District officials on Monday night honored a Saxe Middle School science teacher who recently received a national award that recognizes educators who use innovative approaches to environmental education.
Saxe Assistant Principal Steven Bedard, Laura Poidomani and K-8 Science Coordinator Melinda Meyer. Credit: Mike Horyczun
Laura Poidomani received the Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators. Administered by the White House Council on Environmental Quality as well as the federal Environmental Protection Agency, it also recognizes outstanding teachers who “use the environment as a context for learning for their students.”
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said during a board meeting that Poidomani is one of just 12 educators nationwide—and the only one in this EPA region (there are 10)—to receive the award.
Poidomani is a teacher of 18 years experience, he said, and she has taught in every grade.
“Her classroom vividly reflects how she integrates direct experiences with textbook learning,” Luizzi said at the meeting, held in the Wagner Room at New Canaan High School. “It includes a trout tank carefully monitored and maintained by the student Trout Club that provides students the opportunity to track fish development and growth and to better understand the human role in the fate of a trout population in the water, as well as how people can positively affect the environment.”
Other examples of how Poidomani drives home what would be rather abstract lessons in science with hands-on experience are student-created septic systems that line the perimeter of her classroom, a compost bin and recycling area and the creation of a “Student Watershed Awareness Taskforce” or ‘SWAT.’ As part of SWAT—a model now widely replicated—students study septic and sewage treatments, Luizzi said, gather up data about water flow from their own homes and discuss ways to improve water quality.
“We are extremely proud of all that Laura does in the classroom,” Luizzi said. “As you can hear there are a variety of different activities, all of which are designed to extend the learning from the textbook and curriculum into hands-on, real-world experiences for the kids.”
In a brief address to the board, Poidomani thanked her colleagues as well as board members themselves for their “tremendous support” of science curriculum and STEM.
It “has really been one of the reasons why I am still here and I love my job every day,” she said.
“We are very busy in our classroom,” Poidomani said. “Since the day I started teaching, my idea was whatever I am teaching in my classroom, my kids have to be able to go out and apply it to the real world. They’re not all going to become scientists but they are all going to become consumers of the environment, and we need to learn to treat the environment in a better way.”
Board members including Chair Dionna Carlson, Vice Chair Sheri West and Secretary Jennifer Richardson all praised Poidomani for her work.
“I just want to say that your clear, very strong passion for science is contagious and your students are very lucky and you make me want to be in sixth grade science again,” West said. “And I do not say that lightly.”
Good work, Laura Poidomani. That is a big honor. Congratulations.