SALISBURY TEACHER AMY Clapp helps Rhylon Wisnowski and Abel Sheldrick use models of the earth, moon and sun while studying the eclipse last spring. Clapp was recently awarded one of the highest national honors that can be conferred on a science teacher. Photo by Bjarki Sears

SALISBURY — Longtime Salisbury Community School educator Amy Clapp is getting a much-deserved round of applause.

The fourth-grade teacher — whose science contributions to her school and indeed the entire Addison Central School District have been the stuff of legend during the past quarter-century — recently gained national attention.

Clapp this month was named a winner of a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the nation’s highest distinction for instruction in science, technology, engineering, mathematics or computer science.

“I feel such an overwhelming sense of gratitude — for this school, this district, my colleagues, this state and country, all of which have provided me with opportunities,” Clapp said of the honor, which will include a certificate signed by former President Joe Biden, a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation, and a trip to Washington, D.C., where she and other awardees will attend a series of recognition events, participate in professional development opportunities, and discuss how to improve STEM education.

Clapp has distinguished herself through the years as a dynamic, enthusiastic and resourceful science teacher who uses hands-on props, experiments and a well-provisioned outdoor classroom to teach her students about what makes things tick in the world in which they live.

But becoming a national award winner and the ACSD’s gold standard for teaching science seemed an improbable reach for Clapp when she was finding her own way as a student. She wasn’t a fan of the subject in high school, and took AP biology as a senior at Champlain Valley Union High School so she could avoid taking science in college.

“It’s the biggest regret I probably have in my life, because I could have taken such awesome classes,” said Clapp, who went on to Colby College, from which she earned a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, with a minor in teacher education.

After exiting Colby, Clapp spent a couple years skiing and working with children before deciding to earn her teaching certificate at the University of Montana. One of the classes she took was called “The Methods of Science.” She excelled, and her professor asked her to return to the course as a teaching assistant, which she did. Her professor also suggested she apply for a scholarship through the National Science Foundation, which she also did — successfully.

After earning her certificate in December of 1998, Clapp came home to Vermont (then Shelburne) for what she thought would be just a holiday visit.

She instead opted for a permanent homecoming after seeing — and successfully applying for — a job as a long-term teaching sub at Salisbury’s elementary school. She recalled that Salisbury Principal Beth Hill backed her for the job in part because of the National Science Foundation scholarship she’d won.

Her run as a substitute evolved into a fulltime gig, and the rest is history. While she’s had plenty of opportunities, Clapp has never left Salisbury Community School and has no plans to do so.

She entered the school as a fifth-grade educator, teaching all subjects. But she soon found, “I really loved teaching science to kids. They loved it. It was fun, their favorite part of the day. I loved coming up with ways to hook them into whatever they were doing.”

SOAKED IN SCIENCE

Science imbues just about every subject she teaches, whether it be human migration or democracy. For example, she’ll steer students into a such units by asking them how animals migrate and organize their own hierarchy.

While some educators are content to impart science through books and videos, Clapp wants her students to live it, just as she’s tried to do.

Around two decades ago, she took time off to work with a scientist in the Arctic, charting the chemistry of rivers.

“It was the first time I was doing science in the field, and it was important for me to bring that (experience) back to my students,” Clapp said.

Armed with this experience, Clapp taught her students how to conduct water quality sampling in waterways near Salisbury school.

“So 20 years ago, we were doing climate change projects in the classroom … at a time when many if their parents were just hearing about global warming,” she said.

She launched a “trout in the classroom” project that allows students to witness the life cycle of trout and then release the fish into the Middlebury River each spring.

Clapp maintains a “natural history museum” of items — including a turtle shell, a squash and an electric motors kit to make things move — that students can manipulate at their leisure.

“It’s helping kids wonder,” Clapp said.

AMY CLAPP

HANDS-ON LEARNING

But her commitment to hands-on learning is most evident in the outdoor classroom that she and her students have maintained and visited in the forest behind the school for the past 15 years.

