2024 Great Lakes B-WET Awards

Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) for Indigenous Communities Federal Funding Opportunity

Michigan Technological University with support from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community: Increased Water Literacy & Stewardship with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC): “Water is Life”

Building upon previous success recruiting rural school participation, the Water is Life project will engage Great Lakes Indigenous Knowledge Holders, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) youth interns, K-12 students and their teachers, and the broader community in exploring the various water quality and water resource management issues on and near the L’Anse Reservation. Areas of inquiry will focus on water quality issues identified by the KBIC including nonpoint and point source pollution, harmful algal blooms, deforestation, and climate impacts. This project will engage approximately 20 teachers, 10 KBIC Natural Resources Department youth interns, and 600 students from five counties in the 1842 ceded territory of Michigan’s western upper peninsula in a variety of Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs).

Seneca Nation of Indians: Seneca Nation B-WET Project

The projects will provide both students and teachers from schools serving the Allegany and Cattaraugus Territories (western New York) of the Seneca Nation with the opportunity to learn about the waterways of the Seneca Nation and how to be good stewards of these waterways. Through this new program, a series of presentations and experiential learning opportunities will be offered to participating educators from schools within the two territories in order to develop the skills to apply this knowledge in the classroom. Educators and Seneca youth participants will be involved in identifying challenges facing Seneca Nation waterways, assessing threats, and developing resiliency strategies while working to develop place-based, culturally appropriate solutions. Educators will then work with students to identify and implement stewardship projects to preserve and improve water quality and ecosystem health in the Seneca community. It is estimated that 100 students and 15 teachers will be able to take part in Seneca Nation B-WET Project.

Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council in collaboration with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians: Title Nimiigwechwendam Nibiish (I am thankful for water): Caring for Our Local Watersheds

This youth education project will engage approximately 100 Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indian (LTBB) youth in place-based education and experiences within their local watersheds. Nimiigwechwendam Nibiish will comprise six sessions during which Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council staff will work closely with LTBB to integrate traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) into each learning session. These sessions will help youth develop a sense of ownership and stewardship in their communities through place-based education. Youth will collect environmental data, explore issues and threats to local water resources, and discuss and implement management techniques to protect and improve water quality. They will then be encouraged to develop an environmental action project using their newly acquired knowledge which will positively impact their local ecosystems and watersheds.

Great Lakes Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) 2024 Federal Funding Opportunity

Priority 1: New projects that use the MWEE framework

Michigan

Friends of the St. Clair River: St. Clair River Watershed Pen Pals: From Creeks to Coast

This new program will provide teachers professional development and sustained support to direct Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences (MWEEs) in their classrooms. Teacher guided MWEEs will give students peer-to-peer collaboration across the local watersheds, empower students to create meaningful change through environmental action projects, and share their experiences through a culminating, community-wide Student Summit. The project will engage fourteen fifth-grade teachers working in St. Clair County, MI, and 350 fifth-grade students in MWEEs. Climate education will be incorporated across disciplines into the teacher's professional development and MWEE essential elements. Outdoor field experiences will expose teachers and students to hands-on learning to nurture a sense of stewardship for the St. Clair River watershed. Teachers and students will be paired up with another classroom that will serve as their Watershed Pen Pal. The Student Summit will provide significant external communication to community partners, parents, local leaders, and media.

Huron-Clinton Metropolitan Authority: Science and Stewardship in the Heart of the Great Lakes

This Project will utilize the Meaningful Watershed Education Experiences (MWEE) framework to provide student-led experiential learning to expand knowledge and appreciation of the Great Lakes watershed, their connection to it, and how actions impact it. The project will support about 60 middle-grade teachers over two years in developing confidence in leading place-based MWEEs, integrating student-led inquiry-based outdoor education into their curriculum, and creating and carrying out new lesson plans focused on their students and school settings. Approximately 150 6th-8th grade students in the Mt. Clemens School District will participate each year. The multi-year, learning program will include three in-school and two field-based experiences during each grade level. The program will culminate in an annual science symposium where students share their knowledge, projects, and outcomes.

