On October 11, 2022, Copper Mill Elementary Science Teacher traveled to Denver, Colorado, where she was recognized at an award ceremony celebrating the 2022 Outstanding Earth Science Teachers in the country. She was presented the award by the National Association of GeoScience Teachers (NAGT) president, Jennifer Wenner.
The Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award is an annual award from the National Association of GeoScience Teachers (NAGT). The Ceremony was sponsored by the Geological Society of America at their GeoConnects 2022 Conference. Eleven K-12 teachers were honored from around the nation. Ms. Saye-Foucqueteau represented the Southeastern Region and Louisiana. She was also able to hike the Alpine Ridge Trail in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Sandra Saye-Foucqueteau is a fifth-grade Science teacher at Copper Mill Elementary in Zachary, Louisiana. She is passionate about Louisiana coastal protection and restoration efforts. She engages students with both state and national environmental projects.
Her students strive to create new solutions for both natural and man-made issues of localized flooding from the Mississippi River, Louisiana’s disappearing coastline, as well as global environmental issues. She has developed a culminating field trip for over 400 students to visit the newly opened LSU River Center Studies Facility.
Ms. Saye-Foucqueteau lives on a sustainable Sunflower Farm and has received Certification from LSU’s Garden Leadership program. She shares her farm and her travels as classroom phenomena. Sandra was selected to attend Lamar University’s “Teaching Environmental Science Institute”, Texas A&M’s Geology Camp, the Keystone Science’s Environmental Institute, and numerous Louisiana workshops. She was named the Louisiana Science Teachers Association’s Essie Beck “Rising Star”. In August 2021, Sandra was selected to be a Fellow in the Louisiana Department of Education’s Louisiana Coastal Fellowship. The fellowship held bimonthly trainings with Washington State University’s project, Learning in Places, which promotes equitable, cultural, evidence-based science education in outdoor learning. These continual professional studies help Sandra instill a love of Earth Science in her students.
