April 26, 2023

BOSTON (April 26, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA), in partnership with the White Home Council on Environmental High quality (CEQ), have introduced the 2023 recipients of the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators (PIAEE).

Two of the 9 nationwide awards had been offered to Rhode Island educators. This 12 months’s recipients are Margaret Brennan from Portsmouth Center College in Portsmouth, and Gwynne Millar from Exeter West Greenwich Excessive College in West Greenwich.

The PIAEE award was established by the 1990 Nationwide Environmental Training Act and seeks to acknowledge, assist, and convey public consideration to the excellent environmental initiatives carried out by lecturers who transcend textbook instruction to include strategies and supplies that make the most of inventive experiences and enrich pupil studying in Okay-12 training.

“The extraordinary achievements of Margaret Brennan and Gwynne Millar are exceptional in scope,” mentioned EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Money. “They’ve tackled related, environmental challenges of their communities, impressed college students, and helped put together for a extra sustainable, inclusive and hopeful future. We thank them for his or her arduous work making ready the environmental leaders of tomorrow!”

2023 recipients of the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators

Margaret Brennan

At Portsmouth Center College in Rhode Island, Mrs. Brennan met with the Japanese RI Conservation District to enhance her college students’ training by way of out of doors and project-based studying. Due to this partnership, Mrs. Brennan had entry to a 6-acre plot of land half a mile from her faculty, and he or she developed an after-school program devoted to instructing college students about land improvement with an environmental focus. For 8 weeks, she and 25 of the college’s college students created 5 areas of curiosity on this land: a backyard space, a excessive tunnel, a photo voltaic vitality space, and irrigation space, and a hen space. After encouraging the scholars to analysis details about these areas, the Portsmouth AgInnovation Farm was born, and by June 2022, college students accomplished the development of every space. In the present day, the Portsmouth AgInnovation Farm engages with 75 college students every year (together with highschool college students) and is making ready to supply instructional subject journeys to college students hoping to work on the farm for hands-on studying.

Mrs. Brennan has been certain to stability studying with enjoyable on the Portsmouth AgInnovation Farm. She balanced each day chores, for instance, with enjoyable actions. College students realized fish within the close by reservoir, drive a tractor, construct irrigation programs, and pollinate sure greens. Mrs. Brennan additionally taught college students about soil well being, masking all the pieces from photosynthesis to composting to carbon sequestering. Moreover, as a part of her imaginative and prescient to merge sustainability with neighborhood, Mrs. Brennan has inspired college students to deliver among the farm’s crops to deprived houses to exhibit develop wholesome and inexpensive meals in small areas.

Along with sounding the alarm about environmental issues, Mrs. Brennan’s farm has united the neighborhood by integrating college students with numerous socioeconomic backgrounds and studying types. For college kids with social struggles, the farm has been a chance to search out their sense of belonging, and plenty of have gained a newfound confidence that can assist them past the farm’s borders. As well as, dad and mom are inspired to take part with their youngsters by way of their very own sustainability plots, and college students at Thompson Center College-an inner-city faculty with many free and reduced-lunch students-visit throughout the summer time to learn to plant and develop their very own greens.

Mrs. Brennan believes that out of doors studying is the easiest way to interact her college students, and the outcomes on the Portsmouth AgInnovation Farm assist that perception. By her work, college students usually are not solely studying assist the setting, but in addition interacting with different college students and their neighborhood by way of unprecedented, hands-on collaboration.

“Connections to nature enhance our bodily and emotional well being whereas making use of essential considering to our on a regular basis studying. College students be taught greatest when exterior and be taught to have a wholesome respect for nature and our meals supply. This creates sustainability because the hope can be that they develop up and work in a subject that can assist the setting, the neighborhood, and the following technology of learners,” mentioned Mrs. Brennan. “I’m grateful to work with a district that values out of doors training and our neighborhood. It’s an honor to obtain this award and I want to thank my administration, my colleagues, my college students, and households who’ve supported my efforts in out of doors training and connections to environmental organizations on Aquidneck Island.”

