Wildwood Teacher Wins ‘Unsung Heroes’ Award

Levi Simons, a senior math and physics teacher at  in Mar Vista, has been named one of ING Financial Services' 100 Unsung Heroes. The Unsung Heroes award is given to teachers who have “a significant impact on the lives of youth, but remain tremendously underappreciated and unrecognized.”

Simons was selected from more than 1,400 applicants across the country. In addition to bragging rights, he will also receive a $2,000 grant that he will use to fund The TIGER Project with his ninth- and 10th-grade students.

TIGER stands for Technologically Integrated Geotagged Environmental Research. The project has four themes: air and water quality; drawing meaningful conclusions from data; the social impact of environmental quality; and the economic motivators behind current and potential environmental conditions.

Ninth-grader Owen L. will lead the work, which involves sending students to various sites throughout Los Angeles to test metrics such as pH and dissolved oxygen content of the local outdoor water quality.

Simons plans on using the money from the grant to buy netbooks, digital camcorders and Wiki software to help the students complete the project. He said he sees these tools as fundamental equipment that can be used by "citizen scientists."

“It’s about creating a central lab, then farming out the research to local citizens and creating ‘volunteer effort science,’ ” Simons said. “The most effective way to learn is through the apprenticeship model. There’s no reason why you can’t get meaningful scientific data from 14-year-olds. Science is about hard work and endurance. It doesn’t matter what age you are.”

A representative from ING will officially present Simons with his award at the school Oct. 17.

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