Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE) 2021 Winners
Each year, EPA recognizes national winners of the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE).
Winners by year: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 and earlier
2021 Winners
Read the press release about this year's winners. Congratulations!
EPA Region 1
Carly Imhoff, The Ashford School
Ashford, Connecticut
For 10 years, Science Enrichment Teacher Ms. Imhoff has created innovative, hands-on learning for students from kindergarten through 8th grade at the Ashford School in Ashford, Connecticut. Her creative teaching approaches and innovative use of technology connects her students to global environmental challenges by partnering with students from around the world through virtual exchanges.
Since the school is in a rural area and most of the students have never been to a city or travelled far from their community, Ms. Imhoff has made it a priority to engage her students in global issues and impacts while prompting her students to look for local solutions. For example, her class has interacted with a Nigerian class to discuss climate change and worked with a rural STEM school in Germany to perform data analysis to map sustainability in the U.S. and Germany and innovate local solutions. Meanwhile, during the COVID-19 pandemic, her students created outdoor classrooms and reopened a nature trail nearby the school. The students also identified and then proactively worked with the local town to reduce auto emissions around their school.
In May 2019, the Ashford School was granted the opportunity to take five students to Bermuda to study the DNA of lionfish, an invasive species. Ms. Imhoff and a colleague developed a program for her students and local Bermuda students to collaboratively design underwater robots using their engineering and science skills. These robots have been collecting data on how invasive species are affecting the environment. The robotics program has further motivated Ms. Imhoff’s students and brought awareness to the community about the Ashford School’s innovative environmental education programs.
Besides her highly successful, innovative teaching approach, Ms. Imhoff has championed school improvements through multiple roles. She has led science teachers in developing a plan for phasing in the next generation science standards (NGSS) and tying the science standards to real world, project-based learning. This resulted in building a greenhouse and designing an NGSS-aligned, interdisciplinary curriculum. Ms. Imhoff also organized STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) days at the school and created an extensive website with useful links for students and parents.
Ms. Imhoff is dedicated to hands-on learning and has received grants specifically designed to engage at-risk youth in environmental opportunities. With a degree in human ecology, Ms. Imhoff inspires the next generation to develop sustainable solutions to world problems. To this end, she has coached her students in a model fuel cell car competition and built and uses the school greenhouse to teach about food systems and sustainable agriculture. Ms. Imhoff also partnered with a local research forest so her students could learn about sustainable logging. Each year, she takes students to Long Island Sound where they take part in citizen science activities to study and observe how human behavior impacts the environment. Through her continuing education experiences in Asia, South Pacific, and South America combined with her outreach to communities in Europe and Africa, Ms. Imhoff is dedicated to continuous learning and professional development as demonstrated by her presentations at the New England League of Middle Schools, as well as The Connecticut STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Conference.
Lori LaFrance, Ipswich High School
Ipswich, Massachusetts
Ms. LaFrance is the 11th and 12th grade Environmental Science teacher at Ipswich High School in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Over the last 14.5 years, Ms. LaFrance has empowered her students to take actions preserving their community’s valuable natural resources both on land and in the ocean while developing strong leadership skills and a passion for the environment.
Ms. LaFrance has created a culture where her students not only study environmentally significant issues that have affected Ipswich but take action to preserve their community’s valuable natural resources. During a town meeting, her students advocated to install electric vehicle charging stations around town and educated local governmental officials about environmental concerns. from plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam coffee cups, and plastic straws. Their efforts led to a successful ban of these items, including the town in the first wave to do so in Massachusetts. For this project, the students were celebrated as the first winners of the Ocean Spirit Award given by Women Working for Oceans at the New England Aquarium. Her students have also been invited to participate in local and regional roundtables and discussions with other stakeholders on environmentally charged topics
For several years Ms. LaFrance’s students have been active in marine-related projects including marine debris. Ms. LaFrance’s students built and tracked an oceanic drifter equipped with GPS that simulates the trajectory of commonly found marine debris. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) later used the data to update its marine debris tracking databases. Students have also been learning valuable skills through the annual project of gathering and analyzing data and presenting their findings at the annual Coastal Science Conference.
