Bring an ECOS Environmental Educator to your Site!
ECOS’ Lessons To-Go provides outdoor-based environmental education and discovery experiences to foster strong, competent, curious, environmentally conscious individuals throughout the region.
Meet our lesson design team:
- Sarah Celik: Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science in Forest Science from Penn State and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from North Carolina State University. As a forester, she helped private landowners manage their woodlands for multiple uses, including timber, wildlife, recreation, and watershed management. Her Landscape Architecture Master’s thesis centered on the design of outdoor learning spaces that connect children to nature. As a landscape architect, she assisted schools with their outdoor design, and administered a grant program that funded school gardens and natural learning environments.
- Cindy Elsenbeck: Cindy had a 35-year career as a registered nurse and diabetes educator at Ellis Medicine. After retirement she began to use her education and communications skills to share her own beekeeping passion and the fascinating story of the pollinators that we all depend upon with children.
- Rebekka Henriksen: Rebekka oversees Schenectady’s Farm to School Program, which brings gardens to schools around the district. She has years of experience in planning and writing curriculum that ties Farm to School topics into Common Core units of study, and creating and leading enrichment activities and lesson plans. Rebekka maintains partnerships with regional farmers and community garden and food justice organizations as well as the county library system, county Soil & Water Conservation District, local environmental organizations, the Schenectady Historical Society, Cornell Cooperative Extension educators and nutritionists.
- Steve Jones: After years as a writer/editor, Steve returned to college to study ecological anthropology, ending up with a doctorate from SUNY Albany. He did archaeology both in Europe and locally, particularly at the Flint House and Mabee Farm, and taught archaeology, ecology, and biology at local colleges, as well as substitute teaching in the Schenectady school system. For more than ten years he’s been involved with extracurricular education programs, often through ECOS, and is a leader of two 4-H groups.
- Ed Kautz: Ed received his undergraduate degree in Wildlife Management and Research from Colorado State. He followed this up with a Masters in Zoology from the University of British Columbia, and then a PhD in Natural Resources from Cornell. Ed enjoyed a long career as a wildlife biometrician with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Although his job didn’t involve as much field work as he’d have liked, he’s always loved nature and the outdoors. He thoroughly enjoys learning the life history and identification of birds, wildflowers, and trees, and can often be found leading informative walks for ECOS.
- Arden Rauch: Arden retired from the Schenectady School District after many years of teaching Earth Science and Environmental Science. She received her undergraduate degree in Zoology and followed it with Masters in both Education and Teaching Science. She is a long-term member of the Science Teachers Association.
- Darwin Roosa: Darwin received his Bachelor and Master’s degrees from SUNY Oneonta. He enjoyed many summers as a DEC environmental camp counselor developing and teaching outdoor lessons for middle school age kids. He taught earth science and biology in New York State schools before holding several environmental education positions with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation. Darwin went on to earn an MPA at Rockefeller College and worked in communications at the NYS Governor’s Office of Employee Relations.
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