Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET)
Marine Science Institute
NOAA will bring thousands of K-12 teachers and students around the country outside for hands-on environmental education opportunities as part of B-WET projects in 2016. Ninety eight new and continuing projects benefit from a total of over $7 million in funding for the NOAA Office of Education’s Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program.
In 2016, funded activities include the National Aquarium and Baltimore City Schools working together to design and pilot Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs), using the Aquarium’s Model Urban Waterfront as a classroom and laboratory. In New England, funds will support middle school and high school teachers and their students to become active stewards of watershed resources in order to protect herring, alewife, eel and shellfish living in the Taunton (MA) River Watershed. In Florida, funds support high school students and teachers to gain science dive certification while studying three historical artificial reef sites in local waters. Both students and teachers are taught how to operate and collect data from an aquatic environment to research human impact on the reefs.
B-WET currently serves seven areas of the country: California, Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaiʻi, New England, and the Pacific Northwest. Grantees were selected through a rigorous peer review process administered by a NOAA program office in their region. All B-WET applicants are encouraged to partner with local NOAA offices, and/or utilize local NOAA field sites and data where appropriate. Awards in the Great Lakes region are made possible by funds from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
New 2016 B-WET projects, by region, are:
California
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy | Expanding the Impact of Project WISE (Watersheds Inspiring Student Education): Providing MWEEs for Students in the Presidio of San Francisco | San Francisco, CA | $30,000 |
| Watsonville Wetlands Watch | Green Careers Institute | Watsonville, CA | $32,963 |
| Girl Scouts of Northern California | Green By Nature | Alameda, CA | $44,654 |
| Ventana Wildlife Society | Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Watershed Transect Program | Salinas, CA | $45,000 |
| Save the Whales | From Salinas to the Ocean: Teaching Stewardship in the Upper Watersheds to Protect the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary | Seaside, CA | $56,135 |
| Strategic Energy Innovations | Discovering Watersheds & Public Water Systems Program | San Rafael, CA | $57,000 |
| Santa Barbara Unified School District | Connecting the Next Generation Science Standards to the Natural Laboratory of the Santa Barbara Channel and its Watershed to Provide Meaningful Training for Teachers in Climate Change. | Santa Barbara, CA | $59,401 |
Chesapeake Bay
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spotsylvania County School Board | Beyond the Field Trip: Developing Environmental Stewards | Fredricksburg, VA | $50,000 |
| Cacapon Institute | Emerging MWEEs for West Virginia Regional Education Service Area Eight to Provide Chesapeake Bay Watershed Education and Training to 4th and 5th Grade Students | Great Cacapon, WV | $120,213 |
| National Aquarium | Peer to Pier: Engaging Baltimore Middle School Students in Conservation at National Aquarium's Model Urban Waterfront | Baltimore, MD | $130,000 |
| National Audubon Society | Learn, Explore, and Restore our Watersheds | New York, NY | $210,000 |
| Hood College of Frederick, Maryland | Project STEM: Schoolyard Thermal Evaluation and Mitigation | Fredrick, MD | $214,098 |
| Anne Arundel County Board of Education | Take Action: Teacher- and Student-Led MWEEs for a Changing Climate | Annapolis, MD | $73,281 |
| County of Arlington | Sustainable Solutions for Urban Stormwater Management through Project-Based Learning Project | Arlington, VA | $375,000 |
Great Lakes
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Research Foundation for SUNY/Buffalo | Buffalo State's Our Living Watershed B-WET Program | Buffalo, NY | $73,027 |
| Saginaw Valley State University | Experiencing the Saginaw Bay Watershed from the Classroom to the Water's Edge | University Center, MI | $73,675 |
| Wisconsin Maritime Museum | We all Live on the Water: Teachers as Watershed Leaders | Manitowoc, WI | $73,723 |
| The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System/UW Madison | Ganawedan Ginibiiminaan: Bad River Water Stewardship | Madison, WI | $74,866 |
| Inland Seas Education Association | Inland Seas Great Lakes Watershed Field Course for K-12 Teachers to Learn and Implement MWEEs in their Classroom | Suttons Bay, MI | $74,969 |
| Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System/ UW-Superior | Rivers2Lake South: Meaningful Watershed Education Along Lake Superior’s Coast. | Superior, WI | $74,983 |
| Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District | Watershed Alive III: A Place to Call Our Own | Milwaukee, WI | $75,000 |
| Eastern Michigan University | Great Lakes Literacy in Action: Connecting Students to their Watersheds in Southeast Michigan through Place-Based Education | Ypsilanti, MI | $75,000 |
| Michigan State University | Promoting Healthy Watersheds and Communities by Integrating Ecosystem Science, Transportation Networks, and Stewardship |
Lansing, MI |
$75,000 |
| Alliance for the Great Lakes | Great Lakes Model Schools: Where Cleveland Students Learn to Care for their Watershed | Chicago, IL | $44,213 |
| Muskegon Area Intermediate School District | Using Place-Based Education to Create Stewards of the Great Lakes | Muskegon, MI | $54,205 |
Gulf of Mexico
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| St. Tammany Parish Government (Camp Salmen Nature Park) | Camp Salmen Education Program | Mandeville, LA | $30,253 |
| University of Houston - Victoria | Texas Coastal Bend Aquatic & Environmental Science Teacher Professional Development | Victoria, TX | $78,990 |
| University of New Orleans (Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Sciences) | Youth Environmental Science Stewards | New Orleans, LA | $95,181 |
| Florida State University - Panama City | Preserving our Underwater Pastures (PUP): Researching Human Impact on Local Historic Artificial Reef Structures | Tallahassee, FL | $98,533 |
| The Artist Boat | STEAM Powered: Blue Carbon Art IQ | Galveston, TX | $99,997 |
| The University of Southern Mississippi (Gulf Coast Research Laboratory) | MWEE for Resilience to Accelerated Sea Level Rise and Flooding Risk | Hattiesburg, MS | $100,000 |
Hawaiʻi
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kupu | Environmental Education Program | Honolulu, HI | $150,000 |
| Mālama Pūpūkea-Waimea | Ka Papa Kai: Ocean Education, Science, and Service-Leaning at the Pūpūkea MLCD | Haleʻiwa, HI | $27,825 |
| Boys & Girls Club of Hawaiʻi | Nānākuli Aloha ʻĀina Project | Honolulu, HI | $60,255 |
| Mālama Learning Center | Promoting Place-based Education and Restoration of the Wetland and Watershed of Nānākuli | Kapolei, HI | $143,230 |
| Mālama Loko Ea Foundation | Ola Kawaiola | Haleʻiwa, HI | $72,778 |
| Learning Endeavors | Watershed Citizen Science and Stewardship through Digital Mapping | Wailuku, HI | $132,156 |
| The Kohala Center | HI- MEET - Hawai‘i Island - Meaningful Environmental Education for Teachers | Kamuela, HI | $150,000 |
| PREL - Pacific Resources for Education and Learning | Watershed Education to Teach, Learn, and Advance Behaviors of Stewardship (WETLABS) | Honolulu, HI | $146,069 |
| Hawaiʻi Nature Center | Exploring Kawainui: Waterbirds, Wetlands, and Watersheds | Honolulu, HI | $132,127 |
New England
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Western Connecticut State University | Finding Our Way: An Experiential Watershed Learning Program for Middle School Children and Their Families | Danbury, CT | $194,323 |
| Bridgewater State University | Stormwater Stewards: Protecting and Restoring Fisheries through Watershed Stewardship | Bridgewater, MA | $217,812 |
| Education Connection | Blue Science – Monitoring the Sea and Sky at Long Island Sound and in the Housatonic River Watershed | Litchfield, CT | $240,000 |
Pacific Northwest
| Recipient | Project | State | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Environmental Science Center | Salmon Heroes: Watershed Education and Water Quality Training for Underserved Students | Burien, WA | $36,243 |
| RE Sources | Rural Watershed Stewards Program | Bellingham, WA | $40,000 |
| Lummi Indian Business Council | Lummi Nation Youth: Water Quality, Watersheds and Salmon | Bellingham, WA | $50,000 |
| Feiro Marine Life Center | North Olympic Watershed Science (NOW Science) | Port Angeles, WA | $106,405 |
| Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group | Watershed Connections - Hands on Salmon, Climate, and Ocean Science | White Salmon, WA | $118,295 |
| Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership | Watershed Science in Action | Portland, OR | $59,810 |
| Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association | The Students for Salmon (SFS) Program | Bellingham, WA | $35,000 |
| Oregon Department of State Lands - South Slough | The Oregon Coast Education Program - Building Capacity for Stewardship | Charleston, OR | $60,000 |
| Oregon State University | StreamWebs Student Stewardship Network | Corvallis, OR | $60,000 |
Funding amounts listed above are full federal award amounts for all years of the award. In addition to the awards listed above, NOAA supported 46 continuing awards from previous fiscal years with FY16 funds. For more details about B-WET awards, please visit the regional program websites.