In an innovative collaboration, Ms. LaFrance and her colleague who teaches American government, have combined subjects to create classes that explore both the science and climate change policy. The course will have an interactive forum with a Massachusetts state representative who will answer students’ questions about policy making, science concepts, social justice, climate change, and environmental justice. Students will then take part in a debate over the path the U.S. should take in tackling these issues and come away with actionable next steps.
Due in part to her efforts and the development of an AP Environmental class and a Sustainability Scholars class, the Ipswich High School earned the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon designation in 2019. However, arguably Ms. La France’s biggest achievement has been in watching her students take their passion for the environment and the various skills they learned from her and carry it forward in their careers and lives.
EPA Region 2
No 2021 winners.
EPA Region 3
No 2021 winners.
EPA Region 4
Denise Renfro, Douglas Byrd High School
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Denise Renfro is a science teacher for 9th through 12th grade at Douglas Byrd High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina. She draws upon her 25 years of teaching, coaching, and tech savviness to implement a unique, hands-on approach to provide opportunities for an underserved student population that collaborates with the greater community.
The Douglas Byrd High School is located in an underserved, minority, low-income community that lacks STEM opportunities and struggles with poor graduation rates, food insecurity and other issues. Over the years, Ms. Renfro has brought unique opportunities to the students, believing that they are most successful when they have access to state-of-the-art tools and technology, real-world experiential learning and are encouraged towards self-directed learning based on discipline and curiosity. She has won over $400,000 in grant funds, is an NC Energy Literacy Fellow, UNC-IE Climate Fellow, and Funds For Teachers Fellow.
Ms. Renfro’s mission is to make sure that her diverse, underserved students are learning about energy, the environment, and STEM by using new or advanced technologies; applying their knowledge through service to their community; and supplying unique educational experiences that will foster confident leadership skills and allow them to pursue meaningful careers as STEM professionals. To support this mission, Ms. Renfro helped shape the Academy of Green Technology (AoGT), a multiple grade level collaboration on place-based and experiential learning of which she is the Director.
Recently, multiple grades participated in the launch of weather balloons into the stratosphere to test the effect of extreme atmospheric conditions on seed germination. The Sun Stewards program explored solar energy and energy conservation though the use of an off-grid solar trailer. The students subsequently taught elementary students about these concepts during the yearly Earth Day Fair. The Green Team learns about and implements actions and protocols to create a healthier school environment and support recycling and water and energy conservation. Her Drone Program teaches students to fly drones, earn their drone license, work as a flight crew in energy and environmental applications, and use software applications like PIX 4D, ArcGIS, and Drone Deploy to assess data. The Greenhouse Project supports collaboration between her science classes and the Culinary Arts Department. Together, they built a greenhouse that supplies healthy and fresh vegetables for the farm-to-table program. It also provides occupational studies students an avenue for taking part in the environment. Additionally, Ms. Renfro has received grants to take her students to coastal North Carolina habitat. Only 10% of her students have been to the coast. During the trip, the students will learn about wave and wind energy, study the impacts of climate change on coastal habitats and conduct a beach erosion study.
Overall, Ms. Renfro’s efforts have made a dramatic impact on her students’ future endeavors. The AoGT graduation rate through the 2019/2020 school year is 100%, while the Douglas Byrd High School graduation rate is 74%. The AoGT student college enrollment is 70%, while the high school’s overall college enrollment is 36%. In addition, some of her students have physical, mental and/or emotional special needs and have thrived under her programs and mentoring. Ms. Renfro makes a real difference in the lives of her students!
Jason Vanzant, Bogue Sound Elementary School
Newport, North Carolina
Mr. Vanzant inspires and teaches kindergarten through 5th grade at Bogue Sound Elementary School in Newport, North Carolina. In his 13 years as an educator, he has created a “playbook” of environmental activities and resources that “scaffold” the learning process from topic to topic and grade-level to grade-level. Through his passion for the environment, Mr. Vanzant sparks student wonder, learning, and achievement! As a result of his interdisciplinary, hands-on, research- and place-based approaches to environmental education, the school district has seen dramatic shifts in academic achievement and interest in STEM classes and activities.
insight into elementary students’ needs and how to engage them through play and project-based learning scenarios that are developmentally age-appropriate is a model for all teachers. He has developed a STEM curriculum that includes environmental education, and he enthusiastically collaborates with other teachers to build STEM activities into their curricula. For example, he exposes his students to complex concepts like biomimicry and animal life cycles through experiential projects and play-based activities.
