Green Teacher Award - Middle School (grades 6-8)

Fiona Bennie, The Horace Mann School for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Fiona is dedicated to providing her students with authentic learning experiences in the outdoors and building their sense of responsibility for the environment. Fiona has the ability to plan and carry out quality science-based field experiences that engage students and is able to gain support from her non-science teaching colleagues.  Her work impacts students and school faculty.

She seamlessly incorporates outdoor experiences into the Boston Public School Science Curriculum.  During their study of populations and ecosystems her students took multiple trips to investigate vernal pools.   Her students have been to the Boston Harbor Islands with the National Park Service and to Martha's Vineyard for a week where they engaged in experiential learning.

Green Teacher Award – High School (grades 9-12)

Marcy Ostberg, Boston Day and Evening Academy

Marcy Ostberg is a science teacher at Boston Day and Evening Academy.  She teaches everything from evolution to advanced biology.  She is passionate about teaching environmental science and promoting active science citizenship in her classroom. 

Last school year she partnered with the Museum of Science Toxic Traffic program.  Her students visited the Museum for an introductory lesson about air pollution and a pre-lab to learn about air pollution measuring devices called senspods.  Marcy then took the senspods to her class.  The senspods were used during classroom instruction.  As part of their science lessons, the students collected air quality data from various areas in and around the school.  Marcy supported her students as they learned about the health effects of air pollution and developed a sense of hopelessness about the impacts on their communities.  Marcy inspired and empowered them to take action and showed them ways they can change their communities.   

Her work with the Museum of Science is only a portion of what she has done to promote environmental awareness among her students.  In her classroom she maintains a compost bin complete with creepy crawly decomposers.  She uses the compost bin to teach about environmental sustainability and ecology and the soil from the compost bin is used in the school garden that Marcy helped create.

With Marcy’s guidance, a group of students converted an old shed into a greenhouse.  While converting the shed, Marcy incorporated many lessons on ecology and biology.  The school now rents out plots to community members in the garden and green house.

Get Out And Learn Award for School – Community Partnership

The Mary M.B. Wakefield Charitable Trust & Conley Elementary School

The Mary M.B. Wakefield Charitable Trust is dedicated to helping students from an urban background participate in a hands-on learning experience in a rural environment, Wakefield Estate and Arboretum.  Conley Elementary School students love going to Wakefield Estate and Arboretum because there are so many interesting things to see.

Erica Max, Landscape Supervisor and Educational Coordinator, at The Mary M.B. Wakefield Charitable Trust , works tirelessly to plan and schedule Conley Elementary School visits and make connections to the science curriculum taught in the classroom.  The students are fond of Erica who has a wealth of knowledge on plants, trees, flowers etc.  The Conley Elementary School is very lucky to have this partnership with Erica Max and Wakefield Estate and Arboretum! 

Exemplary Environmental Education Program Partner

Earth Action (formerly known as “e” inc.)

Earth Action provides science education and community action with children and youth in a variety of settings.  Under the direction of Dr. Ricky Stern, Earth Action builds collaborations based on respect and listening.  Dr. Stern develops proposals that target partners’ specific needs.  Earth Action provides quality programming on a consistent basis.

In the Jackson Mann Community Center After School Program, Earth Action provided the students with lessons about the world around them in a positive, unique, and engaging way.  Students were excited and participatory from start to finish during every session. The retention of the knowledge they gained is evident.

Earth Action is dedicated to practices which teach children to help reduce environmental pollution.  They teach their audience the ramifications of not recycling and best practices to getting others involved in helping the environment first locally, and then globally.  The instructors taught children at the Ohrenberger Community Center about the life cycle, the need for living things to have a healthy environment, and what happens when the environment is threatened.  Earth Action changes the way children think about the environment.

Green After School Program

University of Massachusetts Boston Upward Bound, Get Fresh Crew

The Get Fresh Crew is a youth-led group that focuses on environmental justice and media.  This August, the Get Fresh Crew spent a week in Guatemala where they helped build a radically sustainable school.  The students spent over two years raising money to pay for and plan their service trip to Comalapa, a community in Guatemala where the public school system does not offer instruction beyond the sixth grade and the land and water is being polluted by trash.  The school is being built with recycled trash materials.

The group is sharing their life changing experiences with others through their travel blog and upcoming presentations.  One student wrote, “(Working on the school) made me feel strong and invincible.”  Another student reported, “working at the school site was the best time ever because I pushed myself harder than I ever had…I was strengthened by it because I wanted to do better for those children, myself, and everything the organization stood for.”

Through this multi-year service project the Get Fresh Crew learned about how the negative impacts of systemic oppression and government corruption on the environment, educational opportunity and the quality of life for indigenous people in Guatemala.  The students learned about natural building techniques and trash material construction.  The Get Fresh Crew is a group of low-income, first generation, college–bound high school students who recognize their own ability to make change in the world. 

Exemplary Youth Environmental Employment Program

Branching Out, National Park Service - The Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation

The Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation's Branching Out program utilizes partnerships and their ability to form meaningful connections between young people and parks to successfully connect the professional resources of the National Park Service with youth from Boston.

Through their creative partnership with Groundwork Somerville, Branching Out managed to keep Alexander Sanchez, age 21, of Dorchester, employed with Boston National Historical Park from June 2010 to the present.  Alex, a previous participant of Youth Build Boston, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway's Green & Grow program, and ABCD’s Green Careers Exploration Programs was hired this month as a permanent government employee by the National Park Service.  Branching Out helped to train, prepare Alex for future employment and connect him to his new permanent position where he competed with over 300 qualified individuals.