Dennis Foreman has been teaching for 25 years. He's currently an 8th grade science and world cultures teacher at Zane Trace Middle School in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Dennis Foreman has been teaching for 25 years. He's currently an 8th grade science and world cultures teacher at Zane Trace Middle School in Chillicothe, Ohio. Dennis boasts that his favorite time of year is autumn, when he can venture alongside local highways with his net and butterfly cages, obtaining classroom specimens to teach his students. Dennis also gives butterfly and environmental lectures in his community. He has a goal of developing
Monarch way stations throughout three counties and building a grassroots group of volunteers to keep the stations in operation from year to year.
Aside from his contagious love for monarchs, Dennis has put forth numerous efforts in his school and community in the name of conservation. He started the recycling program at his school district with only two paper-only collection containers; today, the program has grown to include an additional six large 5-stream Recycle Dumpsters and community clothing recycling center—gaining the attention of local radio broadcasts and newspapers. He has also registered his classroom as a member of the Ohio Energy Project, which provides tools and resources to help educate students on energy generation and how to reduce consumption in their own homes.
What Dennis has taken away from this opportunity has further validated that what he is doing in his Ohio classroom can and will make a positive, long-lasting impact. Returning home with this proof that what they do matters, Dennis' students continue to work hard and create materials for future classes about how to improve the quality and quantity of monarch butterfly populations. He hopes to expand his monarch teachings by sharing his experience with other schools and hopes to enlighten his community by bringing ecotourism methods to their area along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.
Visit the Natural Habitat Adventures webpage to learn more about the Monarch Butterfly Scholarship Grant program.
