. This experience empowered her students as they learned about the concepts of urban sprawl, infill, zoning, transportation issues, alternative energy, and urban agriculture.
Nancy Platt, James B. Edwards Elementary School
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
As a special needs educator with more than 12 years of experience, Nancy Platt encourages her students to explore the natural world through hands-on projects and activities that are relevant to their community. Nancy initially began her career at the high school level and created a student angling club. She was approached by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFS) to help tag fish species to track migrations in the local waterways. Nancy and her students also became involved in the Coastal Conservation Association and South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement (SCORE) Project. As part of the SCORE Project, the school hosted a recycled oyster shell bagging event where two dump truck loads of shells were collected, and the shells were used to build two strategic reefs that targeted erosion areas.
In 2013, Nancy began teaching at the elementary school level where she continued to share her passion for environmental sustainability. Students in 3rd through 5th grade participate in oyster bagging events and learn about the salt marsh estuary environment. Nancy's students also take part in their school's From Seeds to Shoreline Program (FS2S). Students in the school's Green Team harvest and germinate sporobolus that is eventually transplanted to a local Atlantic Sturgeon hatchery. Students also grow crops in garden beds at their school and hold plant fundraisers to raise money for the school's sustainability program. Vegetables, including sweet potatoes, squash, spinach, carrots, beets, kale, collards, lettuce, spring onions, peaks and beans, are harvested from the school garden and are shared with the school's classrooms for healthy tastings. The vegetables also supplement a backpack buddies' program that sends bags of food home with families in need.
Nancy is also involved in her school's ECO club. Students in the ECO club work to address local environmental issues by collecting items for recycling, conducting trash assessments, and overseeing the student body's disposal of lunch waste. Nancy's efforts to improve environmental education at her school have earned her several honors; including the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control's 2015 State Recycling Teacher of the Year, the 2015-2016 James
B. Edwards Teacher of the Year, and through her efforts, her school was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Award in 2017. Nancy has also helped raise more than $20,000 for environmentally sustainable activities at her
school through grants, donations, funded projects, and fundraisers.
EPA Region 5
Jennifer Heyer, Cedar Ridge Elementary School
Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Jennifer Heyer is a kindergarten teacher at Cedar Ridge Elementary School with 18 years of experience. Four years ago, Jennifer decided to spend time outside with her class barefoot and was surprised by students who complained they didn't want to touch the grass and get dirty. Determined to connect her students with the outdoors, Jennifer researched methods of outdoor teaching and prepared a science-based outdoor program for her students called, "Wilderness Wednesdays." Over time, Jennifer realized that Wilderness Wednesday's lesson plans began to create themselves as children would go on explorations and ask questions about animals, trees, tracks, and the weather, which were all topics that fell within state standards.
Parents of Jennifer's students have continually supported the science program and the opportunity for learning science in a more personal, authentic way. This motivated Jennifer to develop the Weekend Wilderness Challenge that inspires students' families to spend time outside together each weekend. Since the start of the Wilderness Wednesday program, Jennifer has seen a huge growth in her students academically, socially, emotionally, and physically. Students are eager to learn and are excited to explore their environment.
Jennifer's students also participate in Earth Day cleanups. She has introduced the children to "Trash Bingo," where different types of trash they find translates to an "X" on their bingo card. Students observe the kinds of garbage they collect and make connections about the human contributions to litter and how to prevent it. Jennifer's students also plant gardens with corn, pumpkins, lettuce, sunflowers, and Marigold flowers that help them learn how each plant grows, examining everything from the seeds, root systems, stems, and leaves.
EPA Region 6
Ryan Beeler, Spring Woods High School
Houston, Texas
As a teacher at Spring Woods High School with more than 6 years of experience, Ryan Beeler shares his passion for science with his students by encouraging them to think inquisitively about the world around them. Ryan's curriculum incorporates civic engagement and environmental responsibility concepts by integrating topics, including pollution, recycling, availability of natural resources, and food waste, in a relatable way into his lessons.
