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.
Public Libraries Advancing Community Engagement (PLACE)
The Public Libraries Advancing Community Engagement (PLACE) project was built on the idea that librarians can play a significant role in increasing a community's climate resiliency — the ability to recover quickly from or plan for and anticipate weather impacts. PLACE paired about 50 librarians in rural and under-resourced urban communities across the U.S. with local NOAA/NWS scientists to engage over 1,500 youth and adults in a series of public library programs tailored to the local geography. The programs used popular books and human-interest videos to stimulate discussion and critical thinking about resilient responses to environmental changes and extreme weather events, as well as introducing relevant NOAA tools and resources for data access and resiliency planning. For both audience members and librarians, PLACE enhanced environmental literacy specific to their own region’s geography, vulnerabilities, and threats, toward the longer-term goal of helping them to build local resilience.
Engaging Youth and Frontline Communities in Climate Justice Planning and Action in Greater Cincinnati
With support from NOAA, Groundwork Ohio River Valley (GWORV) and Green Umbrella (GU) seek to bridge environmental education and policy efforts to increase youth, frontline resident, and local government environmental literacy, engagement, and dialogue across Greater Cincinnati.
With support from NOAA, Groundwork Ohio River Valley (GWORV) and Green Umbrella (GU) seek to bridge environmental education and policy efforts to increase youth, frontline resident, and local government environmental literacy, engagement, and dialogue across Greater Cincinnati. The partnership will achieve the following goals through the establishment of five climate advisory groups in underserved communities 1) raise awareness that climate change and racial injustice share roots and must be addressed together, 2) empower youth and frontline communities to participate in civic processes and build climate careers, and 3) co-create climate planning and implementation approaches that incorporate science, historical and cultural knowledge, and youth vision. Climate resiliency plans, developed by climate advisory groups, will emphasize adaptation to Greater Cincinnati climate impacts including extreme heat, extreme precipitation and flooding, and air quality impairment. A green youth workforce will bring climate advisory group climate resiliency plans to life through tree plantings and green infrastructure installments. To achieve this vision, the partnership will implement a systematic approach to informing and engaging communities: innovative strategies to activate the voice of residents and youth in local government decision making, a regionally developed community engagement strategy (Climate Safe Neighborhoods), a proven national model (Regional Climate Collaborative), and green workforce pipeline opportunities.
Chesapeake Bay Watershed Education Scale-up Initiative
The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Education Scale-up Initiative is a project-based educational program that engages students in 21st century investigations of watershed concepts using real-time geospatial technology. The project's goal is to provide as many as 20,000 students across eight states with a dynamic, geographic learning experience that combines classroom learning activities with outdoor field experiences and technology-supported inquiry. To achieve this goal, the project will provide professional development for 400 educators across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. This project builds on an existing educational citizen science project launched by the National Geographic Society in 2009 to study water quality in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and has been designed to serve as a national model for the implementation of classroom and field-based learning.