Mr. Vanzant is recognized as the only full-time STEM teacher and manages a fully compliant STEM lab. The STEM lab includes a living saltwater touch tank, a hydroponic garden system, a working rain garden, a butterfly garden, an outdoor classroom, and much more. He encourages conscious and empathetic care of all the animals they care for, allowing them to learn to care for aquatic life and gain perspective of how valuable these creatures are to the estuaries and commercial fisheries.
Mr. Vanzant has also fostered family oriented environmental experiences in the community by keeping parents involved and appraised of student projects at school and encouraging specific activities to do at home and in the neighborhood. When COVID-19 temporarily shut down his monthly parent STEM nights, Mr. Vanzant sent out citizen science activities to do at home.
His efforts have helped the Bogue Sounds Elementary School be designated as a NOAA Ocean Guardian School, the only school in its county designated as such. With NOAA approval and funding, Mr. Vanzant led his students to composting and debris collection projects at the school. His students presented their findings and ways to improve future efforts to the Board of Education. Mr. Vanzant regularly invites scientific professionals to share their research and passion with his students, piquing the students’ interest to consider for their own careers in the future. Mr. Vanzant has developed close ties with local environmental organizations that have afforded the students amazing opportunities at the Duke University Marine Laboratory, the Cape Lookout National Seashore Park, NOAA, the North Carolina Coastal Federation, the Pine Knolls Shore Aquarium, and the North Carolina Coastal Reserve. He has also fostered a partnership with the Aquaculture Department at the Carteret Community College.
EPA Region 5
Kelly Holtzman
Oconomowoc High School (AP), Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
Kelly Holtzman is a dedicated mentor for students and teachers alike, fostering an innovative, multi-disciplinary global environmental education curriculum at Oconomowoc High School in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. As the co-winner of the 2020 Wisconsin Energy Educator of the Year award, Ms. Holtzman is known as a passionate educator who strives to develop her students into empathetic, informed global citizens. To that end, she designs her courses to offer interactive and meaningful place-based environmental educational experiences both inside the classroom, around the community and around the world.
With a passion for teaching environmental awareness beyond the classroom, she partnered with a colleague in the world language department and co-created and taught an Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science bilingual global sustainability course. The course is anchored in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and connects students with nonprofit organizations and community partners. The Global Sustainability Course students work with the local Chamber of Commerce to promote recycling through social media postings and educational activities for the business and residential communities. The students learn about recycling through classroom activities and tour a materials recovery facility. Her students hand out re-usable bags to the community, while sending the collected non-reusable plastic bag to a recycling center. In addition, Ms. Holtzman has created courses covering the interface of limited natural resources and immigration, as well as how water pollution is impacted by fast fashion and fair trade.
Throughout the years, Ms. Holtzman continues to bring new interactive state and regional programs and projects to her school and students such as the Cools Choices program (to encourage environmentally healthy habits in Wisconsin schools); the TREX Plastic Film Challenge (to collect, document and recycle school plastics), a grant-funded farm-to-table field trip, hands-on field sampling and monitoring activities, and the Boomerang Bag project (to encourage reusable bags and reduce disposable plastic bags). Students have interacted with university departments, local and state government departments as well as professionals in the sustainability and natural resources fields to expand the students’ education as well as expose them to potential career opportunities. She has even co-hosted environmentally focused trips to the Dominican Republic, Iceland, Germany, and Costa Rica. All these unique opportunities along with her innovative courses provide active learning opportunities enabling her students to make connections and exchange ideas as they collaborate with peers and develop valuable team building and communication skills within the community.
