Jessica Levine is no ordinary 6th grade teacher at Eckstein Middle School in Seattle.  She is a National Board Certified Teacher, a King County Earth Hero at School, and an Outstanding Environmental Educator.

Jessica is extremely committed to teaching basic science concepts from an environmental perspective. She is able to make laws of conservation of matter and thermodynamics come to life through the lens of the environment. When teaching about the law of conservation of  matter , she does a “cradle to cradle” project with the students, educating them about how every resource they use came from somewhere and how it will ultimately never go away.  When teaching about solubility, Jessica conducts a Clean Water Challenge with students so that they can see the impacts of solutes, solvents, and insoluble materials in our water systems. Students apply their knowledge of acids and bases to household hazardous products. This year all 6th grade students will visit the West Point Water Treatment facility and conduct a shoreline service project at Discovery and/or Carkeek Parks. In teaching about energy transformation and thermodynamics, Jessica uses a custom built photovoltaic unit in her classroom so that students can see electricity being transformed from the sun every day.

Jessica has presented her unique curriculum at local and national conferences, inspiring other formal educators to approach science from such a real-life perspective  and sustainable context. She was on the committee that wrote the Washington K-12 ESE standards, and continues spread sustainability ideas to colleagues.  Jessica has also established numerous community resources, and grant funding, to enhance her curriculum design including Puget Sound Energy’s  Powerful Choices for the Environment program materials at various points during the school year to promote environmental education in her classroom.  Jessica is not simply educating good scientists, she's raising sustainable savvy citizens. Her classroom is a place of practice to model resource conservation and environmental learning, action, and change. Jessica is extremely committed to teaching students about the environment -- in the formal classroom.

 To learn more about Jessica Levine visit these websites:

Solar 4R Schools
http://74.208.174.3/solar4rschools/learn/blog/2009/10/daves-corner-how-we-roll
 
Hazards on the Homefront
http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/education/minigrants.asp
scroll half way down
 
Facing the Future, Featured Educator
http://facingthefuture.org/emailmarketer/display.php?M=21&C=96565af8753b734451fa44f91d2d1f83&S=29&L=5&N=8#LessonHighlight