Gwynne Millar

Ms. Millar, a biology and environmental sustainability instructor at Exeter West Greenwich Excessive College in Rhode Island, sees herself as greater than somebody who imparts data onto the following generation-instead, she is a facilitator of studying who encourages college students to suppose for themselves, take dangers, and perceive that true studying is greater than memorization. With greater than 30 years of expertise below her belt, Ms. Millar is aware of {that a} true instructor encourages college students to face the chance of failure. In truth, science as entire, she affirms, is a collection of failures which have pushed humanity ahead. This perception is mirrored in her instructing fashion, which is characterised by experimentation and selection boards, and he or she permits college students to decide on the issues they hope to unravel, all of the whereas supporting their selections and designs.

Just lately, Ms. Millar’s class investigated matter cycling-specifically, composting-which is especially related to the issue of extreme meals waste accumulating within the state’s solely landfill. Contemplating that Rhode Island’s dump is projected to succeed in capability by 2035, and with Rhode Island faculties producing 5 million kilos of meals waste every year, she and her class investigated totally different composting strategies to develop an efficient program for the college.

Moreover, Ms. Millar leads an annual analysis journey to the Cape Eleuthera Institute within the Bahamas to review inexperienced sea turtles. She encourages college students to expertise the lifetime of subject scientists as they seize, tag, and acquire information on these sea turtles for a nationwide database. Following their expertise on this journey, many college students determine to pursue environmental science of their faculty careers.

In the end, science is ineffective with out real-world utility, so Ms. Millar can be cognizant of the necessity to encourage her college students to serve communities and weak populations. She does this, for instance, by way of native seashore cleanup occasions and water sampling. She additionally sponsors kayak journeys for households who want to discover native waterways and important wildlife. Even throughout the vacation season, she is difficult at work, as she has collected Christmas timber to assist trout habitats and fight river erosion. At the moment, Ms. Millar is searching for grant funds for neighborhood applications for the eradication of invasive species.

General, Ms. Millar’s immersive lesson plans encourages college students not solely to know the environmental current, but in addition empower them to create options for its future. Her applications are mixtures of training and expertise, each of that are supplemented by her inspirational approaches to taking dangers, involving native communities, and problem-solving with ardour.

“College students be taught greatest when allowed to analyze real-world issues and reply questions utilizing inquiry-based and phenomenon practices. Environmental training is the proper automobile for this engagement,” mentioned Ms. Millar. “It supplies college students with the constructing blocks for residing a sustainable life-style, and hopefully, they may function leaders of their communities, motivating others to stay a sustainable life-style as effectively. It’s an honor to be acknowledged for this award.”

Honorable Mentions: 2023 Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators

Matthew Dransfield, South Burlington Excessive College, South Burlington, Vermont

When Mr. Dransfield walks down the halls of South Burlington Excessive College in Vermont, he sees himself not solely as a instructor, but in addition as a trusted mentor. Confidently, he is aware of that college students be taught greatest after they have a enjoyable, partaking relationship with their instructor, and he has put within the work to be an efficient chief and function mannequin. Having a rapport with college students has allowed him to encourage them to experiment with out a concern of failure, and his optimism replaces their “I can not” with “do this.” This strategy has allowed college students to discover the subjects that curiosity them and discover out for themselves what they’re really able to reaching. Mr. Dransfield additionally understands that not all college students course of info the identical manner, and his relationship with them permits him to personalize his teachings to swimsuit their wants.

Chris Donnelly, Boston Inexperienced Academy, Brighton, Massachusetts

In Brighton, Massachusetts, the Boston Inexperienced Academy is the one faculty within the Boston Public Faculties District with a inexperienced mission. It’s no surprise, then, that the college was grateful for Mr. Donnelly’s contribution in founding the Environmental Science Profession and Technical Training (CTE) program. Particularly, Mr. Donnelly makes environmental justice the cornerstone of his a part of this system, giving college students the context essential to know how environmental points disproportionally have an effect on minorities, each within the Metropolis of Boston and around the globe.