EcoHealth Awards Public Health Teacher of the Year to El Roble Middle School Teacher, Matthew Nasont

• Matthew Nasont, Claremont Unified School District, awarded Public Health Teacher of the Year for 2025
• Community science and professional development for teachers are critical in building students’ participation in their communities
• Participation continues to grow across San Gabriel Valley as teachers increase their enrollments in Operation Mosquito G.R.I.D., a community science project.

Mosquito control is a shared responsibility and the District is grateful when teachers add mosquitoes to their curriculum and spread awareness around this important topic. 

“Mr. Nasont went above and beyond by teaching mosquito concepts to over 300 students and recruiting two new teachers to the program,” said Education Specialist Kriztian Luna. 

Nasont has been teaching for 17 years. What keeps him coming back is sharing his love of science with students. “I have always loved science and figuring out how our world works,” said Nasont. “I enjoy… helping them see the relationships that exist in the natural world.” 

His passion for science was clear during the Operation Mosquito G.R.I.D. Train the Teacher course led by the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito and Vector Control District in 2024. “I [was] looking for a good citizen science opportunity for my students. The mosquito GRID project was a perfect blend of exposure to real-world public health work, climate change, and connection to our curriculum,” said Nasont.

Nasont says the biggest challenges he faces teaching science are that NGSS requires students to be problem solvers and critical thinkers. "Students can meet those goals to varying degrees. It is a challenge to bring a whole class of kids along a line of thinking when they all have different initial conceptions," Nasont added.

Nasont and his fellow 8th-grade teachers tie mosquitoes to natural selection: “Our natural selection unit is based on the phenomenon of mosquitoes developing resistance to anti-malarial medicine. Additionally, our 8th graders are involved in a community service project as a part of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program. This provides them with exposure to a potential project.”

EcoHealth’s Operation Mosquito G.R.I.D. continues to grow due to the participating teachers and their dedication to providing top-notch science education for their students. Thank you to the following teachers for their participation in 2025-26 school year: Danny Woo and Giselle Arguello, 6th grade science at San Jose Charter Academy; Leslie Allizadeh and Sawssan Harb, 8th grade science at Lone Hill Middle School; Ravi Dev and Ana Andrade, 8th grade science at Sierra Madre Middle School; Debbie Curtin and Andrea Reynoso at CIS Academy in Pasadena, and Matthew Nasont’s colleagues at El Roble Middle School, John Madunich and Laurie Henkel.

EcoHealth is a free, NGSS-aligned program offered by the San Gabriel Valley Mosquito & Vector Control District. Educators, homeschool program coordinators, librarians, and administrators can book a free class presentation or community science program by visiting VectorEducation.org.