AWS's Director of River Restoration Wins Award from Prince George's County Schools

May 10 - Ariel Trahan, Director of River Restoration at the Anacostia Watershed Society, was honored with the "Unsung Hero" award by the Prince George's County Public Schools Environmental Literacy Steering Committee.

Ariel earned this award for her tireless efforts to help implement the Environmental Literacy Framework in that county's schools. This framework can be implemented into existing curriculums, and includes the following tenets:

• Outdoor learning opportunities for every student, every year
• Authentic, inquiry-based learning for all students
• Related teacher professional development for all teachers
• Every school achieves Maryland Green School status
• Curricular alignment of state environmental literacy standards with the new framework

Through programs like Treating and Teaching, which Ariel and the Anacostia Watershed Society helped to establish here, schools received outdoor class space and stormwater management installations. Teachers and staff were trained on these installations, then students both helped to plant native species and used the space for outdoor learning.

Congratulations to Ariel, and thank you to the PGCPS Environmental Literacy Steering Committee!