Gary Swick - Dundee-Crown High School

Gary Swick of Carpentersville, Illinois was the 2008 Richard C. Bartlett Environmental Education Award winner.  Each year the award honors an educator who has successfully and creatively integrated environmental education into his or her daily education programs.

In his more than 32 years at Dundee-Crown High School, Gary Swick has built an environmental education program that truly embodies the principles of the Bartlett Award.  His students master their coursework through project-based learning, often serving as "Teen Teachers" for K-12 students and the community on topics such as solid waste, water quality, and environmental restoration.  His method requires that students develop their own environmental science curriculum and presentations to give to students and even to state policymakers, as they did at the 2008 Wisconsin Governors Student Environmental Conference.

Over the course of his time at Dundee-Crown, Gary has devoted much of his time to serving the school's unmotivated and underachieving student population.  His hands-on, project-based, service-learning approach has saved many students from dropping out, often leading them toward their own group and personal achievements.  His students have identified pollution sources that resulted in an erosion control ordinance, been instrumental in the passage of open space referendums that resulted in over a hundred acres of land preserved, preserved a local landmark by battling graffiti with a student-made mural, and surveyed groundwater threats that led to village actions.  

"For the past 32 years, I have sought to open our students' eyes to the joys of the environment and their responsibilities toward protecting it, so that they may carry this knowledge back to their friends and families," says Swick.  "By incorporating the environment into art, history, and even foreign language classes, we are empowering students to look for connections to the environment in their every day lives."  Gary will receive $5,000 to continue his work in environmental education at Dundee-Crown.  

Would you like to nominate a teacher like Gary? Nominations for the 2010 Bartlett Award will be accepted through January 15, 2010.