2018 B-WET awards

B-WET fiscal year 2018 grant awards support watershed education projects for K-12 teachers and students around the country.

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.

4 teachers walk through shallow water in waders carrying a fishing net
Michigan teachers experience fisheries science during two-day Lake Huron Place-Based Education Summer Teacher Institute in Alcona County, MI. (Michigan Sea Grant)

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, 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.


2018 B-WET awards, by region, are:

California

Recipient Project State Amount
Coastal Watershed Council Watershed Rangers Santa Cruz, CA $37,486
Earth Team Aqua Team - Sustainable Youth Watershed Internships Richmond, CA $41,872
Girl Scouts of Northern California Green By Nature Alameda, CA $49,997
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Expanding the Impact of Project WISE (Watersheds Inspiring Student Education) San Francisco, CA $40,000
Greater Farallones Association LiMPETS Climate Literacy Project San Francisco, CA $38,261
Marin County Office of Education Connecting NGSS To Marin's Bay and Ocean Backyard San Rafael, CA $59,970
Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Salmon and Trout Education Program (STEP) to the Sea Davenport, CA $35,968
MERITO Foundation Energy Efficiency to Mitigate Climate Change and Ocean Acidification Ventura, CA $59,930
Santa Barbara Unified School District Connecting the NGSS to the Natural Laboratory of the Santa Barbara Channel and its Watershed Santa Barbara, CA $51,074
Save the Whales From Soledad to the Ocean: Teaching Coastal Stewardship to South County Title 1 School Children Seaside, CA $36,097
Treasure Island Sailing Center Sailing to Save the Sea Program  San Francisco, CA $43,226

Chesapeake Bay

Recipient Project State Amount
Chesapeake Bay Foundation Systemic Solutions: Advancing Environmental Literacy & Supporting Clean Water Initiatives in the Susquehanna Watershed Annapolis, MD $329,813
Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District Environmental Literacy in the Piedmont Culpeper, VA $247,661
Earth Force Alexandria Youth Action for the Bay (AYAB) Denver, CO $329,162
Friends of Rappahannock Rappahannock MWEE Expansion Program: Creating A Model for a Sustainable MWEE Fredericksburg, VA $329,926
Gettysburg College What's in the water? Investigating and controlling runoff in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed of Pennsylvania Gettysburg, PA $444,952
Maymont Foundation Bay Watershed in Science Education (BWISE) Richmond, VA $449,224
National Aquarium What Lives in the Harbor? Baltimore, MD $432,628
National Audubon Society Audubon Chesapeake Exploration (ACE) with Wicomico County Public School Students and Teachers New York, NY $377,577
Nature Conservancy Student and Teacher Experiential Environmental Learning (STEEL): Implementation of Systemic Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences on the Eastern Shore of Virginia Arlington, VA $326,300
Northbay Education, Inc NorthBay and School District of Lancaster Systemic MWEE Program for Middle School Teachers and Students North East, MD $390,234
Saint Francis University Headwaters to Estuaries: Enhancing Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences with Immersive Technology Loretto, MD $369,980
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Wave of Plastic: Student Inquiry of Plastic Waste and its Impacts on Marine Ecosystems Cambridge, MD $415,995
University of Virginia Developing MWEE Capacity through Systemic, Vertically Aligned, Integrated Curricula, Grades K-12 Charlottesville, VA $331,721

Great Lakes

Recipient Project State Amount
The Detroit Zoological Society Great Kids Saving the Great Lakes Royal Oak, MI $50,000
Grand Valley State University Groundswell – Go Outside and Learn (G-GOAL) Grand Rapids, MI $68,000
Michigan State University Our Fisheries, Our Future Lansing, MI $70,000
Pennsylvania State University STEM Hub engages students in Great Lakes research Erie, PA $65,000
Riveredge Nature Center Testing the Waters Newberg, WI $70,000
University of Minnesota Watershed Stories: Learners Exploring their Place in the Ecosystem Duluth, MN $55,000
West Michigan Environmental Action Council Education Foundation WAKE Zone: Watershed Advocates for Kids’ Engagement Grand Rapids, MI $70,000

Gulf of Mexico

Recipient Project State Amount
Calcasieu Parish School System Wetland Restoration Through Aquaponics Lake Charles, AL $99,293
Florida Aquarium Our Tampa Bay Watershed: Spring to the Gulf Tampa, FL $99,978
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation Discovering the Secrets of Pontchartrain Beach: Revealing Mysteries Using STEM Methods New Orleans, LA $70,000
Mississippi State University Old Fort Bayou Watershed Education and Civic Engagement Mississippi State, MS $68,954
Pinellas County School Board Elementary Students and Teachers Exploring the Watershed Largo, FL $94,092
University of Southern Mississippi (Gulf Coast Research Laboratory) A MWEE to Promote Community Resilience to Coastal Hazards  Hattiesburg, MS $99,511

Hawaiʻi

Recipient Project State Amount
The Kohala Center Ke Kumu ʻĀina: Restoring the Kawaihae 1 and Kawaihae 2 Watersheds Kamuela, HI $71,000
Kupu Kupu Hawaiʻi Youth Conservation Corps Community Program Honolulu, HI $150,000
Mālama Pūpūkea-Waimea Ka Papa Kai: Expansion of Ocean Education & Service Learning at Pūpūkea MLCD Haleʻiwa, HI $35,898
Maui Economic Development Board Healthy Watersheds -> Healthy Communities Project Kīhei, HI $150,000
Pacific American Foundation NALU Studies Kauaʻi Phase II: Leadership and Mentoring Program Kāneʻohe, HI $150,000
Pacific American Foundation WIRED Program, Phase III: Watershed Investigation, Research, Education, and Design Kāneʻohe, HI $150,000
School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability Essential Questions of Sustainability (EQS): Learning from Our Ahupuaʻa - Clean Water, Ocean Energy and Sea-Level Rise Honolulu, HI $145,851
University of Hawaiʻi (Mānoa) Our Project In Hawaiʻi's Intertidal (OPIHI): Kilo ʻAe Kai - Observer of the Place Where the Sea and Land Meet Honolulu, HI $149,994

Pacific Northwest

Recipient Project State Amount
Feiro Marine Life Center North Olympic Watershed Science Program (NOW Science) Port Angeles, WA $46,298
Lummi Indian Business Council Lummi Nation Youth: Importance of Water Quality and Healthy Watersheds to the Lummi Schelangen (“Way of Life”) Bellingham, WA $59,698
Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group Watershed & Ocean Connections White Salmon, WA $58,562
Nisqually River Foundation Climate Literacy, Action, and Monitoring in South Sound (CLAMSS) Olympia, WA $59,493
Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association Students for Salmon (SFS) Program Bellingham, WA $59,283
Oregon State University MWEEs by the Sea II: Expanding Opportunities for Oregon Coast Educators and Students to Engage in Project Based Learning Corvallis, OR $60,000
Port Townsend School District #50 Building Awareness and Understanding of Ocean Acidification in a Coastal Community Port Townsend, WA $47,296
RE Sources Young Rural Water Stewards Project Bellingham, WA $48,949

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.