For example, her students have worked with the Citizen’s Utility Board of Wisconsin, translating their community education materials into Spanish; prepared bilingual energy clinics for the local community; and worked with the Waukesha County Green Team to create bilingual podcasts, informing the community about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These opportunities give Ms. Holtzman’s students the ability to bridge their academic learning with serving the real world needs of educating Wisconsin’s underserved citizens on pressing topics, such as energy conservation and how to avoid energy scams.
EPA Region 6
No 2021 winners.
EPA Region 7
No 2021 winners.
EPA Region 8
No 2021 winners.
EPA Region 9
No 2021 winners.
EPA Region 10
No 2021 winners.
2021 PIAEE Honorable Mentions
Gwynne Millar, Exeter West Greenwich High School
West Greenwich, Rhode Island
As an innovative and passionate educator in the Exeter West Greenwich High School science department for over 25 years, Gwynne Millar has made science accessible to all, spurring curiosity and a call to action in her students. During her tenure, she has translated her passion for the environment into relevant, engaging, and project-based opportunities for her students by bringing science to life in her biology classroom. In addition, Ms. Millar has fostered practical solutions to community problems, allowing her students to plan, implement, and solve locally based environmental issues on the land and along the coastline.
Among her many accomplishments, Ms. Millar was instrumental in bringing a State-approved career and technical education program in the field of agriculture and environmental science to the campus. Through this program, students are exposed to hands-on learning in wildlife management, floriculture, horticulture, animal science, and advanced AP Biology. Another way that Ms. Millar has engaged her students is through the development of a school sustainability club. This club has coordinated successful composting and recycling activities and led a program in their community. This past spring the sustainability club and community partners were able to plant 350 trees, offsetting the school district’s paper use during the 2018-2019 school year.
In keeping with her continued support for her students, Ms. Millar has provided and encouraged unique, compelling, and engaging opportunities for them. In January 2020, her students testified for new environmental education standards at the Rhode Island state legislature. As the Future Farmers of America (FFA) advisor for the local chapter, Ms. Millar’s enthusiasm has helped increase student interest and involvement, doubling enrollment in the local FFA chapter in the last year alone. Ms. Millar also spearheaded the opportunity for her students to work alongside renowned scientists at an annual green sea turtle research trip to the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas. These research trips further habitat conservation and restoration for the turtles recovering from decades of harvesting for meat and eggs. In step with all her accomplishments and efforts, Ms. Millar was honored as the 2020 Exeter West Greenwich School District Teacher of the Year.
Christa Delaney, Egg Harbor Township High School
Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey
For over 16 years, Christa Delaney has blended academic rigor with exciting field-based learning and service opportunities for her high school students. Her classroom epitomizes the phrase “Think Global, Act Local,” challenging her students to find solutions to environmental issues on their campus as well as in the local community.
Although she teaches more traditional college prep and advanced science classes, she also develops classes that touch on current issues that students feel are applicable to their everyday life. In 2015, Ms. Delaney developed curriculum for a sustainability class. Some of the course work focused on food production, resource management, energy, and green building. Additionally, Ms. Delaney collaborated with another educator to focus the environmental education work around climate justice and social justice. An assembly was held with the Advanced Environmental Science class and the “Honors African American Studies” to discuss issues around environmental justice.
Throughout the years, Ms. Delaney has woven in many opportunities for sampling and field work, observing impacts from historical mining, and service projects at the local nature reserve. The service projects showed the students first-hand how their actions could restore the landscape and address human-caused environmental degradation.
Ms. Delaney has gone above and beyond in helping her school obtain national and international awards as well as participate in annual festivals and projects. Some of the recognition the school has received includes the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon School, Eco-Schools Green Flag award, and twice winning the Sustainable Champion Award for Sustainable Jersey for schools. In 2017, Ms. Delaney won the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award for an Educator in part for helping the school district reduce energy use by 35%. Ms. Delaney continues to collaborate with other teachers and educators to expand the reach of environmental education, awareness, and action throughout her district.
Maureen Heenan, Demasi School
Marlton, New Jersey
An educator for nearly 25 years, Maureen Heenan is a middle school teacher in Marlton, New Jersey, where she has been a driving force of environmental education in the school and district, providing many community service opportunities and field experiences for her students. From writing an innovative STEM curriculum, to creating and implementing Girl's STEM Day, and training students to become ambassadors of the local Black Run Preserve, Ms. Heenan has been an intrepid leader and an inspiring example for students and colleagues alike.
