Educator Spotlight: Abbie Joines

Abbie Joines, a senior at NC State University in agricultural science and a substitute teacher for Alleghany County Public Schools, recently completed her NC Environmental Education Certification. Abbie also is a volunteer with the Alleghany 4-H program and the leader for a water education club called the Alleghany 4-H River Otters. In her personal time, she enjoys being outdoors hiking, kayaking or playing pickleball.

Abbie says her favorite part of earning her certification was connecting with educators in the environmental education field and learning about all the career opportunities in the field. “The knowledge and advice that I have gained from talking to other educators while completing this certification has been so valuable to my success within any environmental educator role that I have played. I have connected with other educators that share the same interests as me, and that values teaching about the environment as much as I do.”

The experience in the program that stood out to Abbie was the Sustainable Forestry Teachers Experience. “This experience allowed me to connect with other environmental educators from different backgrounds and learn new ideas about teaching forestry. I learned about the forestry industry in North Carolina and the Project Learning Tree curriculum. I enjoy incorporating the PLT curriculum into programs that I do with Alleghany 4-H participants.”

For her community partnership project that is required for certification, Abbie designed and installed educational signage on water quality topics at Alleghany Memorial Veterans Park. The signs give an overview of the stream at the park and include the components of the stream, the stream’s water quality, efforts to restore the stream, and macroinvertebrates and the biodiversity of the stream. “I partnered with Alleghany Parks and Recreation to utilize a community space for the signage to be displayed. I also partnered with Alleghany 4-H by creating a Stream Strides scavenger hunt.”

Abbie says the program changed her approach to teaching. “Before participating in the certification program, I had very little experience with environmental education and teaching. I started my certification during the summer before my senior year in high school while interning with the Alleghany Cooperative Extension staff. I feel that this certification helped me to learn about the importance of experiential learning and sparking a student's curiosity about what they are learning. Throughout this certification, I have learned about curriculum, standards, objectives, and evaluation.”

She says the program also changed the way she views environmental issues. “I think about environmental issues completely different than before I started this certification. Now I think about environmental issues with a systems approach, and I look at the complexity of issues. Instead of looking at a big picture environmental issue, I look at the different aspects of an issue, and what can be done on small and large scales to improve the issue.”