Bright spots in sustainability and nature education in the ACT

The ACT Chapter of AAEE is thrilled to announce ACTs 2020 awards for excellence in the area of environmental education.

A big thank you to members and friends who joined us at the AGM to congratulate the 2020 awardees: 

Sue Jones - ACT Environmental Educator of the Year

Samantha Burn - ACT Emerging Environmental Educator of the Year within Schooling

Lis van Papenrecht  - ACT Emerging Environmental Educator of the Year within Community

Cassandra Brown - Highly Commended ACT Emerging Environmental Educator within Schooling

Paula Banks - Highly Commended ACT Emerging Environmental Educator within Community

Sue Jones 

It is our pleasure to congratulate Sue Jones for being awarded ACT Environmental Educator of the Year 2020 in recognition of her outstanding legacy of decades of innovation and mentoring to develop the pedagogy known as environmental theatre. 

In her time in the ACT Sue has founded and is director of two exemplary creative environmental education services, DanceKids and TakeFlight Education. Over the years thousands of ACT families with young children have got to know Sue as that fun science and dance instructor with the colourful costumes, who uses drama, comedy, music and very energetic dance moves to tell unforgettable science-based stories about nature. 

More about Sue here: https://enviroedact.blogspot.com/.../free-under-sea... and https://dancekids.com.au/ but wait there's more: https://takeflighteducation.com.au/

Links to some of Sue's production videos here.

New Awards for Early Career and Emerging educators

This year AAEE ACT announced two exciting new award categories. Being recognised for their excellence as early-career / emerging environmental educators in schools and in the community are Samantha Burn and Lis van Papenrecht. 

Samantha has been instrumental in helping Melrose High School students find their voices for sustainability, organising everything from second-hand clothes stores and markets to fashion parades, from gardens to fully functional waste-blitzing recycling workshops and programs for the whole school. This is all on top of being a full-time science laboratory technician at the school! 

Lis is the key conduit between the ACT government’s Actsmart program and southside communities via schools and teachers. She is being recognised for her role in establishing the Actsmart senior student’s climate change conference, for her gentle guiding approach encouraging teachers to step into sustainability education, as well as for never wasting any chance to enthuse and to develop a sustainability mindset in the wider community. 

Outstanding Commendations

Cassandra Brown and Paula Banks received special mentions for their highly commended work as early career-emerging environmental educators. 

Cassandra is an Educational and Preschool Team Leader at the Richardson Child Care and Education Centre, where she is inspiring young minds, families and other educators to grow and care for vegetables and bush food, learn about and care for nature and ‘do’ sustainability. 

Paula works on Australia’s largest nature discovery program, Bush Blitz. During 2020, she has
found novel ways to engage with Australians, recruiting their help and raising awareness about biodiversity and taxonomy. She is also an education ranger for Parks Australia (ANBG) in her spare time.