Ms. Heenan fosters independent thinking and problem solving in students as she opens the doors for students and teachers to explore nature and interact with the environment in meaningful ways. She provides unique projects and programs that are tailored to different groups of students, piquing their interests, driving curiosity, and building confidence. For example, as the facilitator of the Junior Ambassador Program, she coordinates and organizes ways for students with learning challenges to learn about the ecosystem of the local Pine Barrens and to ultimately lead their own tours of the area. This allows students to educate the wider community about the ecological importance of the area. Ms. Heenan also organizes trips to the local Black Run Preserve for community service projects in which students and teachers work with The Friends of the Black Run to improve the trails and clean up the preserve.
Ms. Heenan has also provided opportunities for girls to explore careers in STEM by attending special events and classes. These efforts have had a noticeably positive impact on the school’s aspiring female scientists. She has also developed programs specifically for young children, and gifted and talented students, among others.
By leveraging relationships formed over many years with environmentalists and other scientists, she provides an invaluable conduit between students and professionals who deliver genuine, hands-on experiences for students both in the classroom and on field trips. Ms. Heenan has initiated numerous Citizen Scientist experiences for students. Through a grant awarded in 2009, she also established an environmental stewardship program at her school affecting many grade levels throughout the district through communitywide service projects. This program continues even today. These collective opportunities have sparked a love of science and changed the trajectory of many students’ futures to include science in their career paths.
Through her efforts over two decades, Ms. Heenan has instilled among students and community members a sense of connectedness between nature and each other.
Katrina Broughman, Nelson Middle School
Nelson County, Virginia
As an 8th grade language arts teacher in Nelson County, Virginia, Katrina Broughman brings a truly multidisciplinary and multifaceted approach to having her students connect with nature through language exploration and expression. A little over a year ago, Ms. Broughman, as managing director of Rockfish Valley Foundation (RVF), was organizing regional efforts to connect middle school teachers and students for the purpose of developing exciting ways to educate children about their environment through place-based and project-based learning. Her recent acceptance of a position at Nelson Middle School has facilitated her ability to accomplish her goals and objectives while assisting a low-income, disadvantaged community.
In her new position at the school, Ms. Broughman has demonstrated her abilities for building relationships with at-risk populations, English as Second Language students, and students with special education needs. She exhibits sensitivity to her students’ social-emotional needs and always makes that a priority in her interactions as well as her lessons. During COVID-19, Ms. Broughman provided safe, alternative learning opportunities for many of her students since only about half of them had reliable internet access. Ms. Broughman has also shown her strengths as a holistic educator who always seeks to integrate environmental education with language arts and throughout the county’s curriculum while championing the various special needs of the student population.
Over the course of one short and very challenging school year, Ms. Broughman has led multiple efforts to educate the children of Nelson County about their environment. She arranged for Flippy the Whale (a visual representation of the issue with plastics in our waters) to visit all four schools in the county. Flippy the Whale was an opportunity for the entire county school system to learn about the dangers of single-use plastics. Each school hosted Flippy for one week while they promoted plastic prevention and recycling initiatives among their students and faculty.
Ms. Broughman spearheaded a project entitled “Puzzle Quest,” which engaged the whole middle school English department. Students created a digital poster highlighting the mission and activities of the RVF and two other nature centers in the region. Through this exercise, students learned about the environment and the role that organizations like the RVF play in preserving area communities. They made persuasive posters for the purpose of encouraging Nelson County elementary students to share this information with their families. Ms. Broughman has also taken over leadership of the Environmental Leadership Club at Nelson Middle School where she meets with concerned future environmental leaders every other week to discuss environmental issues and plan even more exciting events for the future.
Despite the challenges many of her students face both in the classroom and at home, her extensive efforts and care have made noticeable changes in their attitudes, fostering not only a greater connection with the planet but also amongst each other.
