2006 Outstanding Educators

Anne Bohnet, South Carolina

Anne Bohnet is Director of the Science and Technology Enrichment Program for the Ruth Patrick Science Education Center at the University of South Carolina in Aiken. She develops all types of natural resource education programs for around 2,700 students in grades 3 through 12 each year. She conducts outdoor environmental education classes as well as PLT teacher-training workshops at the National Audubon Society's Silver Bluff Audubon Cener and the Savannah River Site, a Department of Energy facility.

Anne has trained over 500 teachers from Georgia and South Carolina in the use of PLT and other environmental education curricula and procures grants to provide these workshops for free. She makes sure preservice teachers at the University of South Carolina-Aiken are trained in PLT before they enter the classroom and she writes PLT into the curriculum of the many educational programs she works with.

Anne brings groups of students from select high schools to the Savannah River Site to work side by side with experienced scientists. Students get hands-on experience managing five acres of public forestland. Empowered by increased awareness and knowledge, students must explore different viewpoints, challenge ideas and values, and seek consensus on a course of responsible action.

Anne has a graduate degree in Science Education and this summer she will complete a Master’s in Education Administration, both from the University of South Carolina.

Heidi Campbell, Arkansas

Heidi Campbell teaches science and Arkansas history to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at Mabelvale Magnet Middle School in Little Rock, Arkansas. Most of her students come from an urban area and have no experience being in a natural environment.

Heidi uses all manner of scientific inquiry, experimentation, research projects, field trips and camping trips, and hands-on activities to transform her students’ attitudes and misconceptions and get them accustomed to working outdoors. To help recruit students to the environmental education strand at her school, Heidi organizes a Forest Awareness Day that introduces students to environmental topics such as the function and physiology of trees, forestry equipment, and forest products.

Heidi’s extensive work with environmental education and PLT made her the obvious choice when, in 2002, Provider Pals was searching for an urban school in the south to expand their outreach. Provider Pals is a Presidential-award-winning student cultural exchange program that links the nation’s classrooms with people who get their hands dirty every day: farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers, commercial fishermen and others who provide the basics of everyday life.

Barbara Cook, Ohio

Barbara Cook has been a teacher for 29 years and involved in environmental education for over 20 years. She currently teaches science and reading to seventh grade students and computers to seventh and eighth grade at Greenfield Middle School in Greenfield, Ohio.

During her career Barb has held several educational leadership positions, both as a principal and as a superintendent of local school districts. Over the years, her classroom and administrative background have provided invaluable insight into administering PLT and other environmental education programs to formal educators. She has facilitated more than a hundred presentations or workshops, reaching over a thousand teachers.

Barb also helped develop and write PLT’s PreK-8 Energy & Society kit and is an educator reviewer for PLT-Ohio’s fire activities. For ten years Barb has been a member of the Ohio PLT State Steering Committee and is currently an executive officer. She has always played a lead role in aligning PLT and other curriculum to Ohio’s latest academic standards. She is currently working on integrating PLT workshops into classes for preservice educators at Wilmington College and is helping the Ohio PLT Coordinator develop a PLT facilitator mentoring program.

Brenda Smith, Louisiana

Brenda Smith teaches fourth grade math and science at Oil City Elementary Magnet School in Oil City, Louisiana. Five years ago Oil City Elementary faced dropping enrollment numbers and low performance measures. To address this situation staff and faculty dedicated their educational focus to an environmental science theme and the entire faculty was trained in PLT. New and refresher workshops have been held every year since and consequently the school is one of four PLT certified schools in Louisiana. The results speak for themselves. In 2001, before Brenda began using PLT, 38% of her fourth grade students scored in the basic to proficient level on the science portion of the state and national standardized tests and 62% fell in the unsatisfactory category. In 2005, 4% had reached the advanced level, 63% were now considered basic to proficient, and just 33% remained in the unsatisfactory category.

Brenda has taken her PLT training a step further and written and received several grants for her students to participate in a variety of educational and community service projects at the school, local hospital, downtown, and throughout the community. Oil City Elementary School has received several awards in recognition of its improvement. Most recently the school was chosen as one of six schools nationwide to receive the “National School Change” award for dramatically improved academic accomplishments from New York's Fordham University.

Jane Thornes, Idaho

Jane Thornes teaches all subjects to fourth grade at Heyburn Elementary School in St. Maries, Idaho. She and her forester husband, Jim, own, manage, and live on Pettis Peak Tree Farm south of St. Maries. Jane makes full use of this 270-acre working forest to give visitors—her own students, other youth, and adults—a better understanding of a well-managed forest.

With her own students, Jane uses PLT’s learning process—from awareness, to understanding, to action—to teach real-life lessons. After noticing dead and dying subalpine fir trees along a highway, Jane worked with the U.S. Forest Service to identify the balsam wooly adelgid as the likely cause and set up a worthwhile research project for her students. Through indoor and outdoor research, Jane’s students learned that this tiny aphid-like insect is spreading to grand fir trees, a valuable timber species in the area. Jane inspired and challenged her students to take action to help control its spread by collecting scientific data from study plots. The U.S. Forest Service now has this information to use in plans to deal with the problem.

Jane was one of three educators in Idaho selected to correlate all K-12 activities from PLT, Project WILD, and Project WET to Idaho Achievement Standards. Jane has been a PLT facilitator since 1999 instructing forestland owners, teachers from Idaho, and Girl Scout leaders from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.