ODC Network: River Keepers: Understanding the Impacts of Human Activity and Climate Change on Local Watersheds

This project will expand the reach of the River Keeper program by recruiting and engaging at least 175 elementary and middle school students in seven learning days during the 2024/2025 school year. ODC Network will be partnering with eight teachers in the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District and Fennville Public Schools. The project will also provide professional development for the teachers, focusing on the MWEE framework, and including co-planning, co-teaching, and reflection opportunities during the school year. Students will collect water quality data from the Macatawa River Watershed and the Kalamazoo River Watershed, in southwest Michigan, as a way to explore the impact of climate change and human activity on the watershed. Through activities such as water-quality assessments, data synthesis, and a capstone kayaking adventure, River Keepers will enhance student understanding of their environment and instill a sense of responsibility for the well-being of local waterways.

University of Michigan: Climate Change in the Bay: Designing Meaningful Student Experiences in the Saginaw Bay Watershed

The Center for Education Design, Evaluation, and Research will support a place-based, climate change education program in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay watershed. Starting in the 2025 school year, a cohort of 20 4th-12th grade educators will participate in professional development with online onboarding combined with outdoor learning. Additional activities will occur including a Dinner & Dialogue Climate Series with regional experts. During the school year, teachers will engage approximately 900 students in more than 20 hours of climate-related Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) through their classroom curriculum. Using the MWEE framework, teachers will ensure that each student will experience at least five hours of outdoor learning, participate in multi-week climate-related standards-based learning, meaningfully engage with a community partner, and share the outcomes of their action project with community members during a Student Community Sharing Event. The project will provide Custom Outdoor Programming with the Chippewa Nature Center, mini-grant funding, a participant stipend, and ongoing support to ensure student learning is based on the MWEE framework and successfully embedded in school priorities.

Wisconsin

Riveredge Nature Center: Water Journeys: Empowering Middle-Schoolers to Improve the Milwaukee River

This project will engage Milwaukee, Wisconsin middle-schoolers and their teachers in watershed education through field experiences, hands-on interactive learning in the Milwaukee River, and by creating an environmental action project. The project will engage six Milwaukee middle schools, for an estimated 360 students and 12 teachers. Each teacher will receive professional development related to experiential learning and watershed education. The Water Journeys program will introduce students and their teachers to meaningful watershed experiences in the classroom, in their local community, and at Riveredge Nature Center. Students will use the knowledge they learned about climate change impacts on their local watershed to develop a project that advocates for improved water quality and addresses environmental watershed issues. Through this project, Riveredge will provide more avenues for youth to access environmental careers, and foster a deeper sense of environmental stewardship in southeastern Wisconsin.

Priority 2: Systemic MWEE Implementation

Ohio

Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District: Implementing Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences in the Tinker's Creek Watershed

This project will empower 20 teachers and all 200 7th-grade students in Bedford City School District to address complex local challenges of environmental health and social justice by using the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) framework. The program will integrate new and existing resources to deliver a menu of training, curricula, and tools to teachers. Teachers will then facilitate a student-centered MWEE process that empowers students to design action projects to address environmental concerns they identify in the watershed with support from the Cuyahoga Conservation District and other community partners. Cuyahoga Conservation District will Implement MWEEs within a sustainable framework that allows for systemic integration through continued support to teachers and students beyond the timeline of this project with professional development, technical support, and mini-grant opportunities.

Priority 3: Capacity building for expanded statewide K-12 environmental literacy initiatives

Michigan

Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative: Advancing K-12 Environmental Literacy through Place-Based Stewardship Education (PBSE) in Michigan and the Great Lakes Region

In this project, the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI) will build capacity for increased K-12 environmental literacy development in Michigan and the Great Lakes region. GLSI will expand access to learning and networking about place-based, watershed-focused education by developing new, scaleable structures for participating in the GLSI and by increasing and enhancing collaboration and coordination among state-level providers of environmental education and related support. GLSI will engage its network and statewide advisory group (35 education leaders), 90 teachers, and 15 community partner organizations, among others. The project will create and pilot scalable structures for (1) educator preparation for MWEEs and placed-based education; (2) connecting educators to local community partners; and (3) community building and networking among geographically dispersed participants. Through these efforts, GLSI and its partners will develop and test new tools to increase access to, and engagement with, MWEEs and PBSE, and reduce barriers to implementation. The project will achieve this work through in-person convenings, virtual workshops and institutes, cohort-based networking, and programming during the 2025 Place-Based Education Conference. The necessary next steps for GLSI and its partners to develop statewide capacity in Michigan for K-12 environmental literacy advancement will be achieved through this project.