State Awards to Teacher Participants in Harvard Forest Schoolyard Ecology Programs

Teacher Nancy Wile and the Dr. Elmer S. Bagnall Elementary School's Wet and Wild: Vernal Pool Explorations has been selected to receive an Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary's Awards at a ceremony at the State House in the Great Hall on April 30th at 11 a.m. Her project is part of Harvard Forest's Schoolyard Ecology program, Water in the Landscape; Vernal Pools, led by project ecologist, Dr. Betsy Colburn. Ms. Wile is being awarded a certificate of Excellence and a $200 check for her outstanding work in getting students involved in field ecology for the past 2 years.

Bill Van Valkenburg, a Gardner High School teacher, is also being honored at this ceremony. His work Teaching About Climate Change on a Local Scale, as part of Harvard Forest's Buds, Leaves and Global Warming schoolyard Ecology program led by Dr. John O'Keefe.

Teachers, Joanne Flagg and Nancy Meagher and the Gill Elementary School's Pangea to Pest Program have been selected to receive a Certificate of Merit. This collaborative effort integrated art into an in depth diorama project developed to compliment the Woolly Bully; Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Schoolyard Ecology field study done in association with Harvard Forest Ecologist, Dr. David Orwig.