Kayla Phillips with the Town of Aberdeen Completes Her NC Environmental Education Certification

Kayla Phillips, Program and Special Events Coordinator for the Town of Aberdeen completed her NC Environmental Education Certification just in time for Earth Day, April 22, 2021!

Kayla coordinates summer camps, festivals, senior citizens classes and other exciting outreach events for the town. She is now working to incorporate environmental education programming into the town’s offerings. 

When asked about her favorite part of the certification program, Kayla said it was all of the amazing places she was able to visit including a weekend at the Bald Head Island Conservancy that really stood out for her. 

For her community partnership project, Kayla created a Story Map for Harris Lake County Park. “The Story Map will allow the community to learn about the park's garden, native plants, pollinators, and some history of the park from either their home or as a guide on their phone while visiting the park.” She also coordinated a garden clean-up day to remove unwanted plants from the garden and planted some native shrubs, including Buttonbush and Beautyberry that provide and important food source for birds.

Kayla says the certification program gave her the teaching skills she needed. When asked if the program changed the way she viewed environmental issues, Kayla said it increased her awareness and knowledge. “I have such a better understanding of the environment and things I can do to protect it.”

Jason Meador, Fisheries Biologist with Mainspring Conservation Trust, Completes His NC Environmental Education Certification

 

Jason Meador is a fisheries/mussel biologist with Mainspring Conservation Trust whose service area covers approximately 1.8 million acres in the Little Tennessee and Hiwassee River Basins and is located within the six most-western counties in North Carolina: Cherokee, Clay, Swain, Macon, Jackson and Graham Counties and also Rabun County, Georgia. Jason conducts stream biomonitoring, stream restoration and provides environmental education for schools and summer camps in their six counties. When he is not working, Jason enjoys fishing, kayaking, hunting, foraging for mushrooms and snorkeling.

When asked about his favorite part of the certification program, Jason said networking with other educators. “My role as a non-formal educator came out of necessity since biomonitoring and restoration are seasonal events. In 2012, I needed to find a niche and source of funds to continue to stay full-time. The education piece has become the most popular program and the certification process has allowed me to revise and improve what we can offer.”

Jason says the Methods of Teaching Environmental Education (MOTEE) training offered by the NC Arboretum for the first time as a virtual workshop stood out to him. “Nearly half of my hours were earned in 2020 during COVID. Virtual classes have their pros and cons. However, the virtual MOTEE course with an hour and a half class for five days and homework was a great way to absorb the information.” He also notes the Growing Up WILD and CATCH workshops offered by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission as being hands-on and a lot of fun. He is already thinking of workshops for his continuing education credits, “I'll be taking Project WILD and Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) for continuing education.”

For his community partnership project, Jason examined the impacts of hunting and fishing from an ecological and trophic level viewpoint. “Partnering with NC Wildlife Resources Commission and NC Wildlife Federation we created curriculum appropriate in a classroom setting for students to analyze wildlife populations with and without humans managing certain species.”

When asked if the certification changed his approach to teaching, Jason says it encouraged the use of critical thinking and age-appropriate teaching. “We still have the same core programs, but I have revised everything, so the students are using critical thinking skills rather than listening to a presentation. In addition, I can offer more programs to a wide variety of ages. I was teaching 8-12th grade, now I teach PreK-12^th grades.”

Jason says having a strong science background, the certification did not change the way he thinks about environmental issues, but it did influence his approach. “I am slow to jump to conclusions and I try to gather as much information to help make decisions. I am thankful that this course emphasizes a non-advocacy approach to teaching. We are not pushing an agenda, simply teaching students how to find information and make their own decisions.”

Jason Vanzant, Carteret County Teacher, Completes NC Environmental Education Certification

Jason Vanzant, also known by his students as “Mr. Vantaztic” is an elementary STEM teacher and Instructional Technology Facilitator at Bogue Sound Elementary in Carteret County.  He develops engineering and agriculture activities and curriculum centered on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study Standards and Next Generation for K-5 in mathematics, science, and social studies. He also teaches technology lessons that relate to safety, troubleshooting, creation and collaboration.

Jason says as someone who enjoys the outdoors, he enjoyed gaining resources he could share with his students and helping them develop an appreciation of nature and an understanding of how we benefit and learn from the environment.  “My favorite portion of the process was the doing; the hands-on activities and taking those ideas back to the students.”

When asked what stands out most about the program, Jason says, “Meeting others from across the state, sharing ideas and passions about why we were all choosing to become environmental educators stands out the most. Being able to develop relationships based on a common love have carried over into networking experiences and friendships.”

For his community partnership project, Jason focused on limiting the amount of debris on his school’s campus and preventing it from entering their waterways.  He partnered with NOAA's Ocean Guardian School Program, which provides opportunities for kids to get out in their environment to do hands-on, stewardship-based projects and Turtle Trash Collectors, a UNCW MarineQuest outreach program that educates youth about the impacts of marine debris and how to reduce marine debris to collect data on the amount of debris collected on campus. As part of this effort, he created a composting area for scraps from breakfast, lunch, and snack and placed a water refilling station on the playground to promote the use of reusable bottles.  “With Duke University Marine Lab and Cape Lookout National Seashore we conducted beach sweeps.  We teamed with NC Coastal Federation to learn about stormwater run-off effects and developed a rain garden to filter pollutants and catch physical debris.  The overall project encouraged students to continue debris sweeps within their neighborhoods and promoted responsibility as more students now pick up litter without being asked to do so.”

Jason says he decided to pursue his Environmental Education Certification to find more resources like Project WET, a national program administered by NCDEQ’s Division of Water Resources and Project WILD, a program of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. “Since beginning as a teacher, I've always included Project WET and Project Wild lessons because they have a lot of movement activities which is needed for elementary students. I chose the EE certification process because I was looking for more resources like this and other ways I could get students outdoors and connect it to the curriculum they are required to learn.”

Jason says the certification did change his approach to teaching. “The big take away from the certification would be in how to phrase subject matter that is and is not developmentally appropriate based on age. Students should be aware of the natural surroundings and have opportunities to explore in the outdoor world.”