Don Hammond

Bio: Dr. Don Hammond is the Science teacher at Beecher High School in Flint, Michigan. An active believer in the power of youth engagement in the learning process, Don has pioneered youth-created video documentation of the youth driven projects he has guided at his school.

A notable success story is the students' work in creating an interactive nature trail on the Beecher High School grounds. Don would like to honor Tyiesha (pictured with Don to the right), for her leadership work on this project. Check out the video, Believing in Flint Youth: Beecher High School trail, to see Don, Tyiesha, and other students explain their hard work in the construction of the nature trail.

Don has also leveraged online video production tools such as Animoto to help his students produce documentary videos such as this one on a water monitoring project, Kalamazoo River Rescue. He has also engaged the local artistic community in supplying music and production work for videos.

Don on the Web: Celebrate Beecher High School's New Nature Trail!

Master Skills: Creative Documentation, Youth Voice

Don Speaks:
Hear Don in his own words!

Can you describe some of the inquiry based projects the students led and why youth voice is important in them?

How do you incorporate civic engagement into the educational experience?

Who are the key local community partners that have helped you in environmental civics projects? What sort of support do they provide?