Throughout the school year, Ryan's students conduct hands-on laboratory activities and participate in a Socratic Seminar at the end of each unit. To prepare for the seminar, students research an assigned topic and discuss what they have learned and their ideas. Ryan's students actively debate and defend their ideas in an encouraging and safe setting.
During Ryan's Pollution Unit, students learn about their county's contributions to carbon dioxide emissions and about the public health implications. They also learn about the correlation between poverty and pollution. Students research the types of pollutants released, how they are monitored, and perform a hands-on laboratory experiment to measure different air and water pollutants. Ryan's students complete his class with an understanding of how scientists perform research and how pollution affects their lives outside of school.
EPA Region 8
Amy Williams, Polson Middle School
Polson, Montana
As a special education teacher and Indian Education Coordinator with more than 13 years of experience, Amy Williams provides learning opportunities that are hands-on, environmentally diverse, and culturally significant. Students at Polson Middle School, located on the Flathead Indian Reservation, spend time in the school's community garden to learn science, history, traditional agricultural practices, sustainability, and life cycles. School staff and community members also volunteer their time tending to the garden. An annual community Harvest Feast is held to share and celebrate the success of the growing season and to educate families about foods indigenous to North America.
Amy encourages environmentally sustainable growing practices, such as using locally sourced wood for structures, using recycled materials to make traps for trespassing rodents, designing and implementing a low-flow irrigation system pumped from an irrigation canal, utilizing beneficial insects to control pests, using pots made out of recycled newspaper to grow seedlings, and using composting and vermicomposting instead of synthetic fertilizers. Amy has noticed that spending time and working in the school garden has helped several of her students regulate their emotions and behaviors.
Amy and her students also work with their school food service to compost post-lunch line waste. They have composted 1,622 pounds this year. Students are taught how to separate items from trays before disposal and are taught about composting, sustainable harvest of traditional materials, and reusing items to reduce waste.
Amy mentors students in her after-school Environmental Advocates for Global and Local Ecological Sustainability (EAGLES) Club. This year, students in the EAGLES Club are focusing on water conservation issues associated with the Flathead River and Lake. They are learning about plants and animals that depend on the water, the effects of plastics and pollutants on lakes and streams, and how the pollutants impact water quality.
EPA Region 9
Jacqueline Omania, Oxford Elementary School
Berkeley, California
Jacqueline Omania, a teacher of 3rd grade elementary school students with more than 30 years of experience, encourages and inspires her students to think outside the box to solve environmental problems. During the first 15 years of her teaching career, she founded and developed the first Farm and Garden program within the Berkeley Public School system. When Jacqueline transitioned into the classroom setting, she became a community support agriculture (CSA) member so that she could help her students experience the benefits of fresh produce. Twice a month, her class receives boxes of produce from a nearby organic farm that students inspect. On "Raw Day," students eat the produce that can be consumed raw, and the rest of it goes home with a student to be cooked and shared with the class the next day on what is known as "Cooked Day." The CSA activity teaches students about local, organic, plastic-free food, and students write journal entries about their experiences.
Building on the CSA activity, Jacqueline's students learn about the environmental effects of landfill waste with a focus on the detrimental effects of plastic. Resolved to be part of the solution, Jacqueline's students began the Zero Waste Classroom project. Now that students are several years into implementing this project, waste generation has been reduced from five, four-gallon bags of landfill waste the first year to 2 cups of waste on day 132 of the 2018-2019 school year. Students also conducted waste audits to identify which activities in the classroom create the most waste and worked to find alternatives. Students implemented other waste reduction measures such as using unpainted pencils so that the shavings could be composted, forgoing glue sticks and using plastic cereal bowls collected from the school breakfast as dipping bowls for glue and eschewing the use of paper towels in favor of personal hand towels that could be washed and reused.
Jacqueline's students also learn about the beauty and wonder of the world's oceans and the problems associated with plastic pollution. Students collected plastic waste from their homes and made ocean animal art accompanied by an informational artist statement. Some of the art pieces were displayed in Berkeley's city-wide youth art show.
