PINEDALE – Pinedale High School math teacher Camille Dudrey and P.E. teacher Dylan Bear received 2021-2022 Celia B. Godsil Grants in Place Fellowship through the Rural Schools Collaborative to study wildland fire fuel reduction.

The Fellows will work with their respective students on place-based projects addressing specific community issues.

The Rural Schools Collaborative believes that rural teachers are placemakers. Through place-based learning efforts, teachers are able to express their dedication to the community by rooting classroom teachings in the region's unique history, environment, economy and culture.

Each Celia B. Godsil Grants in Place fellow receives a $3,000 grant that supports a student- centered, place-based project, a professional development presentation and an honorarium for the educator. The Grants in Place program is funded through generous support from Celia and Mark Godsil in honor of Celia's career as a public school teacher and their belief in the importance of classroom teachers to rural communities.

Dudrey and Bear's collaborative project combines PHS students from probability and statistics classes and life sports to carry out a meta-analysis of fuel reduction in wildland fires. The project includes examining fuels that cause greater risk for severe fires, what can be done or has been done to reduce the risk of severe burns, and how and if fuel reduction is affective.

The study will also compare the manpower and resources used to fight wildland fires versus the manpower and resources to clear fuels.

Upon completing their meta analysis, PHS students will work with local entities to clear an area of the forest appropriately based on the results of the study. Students will collect their own data and create a professional presentation based on their conclusions including how the project helped the community and what individuals can do to deduce the risk of wildland fires.

Dudrey is in her eighth year teaching math at PHS. She is from Sheridan, Wyo., where she graduated high school and discovered her passion for math.

Dudrey received a bachelor in secondary education from the University of Wyoming. Dudrey was in the inaugural cohort of Storer scholars and spent the past seven years integrating place-based education into her teaching curriculum.

Bear is a P.E. teacher at PHS. For the past 11 years, he as taken jobs during the summer months to continue his learning outside the classroom. Along with his passion for teaching, Bear is also a carpenter, wildland firefighter and backcountry guide.