Melissa Tracy, Odyssey Charter School
Wilmington, Delaware
For over 14 years, Melissa Tracy has been committed to providing her high school students at the Odyssey Charter School in Wilmington, Delaware cross-disciplinary, hands-on, and real-world opportunities to be good environmental stewards. With her expertise in global studies, Ms. Tracy teaches a variety of courses designed to show the interactions of humans with their environmental including Human Geography and Civics, AP Human Geography, Dual Enrollment U.S. History, and an innovative Food Studies course. Her mission is to foster responsible, empowered global eco-citizens working at the local level.
At Odyssey Charter School, Ms. Tracy has piloted courses and led afterschool clubs that focus on harnessing the extraordinary power of student curiosity and problem-solving abilities to take on humanity’s biggest challenge to date, climate change. She has also challenged her students to look at diverse issues such as landfill waste, food insecurity, and single-use plastics and explore these topics through creating documentaries, speaking with local representatives, data collection, and public discourse. Her role as a teacher has even contributed to the passing of a state law. In 2019, House Bill 130 was passed in both chambers of the Delaware legislature. This made Delaware one of the first states to ban single-use plastic bags. Delaware Governor Carney welcomed the participation of Ms. Tracy’s students for the bill signing and credited the students in helping to push forward the bill that had been stalled in the Delaware legislature for over 10 years.
First piloted in 2018, Ms. Tracy’s innovative and cross-disciplinary Food Studies course empowers students to consider why food matters and how they can act to support a healthier food system. Ms. Tracy even transformed her classroom into a hydroponic learning lab to bring the Food Studies subject matter to life. In a single year, her Food Studies students hydroponically typically grow and donate at least 3,000 pounds of leafy greens to food insecure communities in the City of Wilmington. Through these actions and by creating culturally relevant and affordable meal kits, the students play a direct role in solving hunger and poverty in New Castle County.
Ms. Tracy also piloted a “Girls Grow Greens” club in partnership with an economics teacher leading to a future student-run farm stand. She also takes actions to make sure the local community has their needs met. When schools shut down in-person learning in March 2020 due to COIVD-19, Ms. Tracy continued to grow food in Odyssey Charter School’s outdoor vegetable garden and donated 100% of the more than 1,000 pounds of harvested produce to local food distribution centers. She also offered free “garden share” space to Odyssey’s low-income families.
Under Ms. Tracy’s leadership, Odyssey received the prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag in 2019 and the 2020 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon award. She also spearheaded the creation of the first state-wide Youth Environmental Summit (YES!) which inspires, encourages, and prepares youth for a life of environmental responsibility, service, and leadership.
Pamela Baker, Alma Bryant High School
Irvington, Alabama
Over the last 13 years, Pamela Baker has shared her passion and vision with her high school students, providing them with previously unavailable opportunities to have hands-on, real-world, community-centered STEM education courses. She routinely adapts her teaching methods to the needs of the student population showing them potential exciting career paths to help solve the real-world problems stemming from human impacts on the environment. Alma Bryant High School is in a low-income, rural community where 100% of the students receive two free meals a day. Ms. Baker’s contribution to help break the cycle of poverty is to prepare and introduce her students to solid, engaging career opportunities.
In 2018, Ms. Baker received the Shell Regional Lab Challenge award and used funding from the award to purchase 19 environmental science lab kits, which allowed her to transform the school’s environmental management course into a lab-based course. This transformation enabled students to explore real-world impacts and learn the basics of field exercises with soil, air, and water quality testing. Recognizing the limited funding available for the student population, she built upon this initial educational investment with an additional purchase of calculators and hubs to incorporate STEM education into the environmental course curriculum. This investment allowed students to design, engineer and code solutions to real-world problems. As a result, Ms. Baker’s efforts have made the entire campus a living laboratory to reinforce environmental education.
Serving as the Science department chair and lead teacher of the Coastal Environmental Science pathway program, Ms. Baker has increased both student engagement and enrollment in the program. She routinely plans and leads professional development within the school and participates on advisory panels for teacher workshops to promote the importance of environmental education. Ms. Baker gives her students ample opportunities to collaborate with scientists on field projects and apply for internships with a variety of institutes and organizations including The Nature Conservancy, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the Osprey Initiative, and Mobile Baykeeper. Ms. Baker continually advocates for environmental education and career tech services and is leading the way in cultivating the next generation of environmental leaders.
