About Mr. Heath
I grew up in North Hyde Park, VT and attended Lamoille Union High School. I received a B.A. in Evolutionary & Environmental Biology and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College, and a M.S. in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Maine, where I studied the nesting success of black terns.
I worked for a non-profit group, the Institute for Wildlife Studies, for 3 years in San Diego, managing an endangered songbird release program on San Clemente Island. Upon leaving San Diego, my wife and I backpacked around North America for six months, and then worked at Kruger National Park in South Africa, initiating a pilot study on climate change and water use of savanna trees. We lived in Washington D.C. for three years, where I worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) on a transcontinental bird migration study.
I also taught science for a year at an inner-city middle school in Washington D.C. as part of the D.C. Teaching Fellows Program, where I was bitten by the teaching bug. After the birth of our son, Elias, we moved back to Vermont where I have been teaching for ten years, most recently at Northfield High School. I believe in utilizing a hands-on, experiential learning approach that invokes curiosity and critical thinking, while making science meaningful to students through exploration of the natural world and community service. I love the outdoors and try to incorporate as much time outside the classroom as possible to make science come alive and to promote scientific literacy in all students.
I was a part of the Teachers for Global Fellows (TGF) program through IREX in 2015-2016, which culminated in a trip to India in July 2016 with a cohort of 15 other teachers from around the United States. We learned about India's culture and history, worked with professional educators, visited schools, and I taught at a public school in Chhatarpur, India, with my host teacher, Arun Khevariya. You can visit my travel blog and global education guide to learn more about India and global education. In 2019, I was fortunate to be selected for a Grosvenor Fellowship through National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions, and spend 19 days exploring the South Pacific in May 2019. My wife, Lauren, and I have two sons, Elias (age 9) and Isaac (age 6), and we spend as much time as possible outdoors enjoying Vermont.
I worked for a non-profit group, the Institute for Wildlife Studies, for 3 years in San Diego, managing an endangered songbird release program on San Clemente Island. Upon leaving San Diego, my wife and I backpacked around North America for six months, and then worked at Kruger National Park in South Africa, initiating a pilot study on climate change and water use of savanna trees. We lived in Washington D.C. for three years, where I worked for the United States Geological Survey (USGS) on a transcontinental bird migration study.
I also taught science for a year at an inner-city middle school in Washington D.C. as part of the D.C. Teaching Fellows Program, where I was bitten by the teaching bug. After the birth of our son, Elias, we moved back to Vermont where I have been teaching for ten years, most recently at Northfield High School. I believe in utilizing a hands-on, experiential learning approach that invokes curiosity and critical thinking, while making science meaningful to students through exploration of the natural world and community service. I love the outdoors and try to incorporate as much time outside the classroom as possible to make science come alive and to promote scientific literacy in all students.
I was a part of the Teachers for Global Fellows (TGF) program through IREX in 2015-2016, which culminated in a trip to India in July 2016 with a cohort of 15 other teachers from around the United States. We learned about India's culture and history, worked with professional educators, visited schools, and I taught at a public school in Chhatarpur, India, with my host teacher, Arun Khevariya. You can visit my travel blog and global education guide to learn more about India and global education. In 2019, I was fortunate to be selected for a Grosvenor Fellowship through National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions, and spend 19 days exploring the South Pacific in May 2019. My wife, Lauren, and I have two sons, Elias (age 9) and Isaac (age 6), and we spend as much time as possible outdoors enjoying Vermont.
Selected Publications
Takekawa, J.Y., Heath, S.R, et al. 2015. Movement ecology of five Afrotropical waterfowl species from Malawi, Mali, and Nigeria. Ostrich 86: 155-168. (Journal article) PDF for download
Takekawa, J.Y., Heath, S.R., et al. 2009. Geographic variation in Bar-headed Geese Anser indicus, connectivity
of wintering and breeding areas across a broad front. Wildfowl 59: 102-129. (Journal article) PDF for download
Heath, S.R., Kershner, E.L., et al. 2008. Rodent control and food supplementation increase productivity of endangered San Clemente Loggerhead Shrikes, Lanius lucovicianus mearnsi. Biological Conservation 141: 2506-2515. (Journal article) PDF for download
Heath, S.R. and Servello, F.A. 2008. Effects of predation and food provisioning on Black Tern chick survival.
Wilson Journal of Ornithology 121:167-175. (Journal article) PDF for download
Takekawa, J.Y., Heath, S.R, et al. 2015. Movement ecology of five Afrotropical waterfowl species from Malawi, Mali, and Nigeria. Ostrich 86: 155-168. (Journal article) PDF for download
Takekawa, J.Y., Heath, S.R., et al. 2009. Geographic variation in Bar-headed Geese Anser indicus, connectivity
of wintering and breeding areas across a broad front. Wildfowl 59: 102-129. (Journal article) PDF for download
Heath, S.R., Kershner, E.L., et al. 2008. Rodent control and food supplementation increase productivity of endangered San Clemente Loggerhead Shrikes, Lanius lucovicianus mearnsi. Biological Conservation 141: 2506-2515. (Journal article) PDF for download
Heath, S.R. and Servello, F.A. 2008. Effects of predation and food provisioning on Black Tern chick survival.
Wilson Journal of Ornithology 121:167-175. (Journal article) PDF for download
USGS travels and field work
As part of a bird migration study, I was fortunate to travel to China, India, and Nigeria in order to capture and mark wild waterfowl species with GPS transmitters (using teflon backpacks) in order to document their migration patterns. The study was focused on determining if there is a link between the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1 bird flu) and wild bird migrations throughout Asia and Africa.
More information on the project can be found on the USGS website.
More information on the project can be found on the USGS website.
Kruger National Park, South Africa
My wife and I lived in Kruger National Park in South Africa from October 2007 to April 2008 to help set up a pilot study on the water competition between grasses and trees in savanna ecosystems. We were working for Utah State University and lived in a safari tent within the Park, and got to observe some amazing wildlife on a nearly daily basis, including apple-stealing Vervet Monkeys that climbed on our tent. The environmental science project we initiated entailed injecting field plots with "heavy" (deuterium) water and then trying to trace the water by sampling grass stems and woody plant stems within a 5 meter radius over the course of the subsequent 5 days. Back in our makeshift laboratory, we would extract the water from the plant tissues. Using mass spectrometry, the samples we collected could be tested for the "heavy" water and an analysis could be completed to see how effective trees and plants were at competing for that water from the soil. This research was a topic of concern because climate change models predict that savanna ecosystems will receive less rainfall this century, but in more intense bursts. Land Managers need to know how the savanna plant community will be affected, and if either grasses or trees are likely to become more dominant components of the ecosystem. Check out some of our pictures:
San Clemente Island, California
For 3 years I was Project Manager for the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike Release Project for the Institute for Wildlife Studies. I managed a staff of 5 biologists and worked closely with the San Diego Zoo, PRBO Conservation Science, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Navy, and San Diego State to release federally endangered, captive-reared Loggerhead Shrikes onto suitable habitat on San Clemente Island using a variety of soft release techniques. We monitored the health, behavior, and breeding productivity of released birds all year and supplied supplemental food to captive-origin birds in order to increase breeding productivity. See the publication link above for more information.