Embedded Files
Watch Gaia Scholastic CEO & Founder speak at the ceremony (20:55-23:23) alongside the Honorable Brenda Mallory, Assistant Deputy Administrator for the EPA Mark Rupp, NEEF President and Founder, Sara Espinoza, and more!
Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators:
Pictured here: Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, being presented with the award by the Honorable Brenda Mallory (Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality) and Mark Rupp (the Assistant Deputy Administrator for the EPA). The Presidential Innovation Award for Environmental Educators was created in partnership between the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This award recognizes and supports educators who employ innovative approaches to environmental education and use the environment as a context for learning for their students.
U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Award:
Pictured here: celebrating one of Gaia's school district's Green Ribbon Award at the NYS Board of Regents with Commissioner of Education Betty Rosa and Regent Wills. This national award recognizes our dedication to sustainability and interdisciplinary environmental education program. This prestigious lifetime award recognizes our commitment to sustainability and environmental education, placing this district among the top schools in the nation. See the announcement by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona for more information.
NY State Assembly Special Merit Citation:
Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg awarded Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, with this Special Merit Citation from NY State for my work in integrating interdisciplinary environmental literacy into the Garrison Union Free School District. The pinnacle of this programming was the PK-12 Youth Climate Summit (see examples of Gaia Youth Climate Summits here).
STANYS Excellence in Science Education Award:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, was given the Science Teachers Association of New York State Excellence in Science Education Award for my work at the Garrison School District, building and integrating an Environmental Education program into all content areas across PK-8 classrooms. I was also recognized with this award because of the wide variety of platforms in which I've presented at conferences, sharing research, teaching techniques, and supporting fellow educators in the integration of environmental concepts into standards-based curricula.
Altona Middle School Teacher of the Year:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award from the St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation. For the last 12 years, my district has run this event in which each teachers are chosen from each school as finalists for this competition and one finalist is chosen as the winner. The nominations for this award come from students, families, peers, and community members!
NAGT Southwest Section Outstanding Earth Science Teacher:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, was awarded the NAGT's "Outstanding Earth Science Teacher" Southwest Section Award for my work with my Waterwheel Project - built to develop student empathy and understanding around the challenges we face from climate change and resource inequity. My 8th-grade students worked together in teams that represented real-world countries to build waterwheels (to simulate renewable energy through hydropower), then tested the strength and endurance of their machines under different "levels of rainfall" using Vernier Water Flow Meters. These countries, whose real-world GDP's and access to resources were reflected in their budgets and resource lists, often created "UN Proposals" to help each other achieve the goal of generating hydropower. Students then researched their specific country's relationship to the specific effects of climate change (sea levels rising, extreme weather phenomena, etc.).
NSTA Vernier Tech Award:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, was the first-ever first-year teacher to win this award! I won it by building 3 consecutive units which challenged students to collect and analyze content-driven data. Through this award, I got to attend the NSTA National Conference in St. Louis, as well as implement a large variety of data-collection technology in my classroom!
NMLSTA Paul DeHart Hurd Award:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, was awarded the NMLSTA Paul Dehart Hurd Award for my interdisciplinary work, integrating environmental literacy into PK-8 classrooms in New York State. Notable in this application was the first-ever PK-12 Youth Climate Summit I created and implemented at the Garrison Union Free School District, featuring 7 other middle and high schools, workshops led by guest experts in the field, and long-term PK-8 student research and civic action related to sustainability.
Superintendent's Excellence in Education Award:
Altona Middle School science teachers and Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award from our Superintendent, Don Haddad, for both our individual accomplishments and for our science team's continual creation of opportunities which engage our students in authentic inquiry.
CAST Rising Star Award for
Excellence in Teaching Science:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, was the first teacher to receive this new award for innovative, problem-based learning as a second-year teacher. I spoke about my Waves & Energy Unit, in which students repeatedly used data-collection technology to analyze deep scientific ideas. One such activity challenged students to experiment with and record various strings on string instruments, then transfer the videos to iMovie to slow them down and manually count string frequencies. Through this cross-cutting activity, students were able to analyze the relationships among the frequency, amplitude, and wavelength of a wave.
Miami University's 3 Minute Thesis 2nd Place Winner:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, participated in this event as a graduate student with Miami University of Oxford, Ohio's Project Dragonfly program. I competed against hundreds of graduate students from the other 68 graduate programs at Miami University. Fellow 3 Minute Thesis topics included some of the below:
Styrene Maleic Acid Copolymer and its Derivatives as Membrane Mimetics for the study of Membrane Proteins
Fabrication and Characterization of Eggshells Microparticles reinforced Polylactic Acid Filaments for 3D Printing
Deciphering Volcanic Eruptions and their Impact on Human Settlements: A View to the Past and the Future
Integrating Mindfulness into Chronic Cough Suppression Therapy
Miami University's 18 of the Last 9 Award:
This award is given to alumni who exemplify the values of "Love and Honor" through leadership, innovation, and commitment to positive change. Modeled after the well-known “30 under 30” concept and named for Miami University’s charter year of 1809, this award program seeks to recognize outstanding recent grads who are actively embodying the core values of a Miami education. Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award in 2025.
GRF Presentation Official.mp4Miami University Graduate Research Forum Top Presenter:
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award from Miami University's Graduate School. The Graduate Research Forum is an interdisciplinary event in which hundreds of students across 68 graduate programs present on their theses to a group of panelists. My research focuses on bridging the gap between Mainstream and Environmental education.
Material Awards
Material Awards
Henry Ford’s Teacher Innovator Grand Prize Award Winner (2021):
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award for my work as a teacher during COVID-19, building community and supporting my students' social-emotional development through the creation and facilitation of weekly virtual game nights, school-wide competitions ("rattler cup activities"), daily and weekly online video challenges to get kids engaged, active, and supporting each other, themed Webex classes, and general team-building and community-building in my classroom, NJHS, and the Altona community!
Vernier Engineering Contest Notable Entry (2020):
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award for building a project in which my 7th- and 8th-grade students cross-cut science, engineering design, and history. My students actively integrated 7 Mindsets (social-emotional learning curriculum) throughout the entirety of the project - and collaborated to solve real-world problems in the process! I used the funds from this award to buy more data-collection technology for my students to use in the classroom. Featured: a class picture and a thermal energy juxtaposition experiment (heat generated from a lava lamp vs. heat generated from a human) using my infrared camera during our Energy & Waves unit!
Giant Moon Map Award (2019):
Gaia Scholastic CEO and Founder, Rachel Arbor, won this award by building a unit in which students studying evolution simultaneously learn about biotic species and the factors that affect their change over time - and abiotic processes, such as the changing surface of the moon, to recognize that evolution is a universal process in nature.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse