Featured GSN Member: Deborah DeCovis

Deborah DeCovis is an exemplary service-learning educator. Her classroom has no desks, no whiteboard, and no electricity. For what her classroom lacks in bricks and mortar, it makes up for in student engagement, practical knowledge, and a lasting connection to the curriculum.

Her classroom is the great outdoors.

At the National Park Service, biologist Deborah DeCovis teaches students ages 5-18. She engages local youth by introducing them to ecology, biology, and even archaeology. Using the parks as her classroom, she creates a connection between science, schoolwork, and the local community.

“Many of the students I work with are disconnected from the local environment, despite living in an area surrounded by public lands, incredible history and unique desert ecology,” Deborah said. The service-learning programs at the National Park Service do more than teach about the local environment. They also instill their student participants with a sense of pride and environmental ownership.

Students travel to Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot National Monuments for full days, several times a year, to learn about ecology and biology. Topics include the identification of native and invasive plants through seed collection, invasive plant removal, planting native seedlings, educational hikes, water testing, soil testing, macro invertebrate analysis and resource management.

Her current service-learning project involves the collection of native seeds. In it, seeds are collected within the park and then propagated in school greenhouses. Students care for the plants for a season before replanting them within the park boundary.

“The park’s outreach program, as supported by the National Park Foundation Park Stewards and America’s Best Idea grant programs, has allowed the National Park Service to reach students that would otherwise not have an opportunity to visit parks,” Deborah said, proud to have the opportunity to instruct and inspire the youth who inspire her right back. “This program instills ownership, resource stewardship and a sense of personal responsibility.”

Read more about Deborah, and other environmental service-learning projects featured during Earth month, in the Generator School Network.