White House and EPA honor two Pacific Northwest environmental teachers

Two teachers from the Pacific Northwest were amongst 18 educators across the country to receive the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators, an honor from the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Selected for their innovative education methods that take an experiential approach to environmental science, Megan Alameda, from the Baker Technical Institute in Baker City, Oregon, and Laura Tyler from South Shore PK-9 School in Seattle, Wasthington, were recognized at a recent ceremony at the White House.

Alameda works with high school students and has enabled them to take a hands-on approach to improving their community’s environmental health through a project that allows them to take part in brownfield cleanup. In partnership with the Powder Basin Watershed Council and other organizations, Alameda has her students participate in cleaning up a nearby brownfield, working within their talents as managers, coordinators, specialists, researchers and presenters.

Laura Tyler, a three-decade veteran of environmental education, developed a “Solutions and Pollutions” unit to increase student engagement in water chemistry, giving them the chance to test water quality in Lake Washington. She has also gotten her students involved in restoring part of the East Duwamish River Greenbelt and developed a recycling and composting program that has expanded to every school in her district.