NOAA’s Gulf of Mexico B-WET Grant for K-12 Environmental Education and Teacher Professional Development

Applicants may be physically located in any U.S. state; however, education projects must target teachers and/or students located in any part of the five Gulf of Mexico states which are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Consideration will be given to applicants who show prior experience in working in the five Gulf of Mexico states or who show prior experience with the environmental issues of those states.

The National Marine Fisheries Service Southeast Regional Office (Southeast Regional Office) is seeking proposals under the Gulf of Mexico Bay Watershed Education and Training (Gulf of Mexico B-WET) Program: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/grant/noaa-gulf-mexico-bay-watershed-education-and-training-gulf-b-wet-program.

The B-WET program is an environmental education program that promotes place-based experiential learning for K–12 students and related professional development for teachers. BWET 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 action. MWEEs are composed of multiple components that include learning both outdoors and in the classroom, and are designed to increase the environmental literacy by actively engaging students in building knowledge and meaning through hands-on experiences. In these experiences, the core ideas of multiple disciplines are applied to make sense of the relationships between the natural world and society. MWEEs help connect students with their local environment and equip them to make decisions and take actions that contribute to stronger, sustainable, and equitable communities.

This Gulf of Mexico B-WET funding announcement focuses on the following priority areas: 1) Professional Development for Teachers related to Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences, 2) Exemplary Programs combining Teacher Professional Development with Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for their students, and 3) Systemic Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience Implementation.

Again this year, the Gulf of Mexico B-WET funding announcement emphasizes our strong commitment to expanding the participation of marginalized communities in watershed education and is interested in projects that partner specifically with organizations and institutions that serve marginalized groups, particularly minority communities. And, it suggests that the MWEE framework can contribute to one of the most pressing economic, social and environmental issues of today – climate change – by directly fostering climate knowledge and competencies to contribute to climate solutions.