Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Participants win 2007 Teachers of the Year Awards

We are proud to announce that both the Massachusetts Audubon Society's and the Nashua River Watershed Association's 2007 Teacher of the Year awards were given to Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology participants!

 Tewksbury High School teacher, Elaine Senechal (photo on left) won the Massachusetts Audubon Conservation Teacher of the Year award. Nashua River Watershed Association Education Coordinator, Mary Marro (center) presents the NRWA 2007 Education Award to J.R. Briggs Elementary School Teachers, Mary Gagnon (left) and Kate Bennett (right).

All three of these teachers are involved in their 3rd year of implementing field ecology projects coordinated by the Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology program. Elaine Senechal is leading her High School students in a field ecology project called "Buds, Leaves, and Global Warming", which is a phenological study done in coordination with Harvard Forest Ecologist, Dr. John O'Keefe. Mary Gagnon's third grade students are immersed in the "Water in the Landscape: Vernal Pools" project done in coordination with Freshwater Ecologist, Dr. Betsy Colburn. Kate Bennett's 5th grade students are implementing the "Hemlock Trees and the Pesky Pest, the Woolly Adelgid project in cooperation with Forest Ecologist, Dr. David Orwig.