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BRIDGET: A TEACHER PAYS IT FORWARD—FOR HER STUDENTS, AND EARTHWATCH 

On Day 1 of her first �������� expedition, high school science teacher Bridget Ward was having second thoughts. “We were ready to quit,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘This is insane. We’re working our butts to the bone, we’re in the middle of the rainforest, we’re hiking, we’re using machetes, we’re getting stung by bees, we’re setting up camera traps. And then there was a thunderstorm.”

It was the summer of 2014, and Bridget had traveled to Costa Rica to join the expedition “Tracking Costa Rica’s Mammals” alongside a team of fellow educators who had been awarded �������� teacher fellowships.

While Day 1 had been a considerable challenge, Day 2 was a different story. “No lies, by the second day, we were ready to go,” said Bridget. “It was like we were suddenly trained researchers, and we knew what to expect.”

Over the next two weeks, the team tracked wildlife and interviewed farmers to help scientists assess the effectiveness of Costa Rica’s environmental policies. In the evenings, the teachers brainstormed how to translate their experiences into richer, more dynamic lessons for their students. In the process of directly contributing to field research, the team bonded over their shared experience, and many of them are still in touch today—over a decade after their expedition.

For Bridget, the �������� expedition transformed how she viewed science—and how she would teach it for years to come. Since Costa Rica, she has traveled to the Galapagos Islands to study marine biology, participated in research on Weddell seals in Antarctica, and incorporated real-time citizen science projects into her classroom. Today, as Science Department Chair at Springfield Central High School and a National Geographic Certified Educator, she continues to weave authentic science into her curriculum.

Bridget also seeks opportunities to directly engage with scientists about their research, and encourages her students to do the same. “I didn’t realize how open scientists were before I started working with ��������,” she said. “I thought they would always be too busy, and they are busy, but they’re often more than happy to connect because they love what they’re doing and want to share.”

In 2024, Bridget was invited to join the Board of Directors for the Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Massachusetts, which supports wildlife habitat protection, environmental education, and global conservation efforts. When asked to nominate a recipient for the Foundation’s annual conservation grant, her choice was clear.

“�������� started it all for me,” she said. “It was time to give back to them.”