Wayland teacher Lori Howell wins excellence award

Wayland third grade teacher Lori Howell is the recipient of the Educator Excellence Award, which will be presented to her at the Science Innovation Hall of Fame Awards Gala & Dinner at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo  April 21

The Air Zoo recently announced the winners of the 2018 Science Innovation Hall of Fame Awards and the 2018 inductees of the Michigan Aviation Hall of Fame.

Howell was awarded this honor because of her work in “Place-Based Education” using community experts. Examples include the bee project, bat project and water project.

Howell has been a teacher in kindergarten through sixth grades at Wayland Union Schools for 30 years. She earned a master of education degree in educational leadership; was the 2010 VFW Teacher of the Year; Certified National Geographic Educator; National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher Scholar for 2014 and 2015; Rural Teacher Global Fellow 2015 (sponsored by Rural School and Community Trust); National Science Foundation Fellow 2005 (sponsored by Learn and Serve America and The National Science Foundation).

In the water quality project students learned about the city government’s role in protecting our water supply with a tour of Wayland City Hall; a tour of the Waste Water Treatment Facility; a visit to the Schaendorf Corporate Diary Farms to learn about milk production and how they protect the water supply from wastes due to fertilizers and pesticides; and classroom activities involving water, including reading The Magic School Bus at the Waterworks by Joanna Cole, data collection on water usage in our homes, researching and writing poetry on the importance of water, etc. Finally, students tested the water in the Rabbit River with high school students who explained the results to third-graders.

Students did research, took notes, wrote papers, and made posters on bees for the bee project. Questions asked were: Why are bees so important? What is happening to bees throughout the world? This information was shared last year with a worldwide audience using National Geographic Educator’s Community. Bee keeper, Don Rewa, talked about bee keeping, and Jan Goodwin helped the kids plant four plants to feed pollinators in the Wayland Community Garden throughout three seasons. Student posters were made to share their knowledge with other third grade students.

With the help of community members Don Borgic and Jon Jensen, students in Danielle LaJoye’s class and Howell’s class built bat breeding boxes for the bat project. Howell’s students will present their research at the April 16 Wayland City Council meeting.

Students will share their knowledge and ask to place the bat breeding boxes on city property. They researched using a wide variety of books, wrote reports to share with City Council members, and made posters in groups of three to share with the City Council. Mrs. LaJoye’s class will present at a school board meeting with her students asking to place their bat breeding boxes on school property.

All three projects start with local issues, but students learn that these are issues around the world. For example, students learn that bats are dying in Australia due to extreme temperatures, along with learning that two local bat species that are struggling to survive.