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.
Science on a Sphere: Bringing the Oceans to You
Through this award, the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island (NCARI) has installed NOAA's Science on a Sphere (SOS) to enhance and expand their existing Storms exhibit. NCARI's location on the Outer Banks makes understanding ocean systems critically important. Installing SOS increases environmental literacy by exposing NCARI's 300,000 annual visitors to NOAA datasets and information. Additionally, through educational programming students, teachers, and visitors obtain current and accurate information to help them make better-informed decisions. Workshops hosted at NCARI have provided valuable professional development opportunities for both informal educators and NOAA staff.
Building Ocean Awareness Together (BOAT)
A consortium of Alaska SeaLife Center, Florida Aquarium and Monterey Bay Aquarium with their partner National Association for Interpretation will increase the effectiveness of informal science educators (ISE) to promote public understanding of three complex topics that impact the ocean (oil spills, ocean acidification, and energy literacy) and encourage stewardship of ocean and coastal resources. This project will have a direct impact on 252 interpreters in and around Alaska, California, and Florida through 12 weeklong trainings. Groups of interpreters will develop, assemble and produce online training toolkits, all of which will be widely disseminated to the ISE community. Each toolkit will utilize NOAA multimedia content, data visualization products, expertise and other relevant resources. Project participants – who interact with a diverse mix of local, regional, national and international visitors (including underserved local populations) – will provide enhanced training content for their colleagues through professional trainings, presentations, and online networks.
Preparing Agents of Change for Tomorrow (PACT): Building Youth Confidence and Capacity for Climate Resilient Futures in Appalachia
Communities in WV are acutely vulnerable to flooding and are woefully unprepared for their current climate reality, let alone for a future where rainfall and floods are more frequent and intense. Meeting the challenge of building equitable and resilient communities in marginalized and under-resourced areas like West Virginia requires a transformative approach to learning, knowledge production, and action - an approach where communities build skills, confidence, and capacity to assess vulnerabilities, create resilience plans, and participate in planning and decision making. To meet this need, West Virginia University (WVU), WVU Extension, and the WV State Resiliency Office will be engaging with high school-aged youth, their teachers, and communities through the Preparing Agents of Change for Tomorrow (PACT): Building Youth Confidence and Capacity for Climate Resilient Futures in Appalachia project. This three-year project informed by NOAA’s Community Resilience Theory of Change and Climate Resilience Toolkit will cultivate the next generation of problem solvers through a dynamic social and active learning curriculum focused on the fundamentals of disaster and resilience literacy and community resilience planning that is theoretically grounded in intergenerational learning - the transfer of knowledge, attitudes, and behavior from children to parents - where youth can foster collective concern, behavior, and action amongst themselves, their parents, and communities. By increasing the participation of youth in community resilience planning and decision-making, PACT will not only cultivate the next generation of community leaders, problem solvers, and decision-makers but also draw critical attention to much needed community preparedness critical to creating a safer, healthier, more hopeful, and equitable future in West Virginia. The specific objective of PACT is to create a data-driven, evidence-based education and planning program that 1. Guides youth, teachers, families, and communities through a spectrum of disaster and resilience literacy and household preparedness activities, 2. Mentors youth through the process of community flood resilience planning and plan development, and 3. Develops a network of youth resilience ambassadors that participate in resilience planning throughout the state while positively impacting their communities. Through three levels of engagement, PACT will 1. Engage with 35 classrooms and 875 youth across five of West Virginia’s most flood-prone counties through a school enrichment program that provides disaster and resilience literacy lessons and activities; 2. Host three Youth Resilience Ambassador camps that will train 175 youth on assessing community vulnerability and developing community resilience plans; and 3. Host three Youth Resilience Leadership Summits with 140 youth that will present their resilience plans and engage with peers, community, professionals, and elected decision makers. Furthermore, PACT will submit annually updated Youth Resilience Ambassador community resilience plans to the WV State Resiliency Office. Through the PACT project, we anticipate youth driving action in their communities to reduce flood vulnerability and strengthen resilience through participation, becoming the agents of change needed to move the region through an uncertain 21st century.