Paul F-Brandwein Institute Awards First Brandwein Medal
David Brown receives the first Brandwein Medal
March 31, 2007. David Brown, Fifth-grade teacher, Baldwin Intermediate School-West, Quincy, Illinois, received the first Brandwein Medal at the NSTA Annual Meeting in St. Louis, Missouri.
David Brown has taught at the elementary level for 18 years. He is the cofounder of the Baldwin Green Team and Teacher Environmental Education Team. He has served on the Toyota Tapestry Grant Judging Panel for Environmental Education and serves on the Lorrie Otto Seeds for Education national grant review team. He participated in the Teachers Experiencing the Arctic and Antarctica Project Fellowship in 2003 and represented Illinois at the Midwest Environmental Education Symposium in 2002. He participated in the Paul F-Brandwein Summer Leadership Institute in 2001 and received a Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Award in 2001 for his environmental field studies program for fifth and sixth graders titled “From the Watershed, To the Estuary, To the Sea.” He received the Illinois Presidential Award for Science and Mathematics in 2000 and numerous other awards in the field of environmental education.
The award, including a bronze medallion and cash prize, was presented to Mr. Brown by Brandwein Institute President Keith Wheeler at the Brandwein Lecture at the National Science Teachers Association Annual Meeting in St. Louis, on March 31, 2007.
The Paul F-Brandwein Institute was established in 1995 to honor the work of outstanding science educator, author, and humanist, Paul Brandwein. The Institute is headquartered on the Rutgers Creek Wildlife Conservancy, Greenville, New York. To perpetuate the work of Paul F-Brandwein, the Institute is dedicated to the education of all learners in recognition of their interdependence with nature and responsibility for sustaining a healthful and healing environment. The Institute has hosted three summer leadership programs for teachers in partnership with Toyota, USA, convened a national Conservation Learning Summit in 2005, sponsors an annual lecture program at the National Science Teachers Annual Meetings, and conducts ongoing research and baseline data collections on the Rutgers Creek property.
In future years, the Institute will bestow the Brandwein Medal to persons in different fields of conservation education, representing the various facets of Paul and Mary Brandwein’s life contributions