Environmental Education Grants 2008

Alaska | Idaho | Oregon | Washington

ALASKA
Prince William Sound Science and Technology Institute - $15,000
P.O. Box 705
Cordova, Alaska 99574
Lindsay Butters – (907) 424-5800
Cordova Clean Oceans Project
Clean Ocean Robotics actively guides sixth-grade students to become skilled in the use of robotic technology and its potential application in oil spill response. Students are educated about ocean health and robotics via classroom presentations, workshops, field trips to local sites and provide outreach on the topic during a community-wide festival. Furthermore, five groups of students from grades 4 – 12 (roughly 110) participate in marine debris removal during the 2009 National Environmental Education Week. The project enhances stewardship of marine and coastal ecosystems through a series of educational programs; engages a wide range of audiences in ocean-based educational activities using a variety of program delivery techniques; and exposes participants to regional marine research projects and careers in ocean sciences by involving guest scientists in program delivery.

Takshanuk Watershed Council - $11,259
P.O. Box 1029
Haines, Alaska 99827
Emily Seward – (907) 766-3542
Green Careers
Green Careers is a vocation-based internship program for high school students. The program offers a series of internships that integrate existing high school curriculum with rigorous, individualized job training experiences in local fisheries management, tourism, and fish and wildlife law enforcement organizations. The project includes field trips and matches the students with mentors and, and the potential for hometown green careers. Students share their knowledge weekly by preparing episodes of “Watershed Weekly” on a local radio station in Haines that airs issues of local environmental concern. This program builds on the Eco-Studies program funded by EPA in 2003.

Top of page

IDAHO
Friends of the Teton River - $17,125
35 E, Little Avenue
P.O. Box 768
Driggs, ID 83422
Amy Verbeten (208) 354-3871
Watershed Teacher Institute: Increasing Science and Literacy Achievement through Ongoing Teacher Professional Development.
The grantee will hold a four day intensive workshop, which will include field and classroom sessions. The program will be offered to a maximum of 12 teachers per year from rural K-12 schools in the Teton Henry’s Fork watershed. The goals of the project are 1) expand the reach of these programs and improve student performance in science and literacy by developing the teachers’ teaching skills; 2) familiarize teachers throughout the area with the Teton Watershed Curriculum; 3) build the teacher knowledge in watershed science concepts; and 4) enhance teaching skills that promote student inquiry, critical thinking, increased achievement in science and literacy and stewardship of water resources.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game - $14,978
600 Walnut Street
P.O. Box 25
Boise, Idaho 83707
Amy Parrish – (208) 287-2833
Trout in the Classroom – Teacher Training
This project provides training for 60 new and existing “Trout in the Classroom” 4-12th grade teachers in a 1-credit, 15-hour workshop throughout Idaho. The training covers trout biology, habitat requirements, water quality, and tank care. “Trout in the Classroom” is an existing program in Idaho in which teachers and students raise trout in a classroom aquarium and release them into the wild. The program gives students a hands-on opportunity to observe trout development, monitor water quality in the aquarium, and explore a variety of other trout-related educational topics. Idaho Fish and Game are expanding the program to encourage existing “Trout in the Classroom” teachers to use the program and recruit additional participants.

Palouse-Clearwater Environmental Institute (PCEI) - $23,354
P.O. Box 8596
1040 Rodeo Drive
Moscow, Idaho 83843
Greg Fizzell – (208) 882-1444
MY WOODS: Moscow Area Youth Working Outdoors Offering Direct Service
This program adds a school-year component to a pilot K-6 summer camp offered in a local county park. PCEI staff provides schoolyard/field experiences for students and teachers to explore a variety of native ecosystems, empower and instruct teachers in the delivery of environmental education, and host a five-week summer program for highly motivated students. Approximately 550 students and their 20 teachers receive multiple exposures to environmental concepts, stewardship behaviors, and to the outdoors itself. The project also develops teachers’ capacity to provide environmental education to their students throughout the year through recommended activities, modeling of strong environmental education practices, and formal and informal communication before and after field experiences.

Top of page

OREGON
Resource Innovation Group - $24,281
5247 University of Oregon
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Robert Doppelt – (541) 346-0786
Climate Brigade Program
This project 1) completes a model for outreach to households around climate change and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; 2) runs two pilots on outreach to businesses in Eugene on the same topic; and 3) plans to disseminate the model regionally and nationally. The program trains 50-100 Climate Masters during a ten-week train-the-trainer program modeled after the Master Recycler program and mobilizes a brigade of citizens to fight global warming. Once trained, the brigade conducts outreach around reduction of GHG emissions in homes and businesses through 100-200 individual/business climate consultations (which include personalized audits and site-specific recommendations) and attends conferences to speak about the program and distribute literature.

