Wildwood Teacher Receives $2,000 Grant

Last month, Mar Vista Patch reported that Wildwood’s upper school advanced math and physics teacher Levi Simons had been named one of the country’s Simons was selected from 1,400 nominated teachers across the country by ING, an international financial services institution.

Along with the recognition and bragging rights, Simons won a $2,000 grant, which he will use to fund The TIGER Project.

TIGER stands for Technologically Integrated Geotagged Environmental Research, and 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.

On Monday morning, ING representatives Art Peretz and Mark Ortega presented Simons with his award at a Wildwood School assembly. Ninth- graders Owen Leddy and Noa Park and 10^th-grader Paul Nylund also joined Simons onstage and spoke about the research they are undertaking for The TIGER Project.

Owen, who lives in Santa Monica, is leading the water quality project, which involves studying pollutants in the Ballona wetlands in Marina del Rey; Paul, who lives in West Los Angeles, is collaborating with 9^th grader Anders Guterman of Hollywood on a project to measure radiation using hand-held Geiger counters and Android cell phones; and Noa, who also lives in West Los Angeles, is measuring harmful gasses to determine their impact on cardiovascular health.

Handing Simons his award, Peretz said, “ING has awarded more than $4 million to more than 1,500 educators in the last 15 years. Winners are selected for their innovative teaching methods, their creative approach, and their willingness to go above and beyond to improve student learning."