Watkinsville Educator Awarded Conservation Teacher of Year Grant

Social Circle, GA

A Watkinsville teacher’s proposal to study and collect data on a creek in the northeast Georgia city earned her school a $1,000 grant from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

The agency announced today that Lyndsay Goeckeritz, a fourth-grade teacher at Colham Ferry Elementary, has received the 2024-25 Conservation Teacher of the Year grant. The annual award goes to a kindergarten through fifth-grade public or private school teacher in Georgia who demonstrates exceptional energy and innovation in teaching life sciences. Funding is provided by The Environmental Resources Network, or TERN, friends group of DNR’s Wildlife Conservation Section.

Linda May, outreach coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Section, said Goeckeritz was selected for her project called Stream Sleuths. “This proposal outlined a creative and sustainable plan for place-based outdoor learning that includes scientific data collection and sharing,“ May said. “Students will cover curriculum standards in a fun, meaningful and memorable way while developing respect and a sense of responsibility for natural resources.”

For the project, the school’s 75 fourth graders will learn about water quality and stream ecology by studying nearby Porters Creek. Students will create packs of leaves and place them in the creek to collect macroinvertebrates. Identification keys will be used to determine  organisms found. Because some aquatic species are more sensitive to pollution, water quality index scores can be calculated based on the presence, absence or abundance of species. This data will be reported to Georgia Adopt-a-Stream quarterly. The fourth graders also will produce publications to explain the project to other students and stakeholders.  

Funding from the grant will be used to buy stream ecology kits and other supplies for the biological assessment. This project would not be possible without the grant, according to Goeckeritz.  

“I am deeply grateful to receive this conservation grant and award, which will allow me to bring environmental education to life for my students,” she wrote. “Thank you for your support in empowering the next generation of conservationists and fostering a deeper connection to our planet.”

Wildlife Conservation Section staff and a TERN board member coordinate the grant and review proposals. The primary mission of TERN, a nonprofit formed in 1992, is to help financially support the agency.

Through education, research and management, Wildlife Conservation works to safeguard and restore Georgia’s native animals not legally fished for or hunted, plus rare plants and natural habitats. The agency also strives to increase public enjoyment of the outdoors.

Wildlife Conservation is funded primarily by grants, direct donations and fundraisers, such as the sale and renewal of Georgia’s bald eagle and monarch butterfly license plates.

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