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NOAA will bring thousands of K-12 teachers and students around the country outside for hands-on environmental education opportunities as part of B-WET projects in 2016. Ninety eight new and continuing projects benefit from a total of over $7 million in funding for the NOAA Office of Education’s Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program.
Students planting trees during the restoration field trip as part of Students for Salmon, an elementary watershed education program. (Courtesy of Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association)
In 2016, funded activities include the National Aquarium and Baltimore City Schools working together to design and pilot Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs), using the Aquarium’s Model Urban Waterfront as a classroom and laboratory. In New England, funds will support middle school and high school teachers and their students to become active stewards of watershed resources in order to protect herring, alewife, eel and shellfish living in the Taunton (MA) River Watershed. In Florida, funds support high school students and teachers to gain science dive certification while studying three historical artificial reef sites in local waters. Both students and teachers are taught how to operate and collect data from an aquatic environment to research human impact on the reefs.
B-WET currently serves seven areas of the country: California, Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, New England, and the Pacific Northwest. Grantees were selected through a rigorous peer review process administered by a NOAA program office in their region. All B-WET applicants are encouraged to partner with local NOAA offices, and/or utilize local NOAA field sites and data where appropriate. Awards in the Great Lakes region are made possible by funds from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
New 2016 B-WET projects, by region, are:
California
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Expanding the Impact of Project WISE (Watersheds Inspiring Student Education): Providing MWEEs for Students in the Presidio of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
$30,000
Watsonville Wetlands Watch
Green Careers Institute
Watsonville, CA
$32,963
Girl Scouts of Northern California
Green By Nature
Alameda, CA
$44,654
Ventana Wildlife Society
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Watershed Transect Program
Salinas, CA
$45,000
Save the Whales
From Salinas to the Ocean: Teaching Stewardship in the Upper Watersheds to Protect the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
Seaside, CA
$56,135
Strategic Energy Innovations
Discovering Watersheds & Public Water Systems Program
San Rafael, CA
$57,000
Santa Barbara Unified School District
Connecting the Next Generation Science Standards to the Natural Laboratory of the Santa Barbara Channel and its Watershed to Provide Meaningful Training for Teachers in Climate Change.
Santa Barbara, CA
$59,401
Chesapeake Bay
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
Spotsylvania County School Board
Beyond the Field Trip: Developing Environmental Stewards
Fredricksburg, VA
$50,000
Cacapon Institute
Emerging MWEEs for West Virginia Regional Education Service Area Eight to Provide Chesapeake Bay Watershed Education and Training to 4th and 5th Grade Students
Great Cacapon, WV
$120,213
National Aquarium
Peer to Pier: Engaging Baltimore Middle School Students in Conservation at National Aquarium's Model Urban Waterfront
Baltimore, MD
$130,000
National Audubon Society
Learn, Explore, and Restore our Watersheds
New York, NY
$210,000
Hood College of Frederick, Maryland
Project STEM: Schoolyard Thermal Evaluation and Mitigation
Fredrick, MD
$214,098
Anne Arundel County Board of Education
Take Action: Teacher- and Student-Led MWEEs for a Changing Climate
Annapolis, MD
$73,281
County of Arlington
Sustainable Solutions for Urban Stormwater Management through Project-Based Learning Project
Arlington, VA
$375,000
Great Lakes
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
Research Foundation for SUNY/Buffalo
Buffalo State's Our Living Watershed B-WET Program
Buffalo, NY
$73,027
Saginaw Valley State University
Experiencing the Saginaw Bay Watershed from the Classroom to the Water's Edge
University Center, MI
$73,675
Wisconsin Maritime Museum
We all Live on the Water: Teachers as Watershed Leaders
Manitowoc, WI
$73,723
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System/UW Madison
Ganawedan Ginibiiminaan: Bad River Water Stewardship
Madison, WI
$74,866
Inland Seas Education Association
Inland Seas Great Lakes Watershed Field Course for K-12 Teachers to Learn and Implement MWEEs in their Classroom
Suttons Bay, MI
$74,969
Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System/ UW-Superior
Rivers2Lake South: Meaningful Watershed Education Along Lake Superior’s Coast.
