Bronx Teacher Wins National Award for Green Science

Carolina Castro-Skehan walks through flooded streets with her students, but she's not avoiding puddles. She's teaching them to fix the problem.

The Comprehensive Model School Project teacher in the South Bronx just received the National Association of Geoscience Teachers' "Outstanding Earth Science Teacher" award. Her secret? Making science about the streets her students walk every day.

Castro-Skehan's path to teaching started in an unexpected place. After college, she worked for a New York City cosmetics company, using her biology background to understand product science. But after September 11, 2001, she felt her work lacked meaning.

She returned to DeWitt Clinton High School, the same Bronx public school she attended as a student. Now in her 24th year teaching, she's found her calling bringing earth science to life.

Her favorite lesson tackles a problem students see constantly: flooding around their school. Students build water filters in class, then head outside to study compacted soil around street trees. They loosen the dirt, add fresh soil and native plants, then watch how the improved ground absorbs water after storms.

The projects extend beyond the classroom. Through a partnership with NY Sun Works, students grow produce for their school community and local food banks using hydroponics. They're learning geology, hydrology, and ecosystems while making their neighborhood greener.

Castro-Skehan doesn't just teach about Earth. She explores it. She's walked England's Jurassic Coast, dug for dinosaur fossils in Montana, and sailed on an ocean drilling ship studying core samples. Since 2018, she's also helped create New York State's Earth and Space Science Regents exams as an educational specialist.

The Ripple Effect

Castro-Skehan's approach particularly helps students learning English as a new language. They can participate immediately by observing and questioning, without waiting to master scientific vocabulary. When studying hurricanes or earthquakes, students share experiences from Hurricanes Maria and Sandy, turning personal stories into science lessons.

Her neighborhood faces real environmental challenges: heavy traffic, poor air quality, little green space. She teaches students about urban planning decisions that created these conditions, then empowers them to imagine solutions. Street flooding becomes a chance to study why their community looks this way and how they can improve it.

"Staying curious and continuing to learn alongside my students is what keeps my teaching meaningful and my classroom a place where curiosity thrives," Castro-Skehan said.

Her students aren't just learning earth science anymore—they're becoming the scientists their community needs.