Photo by Travis Pratt April Wells won teacher of the year from Chesapeake Bay Trust.

Wells is the 2008 Chesapeake Bay Trust Teacher of the Year for high school environmental education. She coordinates the Environmental Academy at Catoctin High School, and has mentored 40 students through environmental graduation projects over the past six years.

Wells teaches half-time at Catoctin High School. She is also the Schoolyard Habitat Teacher Specialist for Frederick County Public Schools, a Chesapeake Bay Trust grant-funded position. She works with other teachers and students to set up and maintain habitats.

That can be a simple butterfly garden or a large wetlands project. The idea is to give students hands-on experience with nature, and that can be done right outside the school doors. She sees herself as a resource for teachers.

"There's a lot teachers want to do, and they get overwhelmed," Wells said.

Teachers need plants and tools, and Wells knows how to write grants to get these materials. She also has the connections to find donated labor and materials. Wells helps teachers write grants to pay for their own environmental projects.

"There's so many resources out there," she said.

Through wetlands and stream projects, she said, students learn that the water in local wetlands and streams makes its way to the bay. That means any contaminants that start locally affect life there.

Catoctin's Environmental Academy began 10 years ago. The school was a natural choice for the environmental program because it's close to a national park, a state park and a wealth of natural resources, Wells said. This year, 20 students graduated from the program.

Last fall the students journeyed to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore to survey streams. The students also work with the children in the school's child development program, teaching them about nature.

Wells, 42, came to Frederick County 15 years ago. She grew up in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts, she spent a summer traveling from Ohio to Georgia.

"I drove through Frederick , and saw it was a growing area, similar to Massachusetts but warmer," she said.

She had been interviewing with different school systems for jobs as a science teacher, and decided Frederick County was the place for her. She dressed for her job interview in a suit while staying in a pup-tent at Gambrill State Park.

She started as a substitute, but soon began working at Catoctin. At first, she taught traditional science classes, but was eager to start the environmental program.

"It appeals to students who might not be traditional science majors," she said. "It's so diverse. I promote it to students as a social thing."

She does not promote a point of view. "I try not to be too much of a tree hugger," she said. "You have to educate them more with the science of it, and less of the emotional part."

She does discuss the issue of carbon output, and ways to prevent it.

"I try to frame a lot of it as saving money," she said. "We spend a lot of time talking about the price of oil and gas, and we discuss alternative energy."

The class explores the impact of oil, from drilling to oil spills, and does a cost/benefit analysis.

Wells comes to environmental science with a science background. "I was always interested in science, but I fell into environmental science," she said. "Then I embraced it."

She likes the juxtaposition between the two positions, and hopes it continues. The grant for the Schoolyard Habitat Teacher expires at the end of the coming school year, and Wells hopes that either the county will continue funding the position or the a new grant source can be found.