Greg Burch greets students as they enter his media arts classroom. The Flowing Wells Junior High School teacher is one of 20 going to the Galapagos Islands later this month as part of the Toyota International Teacher Program.

mamta popat / Arizona Daily Star

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Editor's note: A version of this story appeared Thursday in NORTHWEST, a Star weekly publication.

Greg Burch may not get to take his students to the Galapagos Islands, but he'll do his best to bring the islands back to the classroom.

Burch, a Flowing Wells Junior High School media arts teacher, was selected to take part in the Toyota International Teacher Program. The program will send Burch and 19 other teachers from across the nation to the islands, which are 600 miles west of Ecuador.

Though the 10-day trip will focus on environmental issues, Burch said it is intended to be a multidisciplinary take on the environment.

"What I want to bring back is that the environment doesn't have to just be taught in science," Burch said. "And that goes for any subject.

On a recent morning, Burch asked his students in a beginning computer class how they could apply Microsoft Word's AutoShapes to other school subjects.

Eighth-grader Claudi Russell, 13, threw her arm up and answered that the tool could enhance presentations in other classes.

Soon, Russell and her classmates will take the digital images and video Burch collects from his excursion and use them to learn about computer programs.

Burch said the environment will serve as the framework for second-semester lesson plans.

"I think it's more useful if we have more real-world stuff," Burch said. "My main goal is to collect a lot of images to bring back to have my kids use that in class."

During his 12 years teaching with the Flowing Wells School District, Burch also has learned from other travels through programs for educators.

In 2004, he spent part of his summer in Cyprus learning about the culture and geography of the island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Then, in 2003, he visited Japan, where he observed the educational system and culture.

Burch's next voyage to another part of the world will occur in late October.

In all three instances of educational travel, Burch has been selected to be part of programs that sponsor educators' visits to other countries, so he hasn't had to pay for the opportunities to travel.

"It's something you have to look for," Burch said. "It's a lot of extra work."

Students and colleagues agree that Burch is doing something right in the classroom.

"He makes learning fun," said Russell. "He teaches me things that I don't know about the computer."