NAAEE Honors Excellence in EE at Annual Awards Ceremony

 NAAEE gave kudos to these outstanding environmental educators at its annual conference in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on November 17, 2007.

 Read the awards qualifications

A slide show of past winners of the Walter Jeske Award (NAAEE’s highest honor) was shown as people entered the Annual “Celebrating Excellence” Awards lunch. See the complete list at http://www.naaee.org/programs-and-initiatives/awards/the-walter-e-jeske-award

Walter E. Jeske Award  Given by NAAEE since 1982, the award was presented this year to Joseph A. Baust, Sr., of Murray State University in Kentucky. Baust inspires and motivates his peers and his students by blending interests in the environment and the arts. Dr. Baust (Ed.D., University of Tennessee in 1978) became a math teacher, but found his calling as an EE leader and has been Director of the Center for EE at Murray State University in Kentucky for more than 15 years. Within the College of Education, the center offers pre-service and in-service teachers ways to integrate the environment throughout their curriculum, via residential workshops, certification in national environmental education (EE) curricula, and other opportunities.

Outstanding Service to Environmental Education by an Individual Award

Individual operating at the local level: Chris Adam, Earthvalues Institute, Quebec 

Adam is director of Earthvalues Institute, which presents overnight EE programs that emphasize values clarification and responsible action. His dedication to EE has directly touched over 150,000 individuals and hundreds of thousands more indirectly for 25 years. He uses an interdisciplinary approach bridging the arts and sciences consistently, using nature as a catalyst to stimulate reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Individual operating at the regional level: Fran McTamaney, California

For more than 20 years, McTamaney has played a prominent role in guiding the direction of environmental education throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System and within the environmental education community of the San Francisco Bay Area. The reference materials she developed serve as a model for teachers, parents, volunteers, and other EE providers.

Individual operating at the global level: Rosalyn McKeown, Oregon

Rosalyn has been a passionate advocate for education for sustainable development. Through the Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit and her numerous workshops and conferences abroad, she has engaged educators in reorienting curriculum to balance the three components of sustainability: environment, society, and economics. She now teaches at Portland State University.

Outstanding Contributions to Research Award - Regula Kyburz-Graber, Switzerland

Dr. Kyburz-Graber is author of numerous articles, a presenter at many conferences, the faculty advisor for hundreds of students, and a member of the editorial board of three journals dedicated to environmental education. She teaches at the University of Zurich.

Outstanding Service to Environmental Education by an Organization Awards

Organization operating at the local level: Willow Bend EE Center, Arizona

For 29 years, Willow Bend EE Center (sponsored by the Coconino Natural Resource Conservation District) has addressed the need for environmental awareness and stewardship in northern Arizona. Through locally based, hands-on environmental science programs, students of all ages are able to make immediate connections to the local environment and to make sustainable choices in their lives. Willow Bend strives to build the kind of world – socially, environmentally, and economically – that we want to live in, and which we want our children to inherit.

Organization operating at the regional level: The NEED Project, Manassas, Virginia

Established by a Joint Congressional Resolution and Presidential Proclamation from Jimmy Carter, the NEED project – and the teachers, students, partners, and sponsors who are the NEED Network – strive to make energy education a priority in the nation’s schools each day. NEED teachers about the science of energy, energy sources, uses of energy, and efficiency and conservation. NEED is about tapping the energy of student leadership.

Organization operating at the global level: Laurel Springs School, Ojai, California

Since 1991, Laurel Springs School has taught thousands of students how to honor and protect the environment through conscientious living. The school offers a unique Kids4Earth online environmental course for free distribution to children worldwide. A 36-week program for ages 10-14, the course has been endorsed by the United Nations Environment Program. More than 50,000 students are expected to be impacted by the online program by the year 2010. Laurel Springs School received the UNEP Global 500 award and the President’s Environmental Youth Award.

Outstanding NAAEE Affiliate Organization Award - Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education

In 2006-2007, MAEOE hosted the largest state affiliate conference in the country with 580 participants. The organization has recognized 24 Maryland Green Schools and conducted a schoolyard habitat program in partnership with NOAA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Operationally, it has built capacity for future environmental education efforts through revisions of a state strategic plan, beginning work on a Maryland EE Certification program, and maintaining an active Web site that keeps its large network informed and motivated. 

