Nature was her schoolhouse for teaching NC students and teachers
Mary Ann Brittain, who died on March 17 at 76, was an extraordinary educator and lover of nature who believed that the outdoors around us is the ultimate classroom. At the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, she developed experiential learning programs that used the power of nature’s treasures to engage learners in exploring the world around them. Her work was legendary, and she made a difference in the lives of thousands of teachers and students in North Carolina.
With a grant from the National Science Foundation, she launched an innovative science program, Using the Outdoors to Teach Experiential Science (UTOTES), to reach into communities across North Carolina and engage teachers, principals and school administrators to work with her educators at the Museum to develop native gardens to attract wildlife. The program provided educational materials and activities that enhanced existing curricula and used wildlife gardens to teach science, math, English and other subjects. Follow-up research conducted at UTOTES schools showed improved attitudes toward learning and increased knowledge among students in science and other subjects.
Another innovative teacher mentoring program developed by Mary Ann is the Educators of Excellence Program, designed to assist in the development of exceptional teachers and encourage them to continue in the profession. (Recent budget decisions and proposals by Gov. Roy Cooper and the General Assembly recognize the need for both financial support for teachers and innovative teacher development to further that end).
Mary Ann believed that if teachers were placed in a new learning environment and given strategies to teach in that environment, they would gain confidence and enhance their teaching skills. Thus, with initial support from the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, she developed summer Teacher Treks to Belize, Ecuador, the Amazon and unique natural environments in North Carolina. As Mary Ann led teacher-attendees through rain forests, nature preserves and coastal habitats, she modeled for them her group teaching strategies and discussed ways for them to take their newly gained knowledge back to their own classrooms. To many who knew Mary Ann, her most memorable gift was her ability to inspire others with her own enthusiasm for and love of nature. A quote from one Teacher Trek participant, Rosemary Klein of Davidson, says it all: “She was such an incredible force for so many of us — she certainly changed the whole course of my teaching and my life.”
Perhaps Mary Ann’s most famous contribution to others is found right here in Raleigh. She was the founder and first director of the Museum’s Prairie Ridge Ecostation, a 45- acre site off Reedy Creek Road adjacent to the Museum’s research lab. With federal grants and support from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Prairie Ridge is home to an outdoor classroom, a natural play area for children, summer camps, a restored piedmont prairie, and a pond surrounded by native plants to attract wildlife. At Prairie Ridge, the outdoor learning and research that Mary Ann loved are provided year-round.
Mary Ann was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence for her education work at the Museum, The Order of the Longleaf Pine, and the Museum’s inaugural H.H. Brimley Lifetime Achievement Award. But her enduring legacy is that her keen eye for creatures of the natural world and her infectious enthusiasm has pollinated North Carolina’s learning environment with over three hundred Educators of Excellence and many students who have taken her educational vision into their classrooms and their lives. To quote Mary Ann: “The purpose in life is not to be happy but to make a difference, to have it matter that you lived at all.”
Mary Ann was an inspiring educator who made a difference.
Betsy Bennett was the director of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences from 1990 to 2012.
This story was originally published March 26, 2019 at 11:51 AM.