NOAA’s 2012 Ocean Education Partnership Grants

March 27th, 2012 by Sarah

Image courtesy of NOAA - Chesapeake Bay Office.

Chesapeake Bay Education Professionals – Please take a look at the following press release from the NOAA Office of Education.  This is an excellent funding opportunity that could support the professional development and other capacity-building of informal science educators and volunteers in the Chesapeake Bay watershed!

The NOAA Office of Education (OEd) has issued a request for applications for projects designed to expand or develop professional development and other capacity-building activities for informal science educators and volunteers (Funding Opportunity Number NOAA-SEC-OED-2012-2003333). A successful project will utilize the resources of multiple institutions to enhance the capacity of informal science educators and volunteers to engage visitors and promote public understanding and stewardship of coastal, marine, and/or freshwater environments. Eligible applicants are collaborative teams that include at least three (3) non-profit U.S. aquariums, of which at least one must be accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Collaborative teams should involve applicants from multiple U.S. states and are strongly encouraged to include at least one aquarium that has not previously received a grant from NOAA’s Office of Education. There is special interest in collaborative teams that include aquariums representing a wide range of annual operating budgets, total visitorship numbers, and/or physical sizes.

Proposed projects should be between two and five years in duration and have maximum total combined budget requests of $1,000,000 for all years of the project. The deadline for applications is midnight EDT on May 7, 2012.

Two informational webinars with the program officers will occur on March 28, 2012 from 3:00 to 5:00 PM EDT and March 29, 2012, from 3:00 to 5:00 PM EDT. By noon EDT on March 27, 2012, interested applicants should register by contacting oed.grants@noaa.gov and include in the Subject line of the email: “Register for Aquarium Professional Development FFO Webinar” and provide the interested party’s name, institution, telephone number, email address and preferred date in the body of the email. You will receive an email response from oed.grants@noaa.gov with the log-in information and date for the webinar. Whenever possible, individuals from the same institution should try to join the webinar from the same computer/phone line.

For more information about the Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO), please visit www.grants.gov and search under CFDA number 11.008. You may also visit the Office of Education’s Frequently Asked Questions page: www.oesd.noaa.gov/grants/elg/faq_page.html

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Free Webinar on “Field Investigations and STEM” This Week!

March 26th, 2012 by Sarah
http://www.eeweek.org/webinars/field_investigations

Engage your students in outdoor learning about STEM subjects!

In 2012, National Environmental Education Week (EE Week) will be celebrated from April 15-21. The events are kicking off early this year, and this Wednesday, March 28th at 7:00 PM you can join in by participating in a free webinar about “Field Investigations and STEM.”

For this webinar, EE Week will be partnering with the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) and the Pacific Education Institute (PEI) to explore how the schoolyard or local public land can provide students with the opportunity to be scientists using the skills and knowledge of inquiry to collect real-world data.  During the webinar Margaret Tudor and Pat Otto from PEI will provide teachers with information and tools to engage students in STEM learning outside, utilizing nature as a laboratory, by planning, conducting, and evaluating a field investigation.

Webinar participation information will be sent to EE Week 2012 registrants via email. Registration is free and easy and connects you to a national network of educators dedicated to increasing the environmental knowledge of K-12 students.

For additional information on this event, please visit: http://www.eeweek.org/webinars/field_investigations

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

Raising Horseshoe Crabs in My Classroom

March 19th, 2012 by Eric Jayne

In Tank 1, Sandy the Horseshoe crab searches for food.

Horseshoe crabs, as a species, have lived for over 500 million years!  I often remind myself of that fact while observing the months-old horseshoe crabs my students and I are raising in our classroom.  Each school day, we’re able to witness a living fossil, and we’re helping insure that future generations can, too.

Several years ago, I was looking to offer more hands-on learning experiences to my fifth-grade science students.  Our school is a short distance away from the Chesapeake Bay, but we do very little to experience and learn from this tremendous resource.  In the course of researching possible field trips, I discovered that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (D.N.R.) had a program allowing teachers to raise horseshoe crabs in their classrooms. At the time, I didn’t know much about horseshoe crabs, other than that I would occasionally see their awkward-looking shells on the beach.  However, raising an animal from the Bay was the type of hands-on experience I was looking to provide my students with, so I signed up.  Three years and over 60 successfully-raised crabs later, I am extremely grateful and proud to be part of a program that allows my students and me to learn about and protect this valuable natural resource.