EPA Region 10
Anne McHugh, Franklin High School
Portland, Oregon
Anne McHugh's goal as a science educator at Franklin High School is to stimulate her students' sense of discovery through authentic scientific research. Anne has developed several projects that emphasize the philosophy that scientific discovery is a set of questions that have not yet been answered. Her arachnid biodiversity project is based on research she conducted for her master's degree, where she collected arachnids throughout the Caribbean as part of a biodiversity survey. Anne's students form hypotheses about how arthropod biodiversity relates to a biotic or abiotic factor. Then, they visit their local park to test their hypotheses. Students engineer and construct their study materials, including arthropod sifters to collect their samples. Results from the survey are compared to the theories they learned in class.
Anne's students also take part in a research project that examines the role of microbes in cycling nitrogen in aquaponics systems. Students design and build 10 desktop aquaponics systems and test hypotheses on how macro-level design choices can impact the microbial diversity over time. The results of the project are shared with scientists at NASA, as well as other people interested in aquaponics. In 2017, some of her students presented their results at the National Aquaponics Association Meeting and carried on their microbial diversity research for Science Fair projects in collaboration with scientists at the University of Southern California.
Students also participate in a citizen science project developed in collaboration with NASA's Ames Research Center. These high school students investigate how cyanobacteria have evolved and differentiated in hypersaline environments, and they experiment with how changes in lighting and growth media change the bacteria growth rate. Results from this project contribute to NASA's ongoing research.
2019 PIAEE Honorable Mentions
EPA Region 3
Matthew Sturdivant, Odyssey Charter School
Wilmington, Delaware
Through the Green Team at Odyssey Charter School, Matthew Sturdivant shares his passion for environmental science by using a hands-on approach to help students connect with the school's community. During the school year, students grow crops in the school's eight-bed garden, with each grade responsible for a different step in the growing process. Crops harvested from the garden are donated to local food desert areas in Wilmington, Delaware, where nutritious foods are difficult to obtain. This project demonstrates to students how they can make a positive social impact in their communities.
The school also recently added a chicken coop and six chickens that will be managed by Matthew's environmental science students. In addition, nutrient-rich soil will be prepared for the school's garden through a new classroom vermicomposting project composed of three vermicomposting bins.
In addition to tending to the school's garden, Matthew's students learn about the detrimental effects of human litter in oceans and the effects of plastics on sea animals. Students recently researched ways to reduce plastic container garbage generated by restaurants and wrote letters to state representatives to support a bill proposed in 2019 in Delaware called "Straws by Request Only." Matthew's students also held a school-wide plastic bag recycling event that diverted more than 34,000 plastic bags from the local landfill.
EPA Region 4
Missy Eason, Pine Grove Elementary School
Valdosta, Georgia
As a science teacher with more than 27 years of experience, Missy Eason uses the Project Learning Tree environmental education curriculum to engage her 4th grade students through experiential, place-based learning activities. Missy's students participate in several activities in their community's forestland, including the Web of Life activity where they learn about the interconnectivity of species in the local ecosystem; the Tale of the Sun activity that integrates science, social studies, and reading concepts; and through AG-Day, which has taken place at Missy's family farm since 1998.
During AG-Day, Missy's students learn about sustainable farm management, observe multiple ecosystems, and participate in several hands-on activities. Students develop an understanding of how farms can support communities by producing products that are sustainably managed. Missy engages community experts from local universities to enhance student learning opportunities and helped develop a recycling program at her school that challenges classrooms to collect recyclable materials.
Missy is the recipient of several honors, including the 2012 Pine Grove Elementary Teacher of the Year and the 2015 National Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator of the Year. She has also served on several local, district, and state committees dedicated to promoting environmental education in the State of Georgia.
