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.
Building Ocean Literacy in our youth through unique learning experiences in our National Marine Sanctuaries.
This project aims to develop and implement residential and non-residential science camp and summer camp programs and related activities to over 1500 youth and teachers from 8 elementary and middle schools. NOAA's Multicultural Education for Resource Issues Threatening Oceans (MERITO) program will serve as a key outreach mechanism to reach underserved youth and their families. The proposed project will utilize existing ocean educational materials, including those developed by NOAA, in experiential learning programs for youth through Camp SEA (Science, Education, Adventure) Lab. The two major goals of the project are: (1) to develop and implement marine-oriented outdoor science and summer camps in close collaboration with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, resulting in an effective model for dissemination of the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts to large numbers of youth and their teachers; and 2) to develop a model and a feasibility plan to implement the program across a broader geographical area, e.g. through other National Marine Sanctuaries.
Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities (CSCRC)
The "Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities” (CSCRC) project led by the Museum of Science, Boston in partnership with Arizona State University, Northeastern University, SciStarter, and the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net), engaged thousands of public participants around the United States in participatory data collection and community deliberation about four climate-related hazards: heat waves, sea level rise, extreme precipitation, and drought. The aims of the project were to increase resilience to extreme weather and environmental hazards through the inclusion of community-generated data, local knowledge, and community values into civic planning, and to increasing capacity among science centers and informal educators for including publics in resilience planning and data collection. The project formulated, iterated, and evaluated a science-to-civics model that included agenda-setting, decision-making and policy forming phases. These activities were developed and implemented by educators at 30 US science centers in collaboration with local resilience planners. Groups of participants in each community collected, analyzed, and shared data about locally relevant hazards; learned about vulnerabilities through visualizations of geospatial data; participated in deliberative, participatory resilience planning and shared perspectives about resilience strategies and their societal and environmental trade-offs; formulated community resilience plans that brought forth diverse perspectives; and presented their findings and recommendations to resilience planners and publics. Participants contributed community-generated data such as urban heat island maps, precipitation data from rain gauges, or documented extreme events through photos of their communities. These data were visualized through StoryMaps, exhibited at local libraries and fairs, and used to facilitate community discussions about the tradeoffs of proposed resilience strategies. Many of the deliberation and participatory science activities pivoted to online formats in response to the pandemic. These digital engagement activities provided new and unanticipated challenges, but also new opportunities connect project participants and capture participant engagement in powerful ways. Our project evaluation found that citizen science and Forum participants increased their knowledge around climate hazards, resilience strategies and their tradeoffs. Participants also increased their confidence and interest in engaging with climate topics, including ways to take action around community climate hazards, contributing to citizen science efforts, and contributing to public policy. Museum professionals found that the project positively impacted their ability to implement science to civics activities, felt supported by the trainings and materials, and planned to continue implementing these programs provided they had continued access to materials, tools, and experts. Many of the project materials are freely available for download at nisenet.org/cscrc and the local project portals documenting the citizen science activities can be found at scistarter.org/noaa.
Empowering Climate Change Resiliency through Education in an Underserved Community
Understanding climate change and its exacerbating effects on local environmental phenomena (e.g., increase in frequency and/or intensity of drought, ocean acidification, water shortages, degraded fisheries) and how to create resiliency is critical for underserved communities as they are disproportionately impacted by these hazards and yet, have the least capacity to actively respond. To address this issue, Ocean Discovery Institute and its partners will build understanding of climate change and impacts on local hazards, human-nature interactions, and individual and community capacity for resilience through place-based education in the underserved community of City Heights, San Diego, CA. This project, titled “Empowering Climate Change Resiliency through Education in an Underserved Community,” will involve a wide range of partners, including California Sea Grant, the California Nevada Climate Applications Program, NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego Canyonlands, RECON Environmental, Inc., and the San Diego Unified Port District. Project activities encompass the design, piloting, and implementation of multi-grade level, integrated curricula that incorporate hands-on student climate science research, innovative solution building, and teacher professional development. This project will serve 1,500 middle school students annually and is expected to increase students’ understanding of scientific concepts and processes and human-nature interactions, improve their ability to make science-informed decisions, and contribute to local resilience efforts.
U.S. Virgin Islands Storm Strong Program
Under leadership from the University of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service, and local, non-profit, long-term, 2017 storm recovery groups, this 5-year project will create the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) Storm Strong Program. To date, minimal efforts have been made to engage the USVI community in hurricane education and preparation. As a result, USVI communities face significant, but often preventable, storm risks. This is the Territory’s first sustained, community-based, hurricane hazard preparedness, and community leadership building program. The USVI Storm Strong Program will engage underserved and underrepresented middle- and high-school youth and their families on all of the Territory’s main islands - St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix - in a program modelled after the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit framework. Youth and their families will: (1) explore the science and hazards associated with hurricanes, (2) assess their communities’ vulnerabilities and associated risks, (3) evaluate personal and community assets and options to increase resilience, (4) prioritize and plan for events occurring before, during, and after a storm, and (5) take action, in this case, through Community Transfer Projects, which will turn the information gained through the Program into local actions to increase individual and community resilience, sharing knowledge and actions with the broader USVI community and beyond. Through this training, ~400 USVI youth and their families will be empowered as environmental leaders and change agents within their communities and important insights will be learned as to how best to engage underrepresented and underserved groups in hazard preparedness. Creation of the USVI Storm Strong Program is timely, given the significant impacts resulting from Hurricanes Irma and Maria, two Category 5 hurricanes that devastated the USVI in September 2017. These storms provide a window of opportunity to bring together partners from federal, territorial, non-governmental, academic, and the private sector, to develop a strategic, cohesive, long-term, high-impact, community-based program to improve environmental literacy and extreme weather hazard preparedness in the Territory, goals that align with the mission of NOAA’s Office of Education.
Expanding Capacity of the National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI)
The National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation (NNOCCI) is working with The Marine Mammal Center, Knology, and the Frameworks Institute to build national capacity for evidence-based climate communication through innovative training programs and a community of practice that engages educators, scientists, community activists, and communities of color. Nearly two-thirds of Americans talk about climate change only occasionally or not at all, resulting in a lack of action to address one of the most critical issues of our time. The National Network for Ocean and Climate Change Interpretation has worked for more than a decade to advance the science and practice of effective public communication around climate change by developing, evaluating, and deploying communications tools that employ both cutting-edge climate science and communication research to increase both knowledge of climate change and a willingness to engage in climate action. The network’s community of practice offers resources, events, and activities to support members’ social, emotional, and intellectual growth, sustaining their long-term commitment to activate the public around climate action. Despite many successes and impact shown through previous programs, gaps still exist in the availability of these messages to communities across the country, and an intentional focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion is critical to ensure that communications and proposed solutions are accessible and appropriate for marginalized communities. New lessons connecting justice, equity, diversity and inclusion will be developed and tested by a justice and equity team, as well as outside experts. These new lessons will be included in all training programs, including an existing online course focused on building awareness for climate communicators, and a new virtual and in-person training course for climate communication trainers in the Southeastern United States. Through these training programs, a new training platform, and the support of a new project coordinator, the network will welcome new climate trainers and communicators, while building a stronger community of practice nationwide.