WORLAND - A visitor to West Side Elementary last week brought a surprise for fourth-grade teacher Andrea Cooley as Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom Board Vice President Megan Degenfelder presented Cooley with the Ag in the Classroom Educator of the Year Award.

According to the Wyoming Agriculture in the Classroom website, "The Educator of the Year recognizes an outstanding Wyoming educator who demonstrates excellence in education by implementing innovative agriculture and natural resource projects into their classroom and the surrounding community."

The award was presented in the middle of the school's annual end-of-the-year talent show.

Cooley said, "It was such a great surprise. I am so grateful [Principal Bruce Miller] nominated me. I wasn't expecting it."

Miller said he nominated Cooley because she is "very interested in the sciences and she made the big push for the outdoor classroom and garden."

"She is well deserving of it," he said.

In addition to the garden and orchard that Cooley has been actively growing, Cooley also teaches a science course in the summer where students focus on Wyoming minerals, fossils and geology, Miller said.

COOLEY

Cooley said this year the fourth-grade teachers were trained in using the Wyoming Ag in the Classroom resources in their classrooms. Cooley said they used them during the enrichment time.

According to the Ag in the Classroom website, Wyoming Ag In the Classroom "empowers Wyoming students to become stewards of our state's main economic drivers by creating, providing and promoting quality educational materials on Wyoming's main economic drivers in alignment with the Wyoming Content and Performance Standards."

Cooley said the fourth-grade teachers focused on different sections such as energy, agriculture, outdoor recreation and tourism.

The fourth-grade students also participate in the Wyoming in the Ag Classroom bookmark contest annually.

Last year was the first year for the outdoor garden and work continues to build the outdoor classroom.

This year they have added more raised beds and in addition to the flowers and vegetables they had last year they have added a bed for herbs, raspberries and blueberries, potatoes, onions, leeks, bok choy, eggplant and a variety of gourds and pumpkins.

She said the gourds will be used in art class next year.

This summer she will again have Work it Wednesdays at the garden starting at 9 a.m. Cooley or one of the other West Side teachers will work with whatever students show up and help them weed the garden and harvest.

"One of the cool things about the garden is we fed over 100 different families out of the garden," Cooley said. They were also able to provide some snacks for summer school and add snacks from the garden in the Blessings in a Backpack program once school started last fall.

She said all the fourth graders helped plant the garden this year and they were able to add five more trees to the orchard, which now has 17 with a variety of apple, peach, pear, plum, cherry and apricot trees.

She said some of the plants were planted prior to some of the freezing temperatures that hit in early May. "We lost some tomatoes, but the teachers were able to make it a teaching moment, teaching the students what the plants look like when damaged by frost, how they make it out of that and how you often have to replant, which they did, replanting some tomatoes and peppers."

This year they also plan to use some of the produce in the school salad bar. "We never have enough produce for a whole grade level snack, so we are going to use extras in the salad bar," Cooley said.

She reiterated her appreciation of being nominated and added that she enjoys working in the garden with the students.

She said a lot of the outdoor teaching opportunities are thanks to Miller giving teachers the freedom to do "exciting STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities."

She said the garden has provide the opportunity for many students to get exposure to plants and gardening. She said many students do know the different varieties of plants.

"We have been able to talk about things that most of us think is common," Cooley said.