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Melissa M. Whittington is the Educational Administrator for Cypress Nature Study Center, the Environmental Education facility for Bossier Parish Schools. She was a classroom teacher for 16 years before becoming the teacher/administrator of the Nature Center, for Bossier Parish School Board, in 1998. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Elementary Education K-8 from Louisiana Tech University, with extensive studies in life and environmental sciences. Through hands-on lessons for students in Kindergarten through High School, she has developed a science/social studies class where students apply classroom knowledge to real experiences in the natural world. Kindergarteners use their sensory skills to learn about trees, while Biology students take leaves and create their own dichotomous key. The programs developed over the past 4 years have reached over 20,919 students and 1,836 educators.

Melissa has committed a major portion of her life to environmental education and the community where she lives. The first Project Learning Tree workshop she attended was in 1990 at Cypress Nature Study Center in Bossier Parish. The materials distributed were used in numerous activities throughout the curriculum for eight years. One of the main activities she organized was an annual Louisiana Forestry Day, held at her school, where children learned about forestry products, forestry management, and how trees give back to a community.

During her sixteen years in the classroom, Mrs. Whittington became involved with numerous environmental activities. The community benefited from her participation in Keep America Beautiful, Ducks Unlimited, National Audubon Society, and National Arbor Day Foundation. She attended other professional development courses that included Project WILD and AQUATIC WILD, Waste in Place, Project WET, Incorporating Science Through Whole Language, and other workshops that included environmental lessons from which her students benefitted. She assisted with the development of a recycling center for the school and a monthly "Clean Team", that picked-up litter on the school grounds.

In 1998, Mrs. Whittington was promoted from classroom teacher to the Educational Administrator of Cypress Nature Study Center, the same facility where she attended her first PLT. Her responsibilities were to develop and implement educational activities for schools, institutes of higher learning, and civic organizations that included the resources of the center. The programs were developed with environmental and life science being the main focus. They incorporated hands-on/minds-on participatory activities that reinforce students' scientific knowledge, methods, and processes. Most of the programs were designed to include an outdoor experience that allow students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to a natural environment.

Melissa assisted with a PLT Workshop before becoming a Project Learning Tree Facilitator in March 1999. She participated in a seminar - "Tools for the Environmental Educator", that stressed the importance of correlating all programs with the Louisiana Science Frameworks. In 2001, she attended the Louisiana Forestry Teachers Tour in Alexandria. The tour provided an in-depth, look at Louisiana Forestry, from raw material to completed product. It showed the technological and safety advances made in the last 100 years with logging operations.

One of her most rewarding, professional accomplishments has been the Cypress 4H Nature Club, organized in 1999 with the purpose of teaching youth about wildlife and the environment. Her club was recognized as the State Conservation 4H Club for Louisiana in 2002.