2016 B-WET awards

B-WET 2016 grant awards support watershed education projects for K-12 teachers and students around the country.

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.

2 students planting trees with an adult during a restoration field trip
Students planting trees during the restoration field trip as part of Students for Salmon, an elementary watershed education program. (Courtesy of Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association)
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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, Hawaii, 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

Hawaii

Recipient Project State Amount
Kupu Environmental Education Program Honolulu, HI $150,000
Malama Pupukea-Waimea Ka Papa Kai: Ocean Education, Science, and Service-Leaning at the Pupukea MLCD Haleiwa, HI $27,825
Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii Nanakuli Aloha Aina Project Honolulu, HI $60,255
Malama Learning Center Promoting Place-based Education and Restoration of the Wetland and Watershed of Nanakuli Kapolei, HI $143,230
Malama Loko Ea Foundation Ola Kawaiola Haleiwa, 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
Hawaii 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.