Conservation Education Award
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History recognizes an educator, either classroom teacher or naturalist from the Northeast Ohio area, during the Museum's annual Conservation Symposium held in September. The educator is honored for his or her efforts by excelling in conservation education and by bringing students together in a conservation project at their school or within their community.
The Conservation Education Awards Committee at the Museum is now accepting nominations, due Friday, June 1, 2012, for the award to be presented in September 2012. Educators may nominate themselves or be nominated by others and have letters of support. Nominees are judged on achievements or contributions toward conservation education within the school and/or community within Northeast Ohio.
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Nominations are due June 1, 2012. |
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Past winners include:
2011 Martha Fisher, educator at Westerly Elementary School
2010 Janett Korb, educator at Cleveland Heights High School
2009 Michael Sustin, teacher at West Geauga High School
2007 Sarah Hurder, teacher at Brecksville/Broadview Heights High School
2006 Patty Spring, teacher at Dodge Intermediate School
2005 Randy Carmel, teacher at Wooster High School
2011
Conservation Educator of the Year was awarded to Martha Fisher, a 3rd grade teacher from Westerly Elementary School in Bay Village. She was selected for her innovative approach to teaching conservation and to the impact she has on her students and community. Mrs. Fisher took the theme of "water" for an environmental study and integrated that theme into nearly all of the learning opportunities for her students, not just science. Even at the third grade level, the students incorporated leadership skills with a rain barrel project. Students contacted local businesses requesting support, presented the project to the Bay Village City Council and wrote articles for the local newspaper. They fostered a culture of conservation within the community and learned they CAN make a difference! In addition, the students incorporated the water theme in the annual student tour of Cleveland in which students researched historic landmarks then gave parents a guided school bus tour of Cleveland explaining how the settlers used the lake, rivers and natural resources of the area.
Moreover, the students did experiments learning about the force and energy created by water movement, the way water affects the plants and animals in the area, water conservation and tying the theme into her student-run restaurant, which served nearly 300 people over two evenings.
Students gained experiences that will serve them throughout their lives, such as conservation, advocacy and leadership. Skills such as these are not be taught in all classrooms, especially at such an early age, but Mrs. Fisher classes are not typical ... they are "phenomenal" as put by one supporter. Martha cares about her students which, in the end, have a lasting impact on what they learn, can accomplish and will carry with them in the future.
2010
Conservation Educator of the Year was awarded to Ms. Janett Korb. Janett Korb is presently an educator at Cleveland Heights High School but previously taught in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Janett teaches biology and honors biology and finds ways to incorporate hands-on experiences and problem solving in the classroom as well as in real-life experiences in biology out in the field and community. Believe it or not, for the first year, Janett did not even have a classroom, but moved from room to room using a rolling cart filled with the items she needed.
A project mentioned in several of her support letters involves students doing a biological assessment of Dugway Brook in Cleveland Heights prior to a construction project. The data gathered by the students will be used to provide a comparison for post-construction water quality. The construction project, by the way, is a bioswale which allows water runoff from a parking lot to be filtered prior to flowing into the brook.
In addition to her teaching during the school year, Ms. Korb has taught summer classes in science for gifted inner-city middle school students in a program called Hope Prep based at John Carroll University. For these classes she incorporated field trips to Doan Brook to identify macroinvertebrates.
2009
Conservation Teacher of the Year was awarded to Michael Sustin of West Geauga High School. In his 18 year teaching history, 7 years at Euclid High School and 11 at West Geauga High, Michael Sustin has influenced, motivated and inspired many, many students. Besides teaching classes, such as environmental chemistry and environmental science in the classroom, Mr. Sustin takes his teaching more than a step farther. For example, with environmental chemistry, students engage in problem solving and take on roles of various stakeholders during a simulated environmental disaster. Students investigate, defend particular viewpoints and have the opportunity to understand how decision making activities, from the public to government to business owners and scientists, affect the natural world.
Mr. Sustin influences students in the natural sciences by providing trips, participating with projects, attending programs and encouraging students to participate in Science and Engineering Fairs, Envirothons, partnering with other organizations. This past summer Michael led students on an outing called SEE (Science and Environmental Education) Across Ohio. It took hours outside of the school day to make all of the arrangements as well as secure funding for the trip. The people students met and the experiences they had touched on multiple environmental issues. Continuing to “push the environmental education envelope” as one of his colleagues put it, Mike recently received a grant for students to assist in research to learn about black bear and bobcat populations in Northeast Ohio using GIS software to track animals. Michael not only is introducing students to the natural world and the systems that run the natural world, but also the technology used by scientists to gather information. In the end, preparing students for their futures.
2007
Conservation Teacher of the Year was awarded to Sarah Hurder, a teacher at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School. Mrs. Hurder teaches an environmental science course that promotes hands-on learning and real-world experience. As one student wrote, “everything we learn we can apply to everyday life”. Tree identification is a component of the course which leads the students to understand forest succession and forest ecosystems.
Besides the school activities, Sarah Hurder spearheads and coordinates a voluntary clean-up along the Cuyahoga River. Not only does Sarah get students involved, but she gets her community involved AND the clean-up effort is not even in her community, but in the Cleveland Flats and Ohio City areas! These efforts show that Sarah’s environmental reach is far beyond just her community.
2006
On Friday, September 8th the Museum will proudly award the 2006 Conservation Teacher of the Year award to Patty Spring, 6th grade teacher at Dodge Intermediate School (Twinsburg School District). While attending the Museum’s 2005 Conservation Symposium, Mrs. Spring met and partnered with naturalist Stanley Stine. She created a yearlong adventure for her students to explore vernal ponds. They worked in a nearby Metropark and in the classroom. With assistance of the art teacher, Mrs. Spring organized students, parents, and the PTO in the refurbishing of the school’s pavilion into a outdoor lab. Sale of “salamander” cookies, baked by parents and decorated by students and local senior citizens, help raise funds for the project.
Mrs. Spring also coordinated the school’s weeklong Earth Day celebration. She is not only promoting awareness of the environment with her students, but also within the Twinsburg community. Mrs. Spring was recently interview about her projects on the Twinsburg Channel 9 public access station.Mrs. Spring plans on conducting a yearlong study of a tributary stream for the upcoming 2006-07 school year.
2005
Randy Carmel received the 2005 Conservation Teacher of the Year award at the annual Conservation Symposium held in September 2005. Mr. Carmel, science teacher at Wooster High School, initiated the “Tallgrass Prairie Reconstruction Project” through the schools Science Club. As part of this project Mr. Carmel coauthered a $330,000 Clean Ohio Grant that was a community based volunteer driven initiative that was in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Wildlife and the school’s Science Club. As part of the project, students collected, cleaned and stratified prarie seeds then grew and tended to the plants in a greenhouse until they were ready to be planted at Killbuck Wildlife Area. Extra plants were sold at the school’s annual Spring Wildflower Fundraiser. The funds collected help to reinvest back into the project and to pay for Science Club fieldtrips and activities.