Gabriel Knowles, Helen R. Ealy Elementary School
Whitehall, Michigan
Gabriel Knowles is a seasoned elementary school instructor and inspirational environmental educator at the Helen R. Ealy Elementary School located in a low-income and underserved community with over 40 Superfund cleanup sites in their county. Mr. Knowles is responsible for teaching all content areas to students, including language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies and is especially skilled in connecting his science lessons to other subjects. As the first person in his family to graduate from high school (and then go on to be a college graduate), Mr. Knowles encourages and motivates his students to believe that any student can be a scientist, regardless of age, gender, race, background, or level of education.
Mr. Knowles offers students the opportunity to learn about the environment by immersing them in lessons that require them to complete actual scientific practices and investigations. He and his students recently built several large pollinator gardens at their school to teach the importance of the relationships between pollinators, flowering plants, and pollinating insects, such as bees and the Monarch butterfly. Mr. Knowles has helped students design and create native pollinator gardens throughout the community, including nursing homes, community libraries, and local museums. He even teaches his young students how to collect data based on their field observations – no easy feat! His efforts highlight the interrelated nature of all things in the environment and the ecological importance of supporting wildlife.
Leading by example, Mr. Knowles actively participates in the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) where he is introduced to cutting edge science through connections at Michigan State University that can be shared with his peers and students within the school and community. By introducing his students to long-term research projects regarding the interface of sustainable agriculture and the environment, he is exposing his young students first-hand to cutting edge environmental conservation research.
On top of it all, recently Mr. Knowles won the Michigan Elementary School Science Teacher of the Year award. Mr. Knowles brings many years of volunteering around the U.S. and his participation in stewardship initiatives to deepen the insight, confidence, and inspiration to his students. Through his efforts he has witnessed a significant change in student behavior and attitude which has had a positive impact on their academic achievement. Mr. Knowles’s efforts have encouraged students and take steps to ensure a healthy environment exists for future generations.
Jordan Dischinger-Smedes, Grand River Preparatory High School
Kentwood, Michigan
Jordan Dischinger-Smedes is an AP Environmental Science teacher in Kentwood, Michigan where his clear passion for environmental science fuels his students and colleagues towards greater opportunities and engagement. Over a 4-year period, enrollment in his course quadrupled and the AP exam pass rate has doubled. Even during a global pandemic, his enthusiasm for seeking new academic opportunities for his students has not waned. Serving a student population that is predominantly minority with over 50% economically disadvantaged, Mr. Dischinger-Smedes also has an unwavering belief that all students can take part in real-world issues and problem solving when provided support, encouragement, tools, and opportunities. His methods break down the walls of the classroom and teach and inspire his students with lessons beyond the textbook through place-based initiatives and collaboration with environmental and science professionals.
Key environmental education projects and opportunities that Mr. Dischinger-Smedes has led and provided to his students includes Project Peace by Youth, an EPA-sponsored program that teaches high school teachers and students how to use EnviroAtlas GIS software and an environmental framework to think about an issue in their community that they can improve. Mr. Dischinger-Smedes and his students have been exploring issues such as lead in soil and homes in low-income neighborhoods, food deserts, and water quality in Buck Creek. One of his students even won the presidency of the Grand Rapids Mayor’s Young Council on a platform of climate change mitigation and more equitable funding to an underfunded city ward.
Mr. Dischinger-Smedes is also involved in Groundswell: a place-based, environmental community service project funded by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and coordinated by Grand Valley State University. Through this partnership over the past three years, Mr. Dischinger-Smedes’ students researched, designed, installed, and now maintain, a native pollinator garden and rain garden in the school courtyard. For years, Mr. Dischinger-Smedes’ students have participated in Third 90, an extracurricular, environmental field research program sponsored by the Michigan College Alliance that puts students on working teams with local college professors to conduct field research projects. Students gained an understanding of local ecology, collected field data, and were exposed to college-level coursework, fueling a desire in some to pursue related degrees post-graduation.
