Lisbon High School teacher named 2009 National Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator

Lisbon High School Principal, Kenneth Healey, congratulates Science Teacher, Olivia Griset, who was recently named the 2009 National Project Learning Tree Outstanding Educator of the Year.

Olivia Griset, Lisbon High School Science Teacher and her students visit Higmo’s Sawmill in Brunswick as part of their outdoor research project.


Lisbon – Olivia Griset, Science Teacher at Lisbon High School, was recently honored as one of five educators who excel at using environmental education to spur students’ enthusiasm to learn. Griset, along with Patricia Dunlap, California; Denise Trufan, South Carolina; Beatrice Long, Texas; and Lucy Diggins-Wold, Wyoming; were named the 2009 National Outstanding Educators of the Year by Project Learning Tree®, the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation.

“These outstanding educators show the many ways that environmental education can be used with children and adults,” said Kathy McGlauflin, Director of Project Learning Tree and Senior Vice President of Education at the American Forest Foundation. “At all grade levels, inside and outside the classroom, environmental education opens up new ways to learn.”

Griset teaches biology, oceanography, and other courses to students grades 10 through 12 at Lisbon High School. She developed a field ecology class in which students learn and conduct research outdoors. Griset began her environmental education career at the Utah State College of Natural Resources Environmental Education Laboratory. Moving to Maine in 2003, she went back to school to become a public school teacher. She has worked with local community members, Maine PLT, and the Maine Forest Service to create a secondary-level unit on forestry based on an activity found in PLT’s Forest Ecology module and has been instrumental in introducing fellow teachers to the PLT curriculum.

Project Learning Tree® is the environmental education program of the American Forest Foundation. PLT provides educators with comprehensive environmental education curriculum resources that can be integrated into lesson plans for all grades and subject areas. PLT teaches students “how to think, not what to think” about complex environmental issues, and helps students learn the skills they need to make sound choices about the environment. FMI visit www.forestfoundation.org.