NOAA brings thousands of K-12 teachers and students around the country outside for hands-on environmental education opportunities as part of Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) projects. In fiscal year 2018, one hundred and fifty-nine new and continuing projects benefitted from a total of over $7 million in funding from the NOAA Office of Education’s B-WET program.

In 2018, funded projects include: students and teachers engaging with community partners to learn about Great Lakes fisheries and watershed stewardship opportunities aligned with their school improvement and learning goals; students at four Title 1 schools directly contributing to a statewide effort to monitor rocky intertidal and sandy beach habitats of California’s national marine sanctuaries through LiMPETS; and 4th grade students being taught the basics of salmon and stream ecology and restoring critical salmon habitat in Whatcom County to help improve the health of the Salish Sea.

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.

2018 B-WET awards, by region, are:

Funding amounts listed above are full federal award amounts for all years of the award. In addition to the awards listed above, NOAA supported 106 continuing awards. For more details about B-WET awards, please visit the regional program websites.