Educator Inspires Student Commitment to Wetlands

A friend and I who work together say that we don't teach science as much as we teach passion." So says Sue Ellen Lyons, a high school teacher from Holy Cross School in New Orleans. Her passion for wetlands conservation and her inspiring teaching methods earned her the 1996 National Wetlands Educator of the Year Award, given by the Environmental Law Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lyons is a Louisiana native who grew up, as she says, "on and in Lake Pontchartrain." She has a master's degree in science education and has been teaching for 31 years, the last 19 at Holy Cross, an all-boys Catholic school on the banks of the Mississippi River. Lyons has always incorporated the issue of wetlands conservation into her classes, but in 1988 she began offering Environmental Science as an upper-level elective. The class, split into two sections of 65 students, is often standing room only and usually one of the first elective classes to fill up.

In her class, Lyons makes her students aware that the quality of life they wish to enjoy depends on their ability to solve the problems faced by the wetlands today. She shows them how every aspect of their lives is affected by these issues, and leads them into active stewardship roles. As a result, many of her former students have gone on into environmental or science-related careers.

"For most kids a class takes up a year of their lives. If they learn something and enjoy it, that's great," says Lyons. "But when they want to live it, to continue studying it for life, that's what's most gratifying for a teacher. Every opportunity I get, I try to empower them to believe one of them will make a difference or solve some of these problems. And I am convinced that one of them will."

The success of Lyon's classes may be due to many things: the fact that the environment is a hot topic in Louisiana, the hands-on characteristics of the class, the students' personal involvement in the issue (many enjoy hunting, fishing, and camping in the area), and Lyons' teaching methods themselves. "She's really cool," says junior Barrett Johnson. "It's not like a regular class, but more like a project. We learn by accident while she talks to us."

All of Lyons' classes take at least one weekend field trip to the wetlands, and involvement in at least two service activities is a requirement. Some of the activities include stenciling "No Dumping" signs on storm drains, planting aquatic grasses, participating in beach clean-ups and litter control, replanting cypress trees in the Manchac Wildlife Management area, and sinking discarded Christmas trees into the water to collect sediment. "When you invest yourself in something, then you care about it and you don't want anyone else ruining it," observes Lyons.

The students also operate Crusher I, a device that crushes used motor oil filters and drains them, allowing both the oil and the filter to be recycled. Holy Cross is the only high school in the nation to have such a device. In addition, Lyons' classes set up booths at environmental conventions and have put together a slide show set to music.

Lyons is especially proud of her upper level leadership class, known as FUR (Fighting Urban Runoff), whose members teach the other students on weekend field trips. Students in this group must have good communication and leadership skills, as they are responsible for writing grant proposals and speaking to the public, as well as peer teaching. The FUR students' projects take up hundreds of hours each year, and their efforts have garnered them 17 local, state and national awards. "They deserve it," says Lyons. "They work hard."