ROCKPORT — At the end of a long school day in May, Margo Murphy’s classroom at Camden Hills Regional High School filled with students after the dismissal bell. They were freshmen eager to check the progress of their attempts at creating self-contained eco-systems, Murphy explained above the noise during a telephone interview. She believes in letting the kids learn by doing, even if that means they endure the collapse of their ecosystems.
“The [ecosystems] just start to tank,” Murphy said. “They start realizing they need oxygen in the system.”
The lesson may not be unique, but the level of enthusiasm among her students is, according to Murphy’s colleagues. In her 27 years of teaching in Camden and Thomaston, Murphy has been given numerous awards as a science and environmental educator, says longtime colleague Ken Vencile, a fellow science teacher at the school. That’s because she has a way of learning the best practices of science education and utilizing those practices to inspire students to become hands-on learners, he said.
“She brings it right back to the classroom and makes it real,” Vencile said. “She’s doing the things in her class that the latest research says we should all be doing.”
Murphy’s ability to combine theory and practice was cited as a major reason why she won the 2013 Presidential Environmental Innovation Award for Environmental Education in May. The award singles out educators who can turn environmental awareness into environmental action, according to Molly Hooven, an EPA spokeswoman.
Murphy is credited with helping a group of Camden area high school students—dubbed the Windplanners, a play on the sports teams nickname, Windjammers—erect a wind turbine on school grounds. That turbine began generating power for the school in 2012. She and school maintenance director Keith Rose encouraged students to take a hands-on approach throughout the process, from fundraising half a million dollars to navigating town permits for the turbine, said Dr. Nick Ithomitis, the school’s principal.
“The kids really took ownership. They wrote the grants, they did the public speaking,” Ithomitis said. “These kids, they just worked really, really hard.”
The students also won a 2012 Presidential Environment Youth Award for their efforts; it’s unprecedented for a school and an educator to both receive these awards at the same time, he said.
In a media statement, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree praised the teacher and school.
“I’m so glad Margo and the school are getting the national recognition they deserve,” she said. Planning, funding, and building a wind turbine is a challenging task for anyone—but with students as the driving force behind this project, the accomplishment is simply amazing. This will be something that Camden Hills students will always be proud of, and it has given them the kind of learning experiences that are hard to come by in the classroom.”
Pingree also noted that the Windplanners also recently were one of seven finalists (and the only one from the U.S.) in the international Volvo Adventure Awards.
But the students aren’t just focusing on wind power. Under the leadership of Murphy and her colleagues, they also have worked to make the school more energy-efficient, and they’re looking into a solar-power project. Overall, their efforts are saving the school $27,000 annually.
In addition, Murphy has planted an orchard and expanded the gardening program at the school. Ithomitis said his job has been to stay out of the way and let the collaboration grow between Murphy and her students.
“It really isn’t as much an activity as a culture they’re building,” he said.
For her part, Murphy is reluctant to take much of the credit for the sustainable culture she’s helped foster at the school. She said that the seeds for success were already planted before she arrived at the school four years ago. Her job, primarily, has been to motivate.
“We’ve got a community of kids, family, teachers who all believe in this vision,” she said. “I’m the privileged one, here.”