Sustainability Director Travels to Smithsonian for Biodiversity Training
Earlier this summer, I traveled to Washington, DC, to attend the Smithsonian Science Education Academy for Teachers.
The focus of the training was biodiversity, a topic that could not be more relevant to my current role as an environmental science teacher at Vermont Academy. The program was led by Nate Erwin, an entomologist and a friend of our Program and Enrollment Management Committee chair, Rick Stark '74 (who was also my sponsor for the academy). Each morning we met at the National Museum of Natural History, which has been one of my favorite places to visit ever since my elementary school teachers took me there for field trips when I was a little girl.
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While we were there, the other participants and I were given the privilege of seeing the extensive collections of plants and animals kept deep in the heart of the museum. We also met a number of the curators and researchers who work behind the scenes at the Smithsonian. For me, one of the most exciting things was seeing the collections of rare, endangered, and extinct species and learning about how the Smithsonian is supporting research aimed at protecting the rich biodiversity that still exists on our planet.
This month, while teaching a course for the Vermont Academy Global Leadership Summer Symposium, I have made biodiversity a central theme. My students are learning how to measure species richness, compare biodiversity across multiple ecosystems, and increase backyard biodiversity by planting flowers that support native bees and butterflies. When the school year begins, I will incorporate the things I learned at the Smithsonian into a new unit on biodiversity for my environmental science classes. Many thanks again to Rick Stark '74, Susan Schmitt, and the wonderful staff at the Smithsonian for this valuable professional development experience.
Vermont Academy is a coed college preparatory boarding and day school in southern Vermont, serving grades 9-12 plus a postgraduate year.
