Mass Audubon Honors 2024 Conservation Teachers of the Year

Mass Audubon, the largest nature-based organization in New England, honored five teachers in Boston, Somerville, Westborough, and West Dennis as its 2024 Conservation Teachers of the Year at its Annual Meeting on Oct. 24.

Awardees are selected by Mass Audubon staff for their commitment to nature-based education and for helping students forge meaningful and lasting connections with the natural world. Winners receive $1,000 each to support their ongoing engagement with students in classrooms and in the field.

The 2024 recipients are:

Alice McCabe, 4^th-grade teacher at Boston Teachers Union Pilot School. Alice fosters her students’ curiosity about nature and science and regularly integrates science education with other subjects. Always going above and beyond, she organizes nature-based field trips and utilizes outdoor space at the school so students can better explore nature and put knowledge into practice by making science fun and meaningful.

Alex Hershey, literary specialist for Somerville Public Schools. Somerville is the first district in the state to require climate education across grades and disciplines and Alex is at the forefront of that effort. Alex runs environmentally themed summer school programs, has worked as a union member to include climate education in the Somerville teachers’ contract, and added a requirement for climate education across all grades.

Geoff Maletta & Lisa Casparriello, 6^th-grade teachers at Mill Pond School in Westborough.  Geoff and Lisa brought the River Schools program to their school three years ago to focus on climate change and watershed education and incorporate it into every subject they teach. Looking at conservation education as an interdisciplinary art, they’ve gone above and beyond to give students tools in the classroom to inspire action outside of it.

Regina Galt, 2^nd-grade teacher at Ezra Baker Innovation School in West Dennis. Known as a dedicated and energetic educator, Regina helped bring the Science of Massachusetts unit Rooted in Science: Trees! to her classroom and four others. Her commitment to expanding hands-on environmental education to students led to them participating in a tree-planting at the school which further cemented the relationship between science learning, the outdoors, and community action.

“If we’re going to address the most critical environmental issues of our time, including climate change, it’s our responsibility to ensure that children have the knowledge and skills to develop science-based solutions. The teachers we recognized are building a foundation for young people to become nature advocates via meaningful programs that teach environmental and climate literacy,” said Kris Scopinich, Mass Audubon’s Senior Director of Education and Engagement. “We are extraordinarily grateful to these educators and others across the Commonwealth who support the integration of environmental issues into school curricula.”