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Teaching Green

In the front of the Gibraltar High School Biology room, next to stacks of quizzes and homework assignments, sits a much larger stack of brand new recycling bins, science posters reflected in their sides.

The clear plastic containers are waiting to be painted. When the project is finished, every Gibraltar High classroom will have a recycling bin, thanks to the school’s new Ecology Club and its founder, teacher Dave Tupa. It is because of countless efforts like this that the Wisconsin Conservation Congress named Tupa the Conservation Educator of the Year.

According to the Conservation Congress Web site, the award “is intended to recognize Wisconsin conservationists who dedicate themselves to educating others about the wise use and conservation of Wisconsin’s natural resources and environment.” As his colleagues told the Congress in their nominations of him, Tupa couldn’t fit that description more. In his 13 years at Gibraltar, Mr. Tupa’s Environmental Science students have learned forestry conservation, wise soil and aquatic resource management, and plant and animal identification. Teenagers in his classes have assisted the DNR in salmon egg harvesting and built hundreds of bird nest boxes.

But Tupa won the Educator of the Year award not just because he has the right ideas, but because he has the right attitude. Like any other high school teacher, Mr. Tupa can only hope that his students share his enthusiasm. He can only hope that students follow through not just on the homework he assigns them, but on the activities he encourages them to participate in. It wasn’t until recently that Tupa realized just how much that hope became a reality.

“I got an email from Karen Newbern [of the Ridges Sanctuary] with the results of the December bird count,” he said. “It wasn’t until then that I realized that a majority of the participants were my students.”

Similarly, the Conservation Congress had 46 Gibraltar students in attendance at its most recent spring hearing, where attendees can voice their opinions and vote on the DNR’s recommended regulation changes.

Despite the obvious and lasting impact he has had on his students, Tupa, with his characteristic humility, was “a little bit surprised and shocked at first” upon hearing that he had won the Educator of the Year award. Because of all the hard work he continues to put into Door County’s natural resources, Tupa may have been the only one surprised.

On Earth Day this year, Tupa had only seven of the 25 Ecology Club students with him to pick up trash around the school, as the rest were in Sturgeon Bay for a music competition. Tupa was left to work against the odds, as he often does. While he and his students were only able to cover half of the school grounds in 40 minutes, they were still able to collect six full bags of trash and three full bags of recycling.

But the Conservation Educator of the Year wasn’t satisfied. After recounting the day’s events, Tupa was only looking to finish the job.

“We will have to schedule a completion of the effort for another day.”

It is due to this dedicated, enthusiastic sensibility that he earned him the award and recognition he deserves.