TKY teacher leads with green infrastructure in JCPS

Lauren Niemann (2010 TKY Cohort) teaches a self-designed Environmental Science class at Fern Creek in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS). Below she shares some of the exciting work she’s currently leading in JCPS, while raising young children with husband and fellow TKY-alumn, Jacob Read (2009).

During the 2017-2018 school year, I joined School Startup at Fern Creek High School, an educator accelerator designed by 2016 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Ashley Lamb-Sinclair. While working with other like-minded teachers, we employed design thinking to refine our teacher craft. The experience challenged me to completely shift the way I taught.

As a result, so many fantastic things have happened in the last 12 months! Beginning around this time last year, students proposed projects on Fern Creek High School’s campus that would act as green infrastructure for improving Louisville’s waterways and managing the impact of polluted urban runoff.

One student’s proposal was unique in that it had a very holistic view of problem solving that considered mental health as well as environmental health.

We were fortunate have the right people see students present their work, and that student’s proposal earned us a $5,000 grant from A Partnership for a Green City in Louisville to execute that one student’s proposal.

This began a cascade of events I never would have expected. In June, I was honored to receive the Kentucky Association for Conservation District’s Environmental Secondary Teacher of the Year Award for the innovative environmental work we have done at Fern Creek High School. Then in October 2018, I was only the second teacher recipient of the Joan Riehm Memorial Environmental Leadership Award Honoring Sustainable Environmental Leadership — a prestigious award from the city of Louisville.

It is now my second year teaching environmental science, and since this is the curriculum I designed, it’s awesome to see how the course has evolved over time. This school  year we have had the opportunity to implement the courtyard proposal from last school year as well as planted a native meadow in the courtyard to reduce the size of the lawn in that space. Eventually we will  remove all non-native grasses that need to be mowed, further connecting our actions to Louisville’s sustainability goals.

Recently, I was also awarded the Breaking Barriers Spotlight Teacher Award from the Metro Disability Coalition for creating an outdoor classroom space that is accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). My students were able to do this work through an extensive collaborative effort between Fern Creek High School and our surrounding community. We collected bottle caps to create to ADA-compliant picnic tables for seating.

This spring we are working to beautify the space with a functional rain garden planted with native plants.  Funding from the Louisville Water Company Foundation and the Metro Sewer District (MSD) made this possible. As students learn about how to create a rain garden they will be working alongside landscape architects from Gresham Smith as well as with MSD staff and a naturalist from Dropseed Native Nursery.

Given that I also am a Louisville Water Company fellow, we will be coordinating with the water company to learn about how soil can act as a filter and positively impact the processing of water in Louisville.

All this work is culminating with yet another award. In April I will be awarded the Hilliard Lyons Teacher Excellence award due to innovative practices happening in my classroom. This is the most prestigious award for a teacher in JCPS.

My students have been super supportive and engaged with all these projects. I hope that they will recognize that rigorous thinking and problem solving shouldn’t dissuade them from taking on big challenges. Furthermore, these skills are extremely applicable to the real world, far more than  memorizing facts for the sake of doing well on a test.

One student shares, “Compared to AP, this environmental science class allowed me for more freedom and exploration that’s more meaningful than paper packets and textbooks. I love your class a lot and personality, it really helps to go into a classroom where you don’t stress out so much, especially with my kind of AP class schedule and I’m glad I chose to be here.”

At Teach Kentucky, we are so glad Lauren chose to be here, too. Thanks for all the hard work you do for your students and our local environment, Ms. Niemann!