Superior, WI
$74,983
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District
Watershed Alive III: A Place to Call Our Own
Milwaukee, WI
$75,000
Eastern Michigan University
Great Lakes Literacy in Action: Connecting Students to their Watersheds in Southeast Michigan through Place-Based Education
Ypsilanti, MI
$75,000
Michigan State University
Promoting Healthy Watersheds and Communities by Integrating Ecosystem Science, Transportation Networks, and Stewardship
Lansing, MI
$75,000
Alliance for the Great Lakes
Great Lakes Model Schools: Where Cleveland Students Learn to Care for their Watershed
Chicago, IL
$44,213
Muskegon Area Intermediate School District
Using Place-Based Education to Create Stewards of the Great Lakes
Muskegon, MI
$54,205
Gulf of Mexico
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
St. Tammany Parish Government (Camp Salmen Nature Park)
Camp Salmen Education Program
Mandeville, LA
$30,253
University of Houston - Victoria
Texas Coastal Bend Aquatic & Environmental Science Teacher Professional Development
Victoria, TX
$78,990
University of New Orleans (Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences)
Youth Environmental Science Stewards
New Orleans, LA
$95,181
Florida State University - Panama City
Preserving our Underwater Pastures (PUP): Researching Human Impact on Local Historic Artificial Reef Structures
Tallahassee, FL
$98,533
The Artist Boat
STEAM Powered: Blue Carbon Art IQ
Galveston, TX
$99,997
The University of Southern Mississippi (Gulf Coast Research Laboratory)
MWEE for Resilience to Accelerated Sea Level Rise and Flooding Risk
Hattiesburg, MS
$100,000
Hawaii
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
Kupu
Environmental Education Program
Honolulu, HI
$150,000
Malama Pupukea-Waimea
Ka Papa Kai: Ocean Education, Science, and Service-Leaning at the Pupukea MLCD
Haleiwa, HI
$27,825
Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii
Nanakuli Aloha Aina Project
Honolulu, HI
$60,255
Malama Learning Center
Promoting Place-based Education and Restoration of the Wetland and Watershed of Nanakuli
Kapolei, HI
$143,230
Malama Loko Ea Foundation
Ola Kawaiola
Haleiwa, HI
$72,778
Learning Endeavors
Watershed Citizen Science and Stewardship through Digital Mapping
Wailuku, HI
$132,156
The Kohala Center
HI- MEET - Hawai‘i Island - Meaningful Environmental Education for Teachers
Kamuela, HI
$150,000
PREL - Pacific Resources for Education and Learning
Watershed Education to Teach, Learn, and Advance Behaviors of Stewardship (WETLABS)
Honolulu, HI
$146,069
Hawaii Nature Center
Exploring Kawainui: Waterbirds, Wetlands, and Watersheds
Honolulu, HI
$132,127
New England
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
Western Connecticut State University
Finding Our Way: An Experiential Watershed Learning Program for Middle School Children and Their Families
Danbury, CT
$194,323
Bridgewater State University
Stormwater Stewards: Protecting and Restoring Fisheries through Watershed Stewardship
Bridgewater, MA
$217,812
Education Connection
Blue Science – Monitoring the Sea and Sky at Long Island Sound and in the Housatonic River Watershed
Litchfield, CT
$240,000
Pacific Northwest
Recipient
Project
State
Amount
Environmental Science Center
Salmon Heroes: Watershed Education and Water Quality Training for Underserved Students
Burien, WA
$36,243
RE Sources
Rural Watershed Stewards Program
Bellingham, WA
$40,000
Lummi Indian Business Council
Lummi Nation Youth: Water Quality, Watersheds and Salmon
Bellingham, WA
$50,000
Feiro Marine Life Center
North Olympic Watershed Science (NOW Science)
Port Angeles, WA
$106,405
Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group
Watershed Connections - Hands on Salmon, Climate, and Ocean Science
White Salmon, WA
$118,295
Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership
Watershed Science in Action
Portland, OR
$59,810
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association
The Students for Salmon (SFS) Program
Bellingham, WA
$35,000
Oregon Department of State Lands - South Slough
The Oregon Coast Education Program - Building Capacity for Stewardship
Charleston, OR
$60,000
Oregon State University
StreamWebs Student Stewardship Network
Corvallis, OR
$60,000
Funding amounts listed above are full federal award amounts for all years of the award. In addition to the awards listed above, NOAA supported 46 continuing awards from previous fiscal years with FY16 funds. For more details about B-WET awards, please visit the regional program websites.