While the children are keenly engaged while in the school building, their collective inquisitiveness peaks while prowling outside the four walls. Last Friday saw Clapp and around 10 of her students make the familiar trek to Salisbury Community School’s outdoor classroom, where kids can escape 21st-century technology for science at its most pure and undistilled form. Using their eyes and observing their teacher’s advice to “move like a fox,” the students expertly discern clues left in the snowy forest by deer, squirrels, birds — and possibly a bear — that had traversed the student’s special study habitat even before the youngsters had climbed out of bed for the day.

Their scan of the forest complete, the intrepid young investigators sit on a circle of logs to share what they’d just seen, what it might remind them of, and if they have any questions. Clapp then tells a story; this year, she’s focusing on Native American/Abnaki traditions. It will culminate in construction of a wigwam, under the tutelage of Nulhegan Abenaki Chief Don Stevens.

Which of the forest animals migrate? Which hibernate? What do they eat? These are just some of the questions Clapp’s students are taught to answer.

“I want my students leaving here so connected to their world out there and all the amazing things in it,” she said. “I don’t think I got that until I was an adult … And I want my students to know it way earlier.”

She also makes sure to leave students free time to explore the outdoors. This freedom leads them to learning experiences Clapp said she could never have mapped out in the classroom. For example, one day the children made believe that acorns, leaves, tree rot and other forest debris were ingredients for make-believe tacos. Suddenly, an imaginary economy and food service industry was born.

For the total solar eclipse last April 8, Clapp became the ACSD’s go-to person to make sure students could get the most out of the potential once-in-a-lifetime experience. She and her family had traveled to Oregon in 2018 to see one.

“As most of us in Vermont now know, it’s life-changing to see an eclipse,” she said. “I knew (early last year) that we had to make sure every kid in the ACSD had a way to connect with it.”

Clapp and several district teaching colleagues joined forces to ensure students at all levels were given basic details about what an eclipse is, along with the tools to view it safely.

“What a great experience it was for everyone,” she recalled. “The synergy was awesome.”

SALISBURY COMMUNITY SCHOOL teacher Amy Clapp has been awarded one of the highest national honors that can be conferred on a science educator. She’s seen here in the outdoor classroom behind the school, in the back wearing the black hat and surrounded by some of her fourth-grade students.
Independent photo/John Flowers

She stressed her success — and indeed her consideration for the science award — could not have happened without her colleagues, supervisors and a variety of science partners. Among them: the Otter Creek Audubon Society (OCAS), which has offered educational kits for teachers to use in science classes.

GET A BIRDFEEDER

She recalled a particularly helpful OCAS tip she received 15 years ago that keeps on giving: Get a birdfeeder.

That birdfeeder has sat for around 10 years outside Clapp’s classroom, providing the occasional education distraction when birds glide in for a quick snack.

“My students and I are hooked on birds,” she said, noting it’s not unusual for a student to suddenly blurt out the presence of an unusual specimen. Everyone looks to pinpoint a new species. Each new discovery is logged by the class.

“I call those ‘good brain breaks,’” Clapp said with a smile. “By May, we’ll probably have 15 birds on our chart.”

Longtime Salisbury paraeducator Suzie Quesnel nominated Clapp for the Presidential Award. Among other things, Clapp was asked to make a video of one of her lessons and submit to a federal background check. Several folks — including a former student — provided support letters for her candidacy.

Clapp hasn’t yet been told when she’ll travel to the nation’s capital to receive her award, but she’s given thought to what she’ll do with the $10,000 prize. She’s keen on investing it in new science equipment for the classroom and assisting with conservation efforts.

Salisbury Principal Bjarki Sears is the latest in a line of school administrators who’ve seen Clapp work her magic in and outside of the classroom.

“The Presidential Award is quite well-deserved, but it should be said that Amy is also a master teacher in countless ways that the award doesn’t capture,” he said. “She has deeply effective classroom management techniques, she teaches with a lovely combination of supporting students while pushing them, and great sense of humor that her students really connect with. She is also constantly looking for resources and experts to bring into class to augment what they already do and have. Amy puts a lot into her work, and you can really see the results of that effort.

“Salisbury and ACSD are incredibly fortunate to have her as a teacher.”

But if you ask Amy Clapp, she believes she’s the fortunate one.

“I can’t think of anything better to do with one’s life than to help share the beauty of our Earth with young humans,” she said.

John Flowers is at [email protected].