SULTAN — A science teacher here is receiving national recognition for getting students to learn outdoors.
Ryan Monger, the teacher who oversees the salmon hatchery at Sultan High School, is receiving a Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators. He has been invited to accept the honor in Washington, D.C., in July.
“My passion is teaching kids how to take care of the environment,” Monger said. “But I was only able to get an award for it because the kids here are so great.”
He also credits Principal Tami Nesting and teacher’s aide Rosaleen Wilcox for helping him fill out the forms to apply for the award.
Monger isn’t big on paperwork. Instead, he comes up with ideas to get students outside to work on educational projects, such as restoring native plants to the woods behind the school, picking blackberries, raising ducks and releasing salmon from the school hatchery into the Sultan River.
“He just has so much enthusiasm, it drives the kids,” Nesting said.
Other Washington high schools have programs in which students work at nearby hatcheries. But Sultan is unique in that it has a hatchery on campus.
Students solve real-world problems to keep the fish healthy. Monger said he wouldn’t have been able to keep the hatchery program going without the help of volunteers Don Foltz and Kelli Mack.
Monger believes teaching through activities outside of the classroom, such as the biology lessons students learn by working in the hatchery, helps them get excited about science early on.
The 33-year-old said he wasn’t truly interested in science until he started teaching it.
“I basically studied science in college because I had a crush on a girl who was into science,” he said.
Monger earned his degree in marine biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He then met his wife, Joanna, while traveling in Costa Rica.
She was going to the University of Sussex in Brighton, England, to become a teacher. So, naturally, Monger followed.
“I was either going to become a teacher or a plumber,” he said. “Teaching was the right call.”
Monger taught in England for the first four years of his career. He and Joanna then moved back to the U.S. They settled on a three-acre farm near Sultan where they grow food for themselves and their two boys, ages 1 and 4.
“That’s what I’m trying to teach my students to do,” Monger said.
Monger is expanding the sustainable garden program at Sultan High so students can grow fruit and vegetables for the school cafeteria. Next year, he is increasing the number of gardening classes from one to four. Students will also plant an orchard of fruit trees behind the school.
Monger said he hasn’t decided how to spend the money that comes with his award. But if his principal agrees, it’ll likely go toward planting the orchard or improving the gardens and hatchery.
“I have plenty of stuff I want to spend money on, so that won’t be a problem,” Monger said.
The school is to receive up to $2,500 to put toward equipment for environmental education. Monger also gets up to $2,500 to sharpen his teaching skills.
The extra money makes a difference. Sultan High’s science department receives about $1,200 a year from the school district for supplies, Superintendent Dan Chaplik said. Other than that, teachers have to request more money for special projects or apply for outside funding.
Monger is the second Sultan science teacher to receive national recognition this year. Karissa Kelley received an award for new educators from the National Science Teachers Association in February.
“This is huge for our small school,” Principal Nesting said. “It shows when you put energy where it belongs — with kids — you can get incredible results.”
Amy Nile: 425-339-3192; anile@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @AmyNileReports
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