Elaine Fiore
Beachside Montessori Village Hollywood, Florida
As a teacher at Beachside Montessori Village with more than 25 years of experience, Elaine Fiore inspires her students in 6th through 8th grade to make individual choices to help the environment and benefit their community. Elaine's students primarily study topics focused on food waste and the effects of plastic ocean pollution on the marine ecosystem.
Elaine's students conducted a class food waste project that started by auditing their school's cafeteria food waste. Students who purchase lunch are required to take three food items per U.S. Department of Agriculture requirements, even if they do not plan on eating all of them. The unused food items were being thrown into the garbage. To demonstrate the magnitude of unopened and unpeeled food items being thrown away, students placed the items on a cart set up in the cafeteria. At the end of the lunch period, students were stunned by the amount of food that was being thrown away, destined for the landfill. This realization motivated students to find a solution that both diverted the food from the landfill and fed hungry students.
After overcoming several hurdles and consulting with the school's Food and Nutrition Services Coordinator, Beachside Montessori Village instituted a food recovery program that made available a share table where students could place unopened and unpeeled food items to feed others. Since the start of their program, Ela ne has led training at more than 50 schools and
has facilitated the start of food recovery programs at 15 additional schools.
EPA Region 6
Allison Adkinson, Tarver-Rendon Elementary School
Burleson, Texas
With over 110 acres of unlimited space at their campus, Allison Adkinson's lessons extend beyond the four walls of a traditional classroom. Her students are able to learn about the importance of the environment, agriculture and sustainable products. Allison stresses to her students the importance of caring for Earth our natural resources, and the importance of gardening and agriculture.
In designing and planning lessons, Allison tailors lessons to include hands on place-based learning that involve using the senses. Discovery Park and gardens have done so well, that Allison has extended the garden to the campus salad bar and beyond. Allison created a new project to take the garden to the community by hosting and running a Farmer's Market. With teacher guidance, students harvest, market, and sell their produce. The market is open to the community with all proceeds from it going directly to purchasing seeds, soil, and planters to keep the garden self-sustaining. This project allows students to see personal finance and economic growth in their own lives. They can take their hard-earned money and put it back into a project that they are passionate about and personally vested in at an early age. Additionally, Allison and her students take any unsold produce to help feed students at summer school, feed first responders and donate to Feed the Kids summer program. Additionally, they are able to reach more people not only in their community, but also in the community their district serves, and their surrounding areas. Allison has shown her students the importance of giving back. This lesson in caring is one they will carry with them years after they leave Tarver Rendon.
Allison's students are now looking beyond their K-12 experience and have started asking about college. Students as young as kindergarten have begun to earn service hours that they will be able to use on their college and scholarship applications. They see this program as a way of helping them to achieve their dreams of launching a college or career pathway.
Isabel Anaya, Charles L. Kuentz, Jr. Elementary School
Helotes, Texas
Over the last 18 years as an elementary school teacher, Isabel Anaya has connected her 5th grade students to the natural world using fun, hands-on, interactive, problem-based learning opportunities that inspires their natural curiosity. Her students learn valuable life lessons by maintaining their school's garden and addressing complex environmental issues. During Isabel's Personal Water Eco-Audit lesson, groups of students focus on the real-world issue of water use, the implications of their water consumption, and the impacts to the environment. As a result of their hard work, four student teams won an Eco-Audit Grant through EcoRise and used the funds to purchase their school's first water bottle filling station.
Isabel's students also learn about waste management. They are implementing a Zero-Waste Campaign at their school, which includes an Upcycling Competition that challenges students to apply the principles of upcycling to build a product out of waste materials. Isabel also engages with her school's community to bring local partners and experts into her classroom to share their expertise on environmental issues. Partners have included the National Wildlife Federation that guided students in the creation of Monarch Hero Butterfly Gardens, the local Solid Waste Management Division to present about the important of recycling, and representatives from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Program who have shared their knowledge on composting and vermicomposting. Isabel's approach to environmental education has fostered a learning
environment that encourages her students' creativity and critical thinking.
