NOAA awards $1 million in Environmental Literacy Grants to build community resilience

Two projects will build the educational foundation for resilient communities in New York and Massachusetts.

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NOAA’s Office of Education awarded $1 million in Environmental Literacy Grants to support two projects focused on helping communities build the environmental literacy necessary for resilience to extreme weather events and other environmental hazards.
Using NOAA’s Science on a Sphere, students at the Wild Center’s Youth Climate Summit see climate science datasets and impacts happening around the world

Using NOAA’s Science on a Sphere, students at the Wild Center’s Youth Climate Summit see climate science datasets and impacts happening around the world (Image credit: The Wild Center)

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Two new projects will build the foundation for a resilient community through education in Adirondacks, Catskills, and New York City, New York; and Chelsea, Hull, and Lynn, Massachusetts. Grants were made in support of these projects to:

  • The Natural History Museum of the Adirondack, Tupper Lake, NY
  • New England Aquarium, Boston, MA

These projects will build on local resilience plans and create new partnerships between K-12 and informal education institutions and government and nonprofit organizations working on resilience planning and implementation. They will focus on critical natural hazards and stresses facing these communities. Both projects use NOAA assets, are based on established scientific evidence, and consider socio-economic and ecological factors. The selected projects incorporate a variety of approaches, including connecting community leaders and planning experts with educators and students in resilience planning and empowering youth and adults to increase their understanding of locally relevant impacts of environmental hazards.

These two projects were selected for funding following a highly competitive request for applications in which communities highlighted their need for education projects that build resilience. NOAA received 170 applications from 40 states, the District of Columbia, and 3 U.S. Territories, with a total request of more than $77 million. NOAA previously funded five projects from this competition in 2016.

For more information about these projects and NOAA's Environmental Literacy Program, please visit the 2016 and 2017 competition summary webpage.

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