NOAA Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program announced $652,117 in funding for seven environmental education projects throughout the Great Lakes basin. Great Lakes B-WET awards are funded through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Each project will address one of the three priority areas of the Great Lakes B-WET program: (1) new projects that use the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences framework (MWEE), (2) Systemic MWEE Implementation, or (3) Capacity building for expanded statewide K-12 environmental literacy initiatives.
The funded projects throughout the Great Lakes basin are:
- Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District: Implementing Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences in the Tinker's Creek Watershed
- Friends of the St. Clair River: St. Clair River Watershed Pen Pals: From Creeks to Coast
- Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative: Advancing K-12 Environmental Literacy through Place-Based Stewardship Education (PBSE) in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region
- Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority: Science and Stewardship in the Heart of the Great Lakes
- ODC Network: River Keepers: Understanding the Impacts of Human Activity and Climate Change on Local Watersheds
- Riveredge Nature Center Inc: Water Journeys: Empowering Middle-Schoolers to Improve the Milwaukee River
- University of Michigan at Ann Arbor: Climate Change in the Bay: Designing Meaningful Student Experiences in the Saginaw Bay Watershed
Read more about each of these projects, and projects funded in previous years, at https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/bwet/greatlakes/
NOAA B-WET is an environmental education program that promotes place-based experiential learning for K-12 students and related professional development for teachers. B-WET fosters the growth of new, innovative programs and encourages capacity-building and environmental education partnerships. The primary delivery of B-WET is through competitive grants that promote Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs). The MWEE is a learner-centered framework that focuses on investigations into local environmental issues and leads to informed stewardship action.
For more information about Great Lakes B-WET, please contact Sarah Waters (sarah.a.waters@noaa.gov).