EPA Region 8
Caitlin Webb, Dixon School
Dixon, Montana
Caitlin Webb is the only middle school science teacher in Dixon, Montana, a small town on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Many of her students face challenges from living in a high poverty, rural area. To meet her students' needs, Caitlin designed an environmental education program using traditional teaching methods along with inquiry-based and culturally responsive lessons that are fun and engaging. Caitlin's students utilize the wonderful resources on their reservation and in their state to conduct place-based learning. Students observe their community's environment and discover how their actions can have a positive effect on the environment, fostering pride in their community.
Caitlin has also worked with the school cook to initiate a Farm-to-School program. The harvest from the school garden is served during the school's summer programs and in the fall of the regular school year. This project allows students to have a better understanding of where their food comes from while also driving home the interconnectedness of their food systems and ecosystems. Additionally, Caitlin is leading an effort for her school to be designated a Bronze-Level Ecoschool through the EcoSchools USA program. The process to achieve this designation includes implementing a student-led community action project; auditing the school grounds to look for appropriate wildlife habitats, green space, and water use; and forming a student Eco Club with the purpose of driving ecology-based and environmental actions at the school such as recycling and water conservation.
Caitlin teaches both Montana and U.S. History, which provides a unique opportunity to incorporate Montana's history into her environmental science curriculum. Students learn about the historical and environmental effects of gold and copper mining in Northwestern Montana, by examining topics of heavy metals contamination in the Clark Fork River.
EPA Region 9
Rachna Nath, Arizona College Preparatory - Erie
Chandler, Arizona
Since she began teaching at Arizona College Preparatory – Erie, Rachna Nath has been an environmental advocate working to enrich her students' critical thinking and problem-solving skills through use of research-based, place-based, and claim- evidence and reasoning methods. Rachna's science curriculum, which she calls 'Dream Research Innovate and Project- based Learning' (DRIPbL), challenges students to solve real-world environmental problems by conducting research-based experiments. Rachna incorporates unique strategies to engage her students, including limiting class rules to foster an open environment for student and teacher interaction; creating innovative ways for students to share their knowledge with peers, such as writing poetry, songs, and podcasts; participating in hands-on activities; and participating in field trips.
Rachna's students are working with the Arizona Department of Environmental Protection to increase awareness about volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and to develop a reusable, organic, VOC-free air freshener. They also organize e-waste collection events and are developing an anti-swarming bee agent using household herbs and spices. They are building a sustainable hydroponics garden using milk cartons from the school's cafeteria and an outdoor sustainable garden on the school's campus.
Rachna is continually seeking sponsors and funding for her students' environmental sustainability projects. She has secured several grants, including the Society for Science research grant and a Flinn Foundation grant to develop a biophysics pipeline to Arizona a State University.
Kelly Porter, Edison High School
Huntington Beach, California
Kelly Porter, a teacher at Edison High School with 7 years of experience, believes that personal experiences and place-based, experiential learning are keys to a successful environmental education curriculum. Students in Kelly's class participate in genetics labs that study the wing mutations of reddish egrets, a species found in local Huntington Beach wetlands. Over the course of eight months, her Advanced Placement (AP) students choose an environmental topic, design a research experiment, collect and analyze their data, and write a scientific paper to present and share their findings with classmates. During their projects, students collaborate with a local wetland-focused non-profit, local medical clinics, other teachers,
and other schools in the area.
Another one of Kelly's particularly successful projects at Edison High School was accomplished in the "Introduction to Sustainability" course. Students researched local plant species and habitats, designed habitats, and installed their new native habitats in planters. The native habitats are maintained by students with moderate to severe disabilities as part of their science program.
Kelly continually adapts her environmental education curriculum to reflect community issues and prioritizes, the interests of her students, and addresses other hot topics and questions. For example, during a discussion on climate change, when a student asked questions about wildfires, Kelly used it as an opportunity to develop an activity to analyze wildfire patterns in California. After the Paradise fire, the activity evolved into weeks of activities that explored the effects of climate change and how students could make positive environmental changes.