Environmental Education Association of Oregon (EEAO) - $40,813
133 SW 2nd Avenue
Suite 307
Portland, Oregon 97204
Linda Rhoads – (503) 234-3326
Watershed-focused Leadership Development for Sustained Environmental Education Programs and Stewardship
This project brings together 70 formal and non-formal educators and community representatives from across Oregon to create educational solutions for watershed stewardship, ecosystem protection, and sustainability. EEAO will lead, manage and facilitate an 11-month planning process culminating in a three-day leadership clinic for participants to design and create action plans for watershed-focused educational and community engagement projects. At the conclusion of the clinic, the teams, which are comprised of educators, watershed council representatives and other community leaders, will have developed action plans for projects to implement in their home watersheds. EEAO uses a national workshop model developed by the National Environmental Education Advancement Project funded by EPA for the leadership clinic and offers continuing education credits for the teachers.

Lane Community College - $14,673
4000 East 30th Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97405
Jennifer Hayward – (541) 463-5594
Lane Community College’s Sustainability Infusion Project (SIP)
Lane Community College’s SIP program equips roughly 220 college faculty members with the skills and tools necessary to infuse concepts of sustainability into existing teaching curricula. The college is hosting two “train-the trainer” workshops to train a total of 20 faculty members. The trained faculty members train 10 additional faculty members, each providing those teachers a strategy for infusing sustainability into all aspects of student learning across campus departments. SIP replicates the American Association for Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability across the Curriculum Leadership workshops.

Top of page

WASHINGTON
Washington Department of Ecology - $30,000
P. O. Box 47600
Olympia, WA 98504
Cedar Bouta (360) 407-6853
Hazards on the Homefront Curriculum
The grantee and King County will revise and widely distribute King County’s “Hazards on the Homefront” curriculum (grades 7-12) in association with the ToxicFree Tips household campaign. The curriculum will be updated with current resources and new findings related to household hazardous waste and toxics. Teacher trainings will be provided in Yakima, Kitsap and Lewis counties to at least 75 teachers, and the grantee will give ongoing support to educators. At least 300 additional educators will access the teacher’s guide either through websites or CDs. The program will help people properly use, store, and dispose of hazardous waste and encourage safer alternatives; increase environmental stewardship, protect health, improve indoor air quality; and reduce environmental impacts from waste; and foster smarter consumers.

Evergreen State College - $29,611
2700 Evergreen Parkway NW
Olympia, Washington 98505
Jean MacGregor – (360) 867-6608
Curriculum for the Bioregion: Integrating Environmental and Sustainability Concepts in Introductory College Chemistry and Sociology Courses
The goal of the Curriculum for the Bioregion is to infuse content/concepts of environmental literacy and practices of environmental stewardship and sustainability into a large number of high-enrollment introductory college courses in the Puget Sound bioregion. The project aims for 24 chemistry college faculty members and 24 sociology faculty members to participate in professional development experiences that introduce selected regional environmental issues relevant to introductory chemistry and sociology classes. The teachers examine the environmental curriculum resources that are currently available in these disciplines, work collaboratively to integrate the sustainability concepts with core concepts that they already teach in their introductory classes, and introduce and evaluate at least one environmental “Teaching and Learning” activity in each class. They also disseminate their strategies and experiences via the Curriculum for the Bioregion website and optionally through professional conferences.

Community Agricultural Development Center (CADC) - $15,000
985 S. Elm
Colville, Washington 99114
Dr. Albert Kowitz – (509) 499-1360
Food and Environmental Stewardship – Food Choices that Support Sustainable Agriculture
CADC is partnering with Quillisascut Farms and WSU Extension in Stevens County to train high school teachers in health and food science programs. They are learning how to evaluate the impacts of food choices on the environment and to prioritize ways to reduce the size of their own and students’ environmental footprint. Fourteen teachers from across the state of Washington are attending a five-day training at the Quillisascut Farms training center. The focus is on food choices that result in a healthier diet for students and support a more sustainable food production and distribution system. Issues that will be addressed include pesticide use, fertilizers, energy usage, soils, surface and ground water, and animal, vegetable, and fruit production. The hands-on multidisciplinary training on Farm to Table issues change the ways the group thinks about their food system. The teachers are taught about organic food production, what a local food community is, how environmental stewardship affects purchasing and kitchen practices, and biodiversity and our food environment.

Top of page

Environmental Education Grants 2008

Local Navigation