Explore awards
Use the filter menu and interactive map to explore the past competitions offered and grants awarded through the Environmental Literacy Program.
To learn more about project findings and outcomes, view the summaries of our grantees’ summative evaluation reports.
Continuing of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) Competitions
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), initiated in 1998, is a nationally recognized high school academic competition through which talented students excel in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields and are introduced to ocean science as an interdisciplinary field of study and a possible career path. As the NOSB also engages high school teachers, schools, and local communities in the competition and other program elements, it results in broader awareness of the ocean sciences and environmental issues and increased attitudes toward stewardship of ocean resources within these audiences. The program operates with the involvement of the ocean science research and professional community. Support from NOAA is requested to support about 20% of NOSB national office staff time needed for total program implementation, subawards to the regional competitions, and site visits for planning the 2015 national finals.
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl: Using An Academic Competition To Engage High School Students in Ocean Science Education and STEM Career Preparation
The National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB) is a program that uses a quiz bowl competition, along with supporting educational activities for students and teachers, to develop the next generation of ocean scientists, stewards, and leaders. The NOSB is managed by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, a Washington, D.C. based non-profit and supported by 25 research institutions, federal laboratories, state Sea Grant programs, and aquaria across the United States. The NOSB develops knowledgeable ocean stewards that understand the ocean’s impact on daily life and the importance of scientific research. The program fosters use of the ocean as an interdisciplinary vehicle to teach science and mathematics and encourages its inclusion in curricula. It encourages and support the involvement of under-represented and geographically diverse communities in ocean science. Lastly, it provides students interactive education that develops critical thinking and skills for the workforce and exposes them to ocean science professionals and career opportunities. These objectives are achieved through a fast-paced and engaging quiz bowl competition that is supplemented by career mentoring events, yearly competition themes, and experiential field trips to help students gain a broader and deeper understanding of ocean science content than they would in a traditional classroom setting. The primary audience of the NOSB is high school students and teachers (formal educators serving as coaches). Secondary audiences include the academic and professional ocean science community, many of whom serve as mentors or volunteers, and students who benefit from the participation of their teachers and schools even though they have not participated in a competition. Each year, the NOSB directly engages approximately 2,000 students from 325 schools in 34 states plus the District of Columbia through 25 regional competitions. The top team from each region then competes in the national final competition, which changes location each year. The NOSB’s focus on ocean science is crucial as our nation’s need for an ocean-literate society is increasing given growing environmental challenges as well as opportunities in a sustainable ocean-based economy. Formal coursework in ocean and environmental sciences is not prevalent in most U.S. schools; thus, the NOSB fills a critical role in engaging high school students in ocean learning and expands their knowledge of the ocean’s role in issues affecting our nation’s citizens, such as a changing climate, extreme weather events, coastal resilience, food provision and security, and our economy. The NOSB supports NOAA’s Education Strategic Plan goals of a Science-Informed Society, Conservation and Stewardship, and Future Workforce. NOSB students are introduced to ocean-related STEM fields and career pathways. The NOSB also engages all participants in the competition and other program elements, resulting in ocean science and environmental awareness and increased interest in stewardship of ocean resources within these audiences. The program operates with the involvement of the ocean science research, education, and technology community, including NOAA laboratories and Sea Grant programs.
Visualizing Change: Training and Tools to Support Informal Educators
A consortium of Aquarium of the Pacific, National Aquarium in Baltimore, New England Aquarium and Seattle Aquarium will build educator capacity in the aquarium community and informal science education field to more effectively communicate about climate change and its impact on coastal zones and marine life. The project will utilize NOAA datasets and visualizations in providing interpreters with training and strategic framing communication tools based on the best available social and cognitive research. The objectives of the project are to: (1) develop and test four exemplary interpretive “visual narratives” that integrate research-based strategic communication with NOAA data visualization resources; (2) test the application of the visual narratives in a variety of geographic regions and institution types (aquarium, science center, etc.) using multiple technology platforms; (3) build a professional development program for climate change interpretation with data visualization; and (4) leverage existing networks for dissemination and peer support. Other key partners include the NOAA Environmental Visualization Laboratory (VisLab), the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), the Exploratorium in San Francisco, the Ocean Explorium in southern Massachusetts, and FrameWorks Institute.
Community Partnership for Resilience
The New England Aquarium worked with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council to establish Community Partnerships for Resilience (CPR) starting in 2017. CPR created partnerships in three Boston-area communities that face severe risk from a changing climate – Chelsea, Hull, and Lynn, MA. Project leads worked with local professionals with diverse and relevant expertise in climate science, engineering, community planning and community action, as well as representatives from local schools or school-based educational programs serving youth in Grades 4 through 8. Partners determined the most critical, climate-related hazards for their area that would benefit from public involvement and understanding. With a focus on extreme heat, inland flooding and storm surge, project leads, and educators developed a curriculum framework. The framework was used as a guide for the creation of a unit that had students explore the identified hazards and create a Public Education Project (PEP) to communicate with community stakeholders to drive both understanding and action. Through a series of collaborative working Summer Institutes, project partners led teachers on an exploration of the framework materials, relevant science content, and a crash course on Project Based Learning techniques. Implementation of the unit in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years led to further refinement of the curriculum framework, insight on the need for further teacher supports, and improved relationships and connections with municipal and community contacts. The resulting curriculum framework was finalized alongside partner teachers in the spring and summer of 2020 and can be adapted to different climate resilience topics and PEPs, as driven by student interest. Students themselves represent a key constituency – they will be most directly impacted by future changes, and they will need civic capacity to foster positive change. Teacher resources also include a rubric to evaluate PEP plans to meet project objectives, resources on trauma-informed teachers from colleagues at Riverside Trauma Center (Needham, MA), instructional and motivation videos from educator partners on key unit phases, and a beta version of a mapping portal developed with partners at Metropolitan Area Planning Council using layered data across a variety of sources. As a result of this project, participating educators showed an increase in knowledge and awareness about climate change on a broad level, as well as local impacts in their specific Massachusetts region. CPR participation also made educators more comfortable collaborating with other educators and inviting outside expert voices for lessons. By working collaboratively, participating teachers felt they were able to better support their students to impact their communities in a positive way. CPR provided the opportunity to have students work together to communicate with the public using PEPs, allowing students and community members to collaborate in “a common effort to increase climate resilience.” As a result of this, CPR was able to expand the group of change agents who could tackle critical environmental challenges and strengthen their communities.