K-12 Educator Award - John Sammons, Greenbrier Intermediate School, Chesapeake, VA

Due to Sammons’ environmental efforts, Greenbrier has been recognized as an Official National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat. The school has been featured in The Growing Edge and Virginia Wildlife magazines, and has received the Education Award from the Chesapeake Environmental Improvement Council for two consecutive years, thanks to Sammons’ leadership and the support of numerous volunteers.

President’s Award – Don Baugh, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Maryland, and Linda Rhoads, NAAEE’s EE Advocacy Committee Chair and executive director of the Oregon Association for Environmental Education

“There is usually lots of competition for this award, because the category is so broad,” said NAAEE President Martha Monroe. “This year it was an easy choice because of the phenomenal effort that has gone into designing the No Child Left Inside Act and campaign, which has captured hearts and minds and galvanized action across the country.”

Baugh and Rhoads have spearheaded the effort to mobilize the EE community in support of the NCLI Act. Over 120 organizations, representing some 17 million people, have signed on to the NCLI campaign,  designed to address one of the unintended consequences of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) – the elimination or scaling-back of environmental education and field investigations in schools throughout the nation.

Environmental Education Scholarship for Academic Study  -

Beginning in 2006, NAAEE has awarded scholarships to students in the state hosting the conference, to grow the next generation of environmental educators. This year’s winners, all from Virginia Tech, are:

Erica Baugh

John Burke  

Jessica Sharpe Stewart 

Audience Choice Poster Winners –

One winner was selected for each strand in the conference program.

Sustainability Education – Mona Maxwell, Centre for Research in Youth, Science Teaching and Learning, University of Manitoba

Environmental Justice and Cultural History – Beatriz Mogollon, Duke University

Service-Learning  - Donna Conner, Charles Filer, Jennifer Crozier, Karen Hicks, and Beth Sellers, Roanoke County Public Schools, Virginia

Conservation and Community Education – Andy Wood, Audubon, North Carolina 

Fundraising and Leadership Development - Carrie Ziolkowski, Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education

Technology & EE  - Kristen Poppleton and Erica Schram, University of Minnesota, Jacob Egge, Pacific Lutheran University, Mary Romoser, Mary Stefansky, and Robert Hatlevig,  Battle Creek Elementary School

Marine Education – Carol Hopper Brill and Vicki Clark, Virginia Sea Grant, Virginia Institute of Marine Science

NAAEE/Pierce Foundation Environmental Education Film and Video Festival

 
The winning entries were shown in the Screening Room at the NAAEE conference in Virginia Beach. Film and video programs were selected to tell a positive story of how individuals and communities have come together to solve environmental problems. The Film and Video Festival is one element of a larger effort by NAAEE to re-invigorate the use of arts and culture in the EE field.

Student/Amateur Category

·         First Prize -  Texas Wetlands – Daniel McLemore, Texas, a student at Lamar University

·         Second Prize – Kis-ka-DEE –Ryan P. Fitzgibbons, Pennsylvania

·         Third Prize – All Our Oceans Need to Live –John C. Sammons, a teacher at Greenbrier Intermediate School, Chesapeake, VA

 General Category

·         First Prize – Edens Lost and Found - Los Angeles: Dream a Different City, submitted by Bullfrog Films  

·         Second Prize -  Enviro Tacklebox “Student Solutions: Using Your Personal Power,” submitted by Louisiana Public Broadcasting

·         Third Prize - Edens Lost and Found - Chicago: City of the Big Shoulders, submitted by Bullfrog Films 

Finalist/Audience Favorite at Conference - A River Reborn, submitted by Northern Arizona University

NAAEE/Albert I. Pierce Foundation "Our World" Photography Contest

The Albert I. Pierce Foundation is the primary grant sponsor of this project. 

Amateur Category

First Prize $500 – A Sense of Wonder, Lois Nixon, North Carolina

Second Prize $300 – The Radish, Skip Wiener, Pennsylvania

Third Prize $200 – Green is Good, Lisa Crumley, Georgia

Advanced Category

First Prize $500 – Corona Beach Sunrise, Mark Buckler, North Carolina

Second Prize $300 – Corolla Fence at Sunrise, Mark Buckler, North Carolina,  

Third Prize $200 – Crab Spider with Honey Bee, Harold Hungerford, Illinois