Mr. Dischinger-Smedes teaches, influences, and acts as a role model for countless people in his school and community. More importantly, he gets students excited, not just about science, but also their ability to realize their dreams.
Brock Hammill, Corvallis High School
Corvallis, Montana
Brock Hammill has brought unique hands-on opportunities, real-world experience, and innovative, interactive projects to his students at Corvallis High School in Corvallis, Montana. For more than 20 years, Mr. Hammill has taught high school physics, chemistry, integrated science, AP physics, alternative energy, and computer programming.
Mr. Hammill is recognized for his ongoing research developments in air quality blending environmental science with technology to create place-based learning strategies that expose students to experiential learning opportunities. Each year for the last 15 years, approximately 50 students have participated in an innovative air quality course and presented their findings at the University of Montana during the Spring Air Quality Symposium. His students have also developed a website that provides instructions on how to build low-cost indoor air quality monitors which have been used by people in Australia, India and across the U.S.
Mr. Hammill’s accomplishments include participation, coordination, and advisement of the Reach Program, which is funded through the National Institute of Health (NIH) Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA). Over the past 12 years, he has mentored over 700 students who have conducted air quality science research projects. Mr. Hammill is also an active advisory board member for NIH SEPA, introducing new teachers to the program and setting them up for success.
The students in the program get first-hand experience designing, conducting, and presenting air quality science research projects. In this STEM-intensive project, they collect data from monitors they construct, code, and calibrate. These student-built, custom air quality monitors allow students to measure the air pollution levels in their homes, schools, and workplaces. These monitors cost less than $50 each and perform at the level of comparable systems that cost more than $1500. Their monitoring efforts have made the community aware of air quality issues in their homes, stores and facilities from forest fires, slash and burn operations, wood stove smoke, and other indoor activities This increased awareness has led Mr. Hammill, his students, and the local community to address health concerns, reduce exposure, and provide better ventilation and other mitigation measures to help the greater community.
Mr. Hammill’s initiatives expose students, their families, and the local community to real-world experiences that helps to break down barriers and generate curiosity about the surrounding environment, particularly in air quality. The success of the Reach Program has led to a school and community with greater awareness of environmental stewardship and instilled pride in students. Mr. Hammill’s attention to active learning opportunities enables his students to make connections and exchange ideas as they collaborate with peers and develop valuable team building and communication skills.
Jacie Pressett, Carbon High School
Price, Utah
Grateful for the opportunities her own education afforded her as a youth, while witnessing her own siblings struggle to graduate, Jacie Pressett promised herself early on she would give back by creating learning spaces and opportunities for all types of students. With over 10 years of doing just that at the Carbon High School in Price, Utah, Ms. Pressett has integrated multiple modalities into her lesson plans engaging diverse learners and driving a passion for curiosity and action in her students.
Carbon County is known historically and currently as Utah’s melting pot. Her students learn about the interface of environmental issues with agriculture, animal husbandry, land management, natural resources use, and coal mining, while building confidence and leadership skills through contests and competitions that leave no one behind. She draws on the strengths of each type of learner by having them collaborate to create interactive, imaginative, and robust projects where everyone gets to shine.
With a poverty rate nearly 50% higher than the state average, mostly due to a decline in the coal industry, the community is directly impacted by natural resource management and other related issues. Ms. Pressett challenges her students not only to investigate the historical cultural norms as they relate to environmental issues and food insecurity in their community but to make a difference. She created numerous community events and initiatives to help foster sustainable food production and agriculture literacy. Her students have also collaborated with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources for a wildlife release project and with the Natural Resource Conservation Service on several local river restoration projects.
Ms. Pressett models to her students the motto of staying informed even when it is uncomfortable. She demonstrates the value of regularly reading the minutes and discussions of local, regional, state, and federal agencies and organizations. She challenges her students to read publications that support their current views as well as ones that cover the opposite perspective or bias. Through her strong leadership and creative teaching style, Ms. Pressett continues to empower her students to discover and build on their own unique learning styles so they can thrive in school and the years beyond.