Atlantic horseshoe crabs come ashore in late spring to spawn on Atlantic coast beaches, including those within the Chesapeake Bay.  During this time, female horseshoe crabs lay thousands of eggs.  The Maryland D.N.R. collects some of these eggs and distributes several hundred of them to each participant of its Horseshoe Crabs in the Classroom program.  Participants attempt to raise the eggs into healthy juvenile horseshoe crabs that can be released back into the waters of the Bay the following spring.

Each year, for the past three years, I’ve collected eggs from the D.N.R. and brought them to tanks in my classroom.  I monitor the crabs throughout the summer as they hatch, test their water quality, and feed them.  By the time students arrive in September, juvenile horseshoe crabs are “swimming” throughout the tanks.  A colleague of mine, Chris Brown, and I meet with students once a week during recess throughout the school year to learn about horseshoe crabs and to test the water quality of the tanks.  Using guest speakers, hands-on demonstrations, and research, students learn about the history, habitat, anatomy, challenges, benefits, and life cycle of horseshoe crabs.  They learn that horseshoe crabs help save human lives and that other species depend on them for survival, as well.  The learning experience culminates with the exciting release of the raised crabs back into the Chesapeake Bay each May during a D.N.R. sponsored release event.

We have horseshoe crabs throughout four tanks in our school.  Tank 1 contains three crabs from my first year (2009) with the program.  We didn’t release these crabs that year because they were very small compared to their siblings, two of them were missing tails, and one of them was even missing some legs.  However, after numerous molts, or shedding of their shells, the crabs have all of their legs and tails accounted for.  The largest of these crabs, or Sandy, as my students call it, measures about five inches from front to tail tip.  Tanks 2 and 3 contain several juvenile crabs that hatched last summer.  These “baby” crabs are no bigger than the end of an eraser on a pencil.  Tank 4 contains eighteen crabs that hatched in the summer of 2010, and they range in size from the diameter of a dime to the diameter of a fifty-cent piece.  Most of these crabs will be put back into the Chesapeake Bay this May to join the twenty-nine other horseshoe crabs that we’ve already released.

I’ve gained a lot from raising horseshoe crabs in my classroom, including learning to appreciate and respect them.  Of course, I’ve learned how to care for them, but they don’t really need much from me.  After all, they’ve been at this for longer than people have.  Most of my time is spent enjoying them and admiring how unique they are.  I enjoy the way that the three-year old crabs come out to “greet” me when I turn the lights on each morning.  I like watching them make patterns in the sand, including flattening out areas that I’ve disturbed.  I’m fascinated at how two of the three-year-olds re-grew legs and tails, but most of all, I’m in awe that a creature can be so simple and yet so amazing.

Additional Resources:

A Pointers Run Elementary School student holds a juvenile horseshoe crab on the day of its release back into the wild in May, 2011.

  • Additional information about my school’s program can be found at our website.
  • Information on the Maryland D.N.R. Raising Horseshoe Crabs in the Classroom program is available here.
  • A great Nature video clip from “Crash: A Tale of Two Species” about the plight of the horseshoe crab and a little bird called the red knot is available here.
  • A free teachers guide to accompany the “Crash: A Tale of Two Species” video is available here.
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Eric Jayne is a 5th grade teacher at Pointers Run Elementary School in Maryland.

Funding Fun: Spring 2012 Environmental Education Grants

March 12th, 2012 by Sarah

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species is requesting proposals to develop environmental education about aquatic invasive species, such as Phragmites, an invasive marsh plant that grows throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.

Finding funding to support environmental education can be a real challenge and identifying applicable grants can be a hassle.  To help you kick-start the process of getting your classroom project off the ground, we here at Bay Backpack have identified some great grant opportunities that are about to fly by. Some of these grants are not directly related to environmental or Chesapeake Bay education, but all could be used to support it. Be sure to note the submission deadlines, and good luck with your applications!

2012-2013 Source Water Education Projects Grants (Pennsylvania Only)

Through its Water Resources Education Network (WREN) Project, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania Citizen Education Fund (LWVPA-CEF) will accept proposals and award funding for source water protection education projects sponsored by community based partnerships that educate, build awareness, and promote water-sustaining public policies and/or behavior change. Grants of up to $7,000 will be awarded for County or regional projects to take place July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013. Applications are due by March 23, 2012.

Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching K-6th Grade

The Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching are the Nation’s highest honors for teachers of mathematics and science. Awardees serve as models for their colleagues, inspiration to their communities, and leaders in the improvement of mathematics and science education. The 2012 Awards will honor math and science teachers working in grades K-6. Nominations are due by April 1, 2012, and teacher applications are due by May 1, 2012.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species 2012 Request for Proposals

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Panel on Aquatic Invasive Species (MAP) is announcing its 2012 request for proposals.   The mission of the MAP is to assist state and federal agencies and other stakeholders in developing and implementing strategic, coordinated, and action-oriented approaches to preventing and controlling aquatic invasive species in the mid-Atlantic region.  The driving force behind MAP’s mission is to strengthen cooperation, coordination, and communication on AIS issues within the region and beyond.  This year one of MAP’s big focuses is on education (developing programs and curricula about aquatic invasive species or evaluating the effectiveness of existing programs) and behavior change. The MAP encourages broad participation from groups and individuals concerned about aquatic invasive species issues in the mid-Atlantic region.  The deadline for proposal submissions is April 2, 2012.

2012 Community Tree Planting Mini Grant Program (Anne Arundel County, MD only)

The Anne Arundel County Forest Conservancy District Board and the Chesapeake Bay Trust are partnering to provide small community-based grants (less than $1,000) to help communities and organizations in Anne Arundel County, Maryland plant native trees, increase tree canopy, remove invasive species, and engage citizens in those activities.  This grant can also be used to help re-forest school ground spaces.  This could create an excellent schoolyard habitat in which educators could engage their students in learning about environmental restoration, local ecology, forest succession, and more, right in their own schoolyard!  Applications are due by May 1, 2012.

Captain Planet Foundation Grants

These grants are intended to promote and support high-quality educational programs that enable children and youth to understand and appreciate our world through learning experiences that engage them in active, hands-on projects to improve the environment in their schools and communities. Grants are limited to $2,500 and preferential consideration is given to requests seeking seed funding of $500 or less and to applicants who have secured at least 50% matching or in-kind funding for their projects. Applications are due by May 31, 2012.

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.

EPA State School Environmental Health Guidelines

March 5th, 2012 by Sarah

Submit your comments on the draft K-12 School Environmental Health Program Guidelines by April 13, 2012!

Last week, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its new, draft guidelines for the voluntary adoption of environmental health programs by K-12 schools. The goal of these guidelines is to provide a comprehensive framework for improving the health and well-being of students by creating and sustaining healthy, safe, and productive school environments.  The intent of these guidelines ties in very nicely with the U.S. Department of Education’s Green Ribbon Schools program, which identifies “Healthy School Environments” as one of its three pillars that will be assessed in the selection of recognized schools for the first time this year.

The Guidelines

Specifically, the State K-12 School Environmental Health Program Guidelines recommend six steps that states and tribes can take to establish key partnerships to maximize resources in their efforts to develop sustainable school environmental health programs. They also summarize the cost savings and health benefits associated with adopting a school environmental health program; highlight incentives for states and tribes to work with school districts to encourage the adoption of healthy schools practices; and provide links to numerous resources to help states and tribes establish, implement and sustain comprehensive state and tribal K-12 school environmental health programs.

The EPA is currently seeking public comments on these guidelines to facilitate their continued development.  The 45-day public comment period for this draft document will close at 4:00 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time (EDT) on April 13, 2012. For information on how to submit your comments, please refer to the EPA State School Environmental Health Guidelines website.

The Funding Opportunity

To support the implementation of the strategies outlined in the draft voluntary K-12 School Environmental Health Program Guidelines, the EPA has announced the release of a Request for Applications (RFA) that will provide funding to eligible states, tribes and/or territories.  The total funding available for this opportunity is expected to be $750,000 and applications for up to $150,000 will be accepted.  The closing date for receipt of applications is April 10.  For more information or to provide comments on the draft guidelines, visit:  www.epa.gov/schools.

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Sarah Brzezinski works for the Chesapeake Research Consortium as the Chesapeake Bay Program's Fostering Stewardship and Education Workgroup Team Staffer. She also serves as the content manager of Bay Backpack.