Susan Ward, a seventh grade science teacher at Whittemore Park Middle School, is one of five teachers named 2008 National Outstanding Educators of the Year by Project Learning Tree, the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation.

Ward has been involved with Project Learning Tree (PLT) since the beginning of her teaching career in the late 1980’s. She helped to field test many of the activities that became a part of the program’s guidelines for elementary and middle schools. She uses the guidelines in her instructional program and has trained over 200 teachers on how to incorporate the PLT program into state curriculum standards.

 At Whittemore Park Middle School and other schools where she previously taught, Ward launched school-wide recycling programs for paper, plastic, and metal and works to teach students about the need to conserve energy and nurture the environment.  During her career, she has worked with students to create gardens and outdoor classrooms. Each year, she organizes an overnight camping trip in cooperation with the South Carolina Forestry Commission and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for students to study the coastal marsh, tidal creeks, and local forests.

Ward is a member of the Waccamaw Riverkeepers Association and is an educational representative for the South Carolina PLT Steering Committee. She will be recognized at the PLT International Coordinators’ Conference in May in Jackson, Mississippi. She also is invited to attend, free of charge, the World Forestry Center’s International Educator’s Institute to be held July 14-19 in Portland, Oregon.