ALASKA
Homer Soil & Water Conservation District- $9,000
4014 Lake Street, Suite 201
Homer, Alaska 99603
Bridget Paule – (907) 235-8177, ext. 5
Training Alaska’s Youth
A Natural Resource Career Development Program - This grant designs and implements an environmental and natural resource field career development curriculum module to be tested in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District high schools’ natural resources technology class. 30-40 students in grades 9-12 with outreach to about 20 additional students at two nearby schools are involved in the project. The curriculum is specific to Alaska’s unique environmental and natural career needs and can be offered as a model program that could be implemented across Alaska by other school districts and education organizations. The grant targets at getting students to choose natural resource careers and stay in Alaska following college graduation. The curriculum includes classroom instruction, guest speakers, field trips, attending statewide conferences, internships, community service, and
individual projects.
Takshanuk Watershed Council - $9,325
P.O. Box 1029
Haines, Alaska 99827
Tim Shields – (907) 766-3542
Nature Studies Outdoor Education Expansion for Haines Borough
This project educates 120 3rd -8th grade students about local environmental issues, individual choices and their affects on the watershed. It provides six educators with an expanded existing environmental education curriculum from nine study units to 20 units with a focus on increasing activities for middle school grades. It also introduces students to the work of professional and technical scientists to encourage environmental careers. Each “nature studies” unit consists of a pre-lesson in the classroom, an in depth field lesson or a series of lessons, and at least one follow-up analysis lesson back in the classroom. Topics of the lessons include juvenile fish trapping, identification and mapping, trash collection and revegetation, and distribution of plants and animals in the watershed.
IDAHO
Bonneville County Historical Society (with Museum of Idaho ) - $9,800
200 N. Eastern Avenue
Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402
Bonnie Jacobsen – (208) 528-1400
Rocky Mountain Adventure
This project expands an existing summer youth camp for 6-12 graders to include a week dedicated to 40 teachers. Children from the Fort Hall Indian Reservation and the migrant Hispanic population are included in the youth camp. The camp includes field trips to the diverse ecosystems of eastern Idaho, classroom instruction at the Museum of Idaho, role-playing, and other interactive activities. These activities emphasize how teachers can use their local environment to bring education environmental principals to their students. Teachers receive credit for attending the camp.
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare- $30,000
450 West State Street – 6th floor
Boise, Idaho 83720-0036
Kara Stevens – (208) 332-7319
Environmental Education – Curriculum Workshops
This grant is an environmental health teacher training program to design, test, and then implement 10 “Teach the Teacher” workshops for 500 middle and high school health and science teachers across the state of Idaho. The focus of the training is on specific environmental health concerns in the state, such as arsenic exposure, nitrates in groundwater, hazardous waste disposal, diesel exhaust exposure, and others. Any existing environmental health curricula used in the workshops aligns with Idaho state learning requirements. Teachers receive credit offered by Boise State University.
OREGON
Friends of Zenger Farm - $9,800
11741 SE Foster Road
Portland, Oregon 97266
Wisteria Loeffler – (503) 282-4245
Grow Wise Youth Education Program
This program takes 1,000 K-12 students in disadvantaged South Portland neighborhoods to a working urban farm and wetland for hands-on wetland delineation, water quality testing, insect monitoring, garden planning and maintenance, science inquiry projects, seed exploration, composting, etc. Students learn about the ecological impacts of agriculture, importance of species diversity and watershed health, and how food and energy choices impact the environment. The farm staff participates in classroom pre- and post-program visits to prepare for or follow-up on-farm programming.
Portland State University -$9,550
Center for Science Education
P.O. Box 751
Portland, Oregon 97207-0751
Dr. Julie Smith – (503) 725-4252
Walking Softly
This grant is to create a four-day summer teacher workshop in the Portland area. The workshop introduces K-12 teachers who do field based curriculum to incorporate low impact protocols, thereby reducing potential damage to fragile urban ecosystems from high-density usage. Prior to the workshop, the grantee designs an in-class activity to increase student awareness of their impact on the environment during field trips. This workshop introduces the teachers to the in-class activity and how to model low impact usage through case study field trips of four different ecosystems. On the field trips, teachers learn about a given ecosystem and site-specific techniques to reduce impacts. The teachers see accessible natural spaces available for field trips close to their schools, share field based curriculum, and provide follow-up assessment of the workshop impact. The project encourages the teachers to discuss ways to raise student capacity to be successful in environmentally sensitive ways.
Education Environmental Association of Oregon (EEAO) - $30,000
133 SW 2nd Avenue, Suite 307
Portland, Oregon 97204
Linda Rhoads – (503) 234-3326
Professional Environmental Education Certification Program Development
This program formalizes the environmental education profession through the development of a state approved certification program for teachers, college and university faculty and non-formal educators. The State Department of Education identified this need. The grantee plans to look at certification programs that other states have adopted. The project improves the quality of environmental education by defining the critical skills and knowledge in natural resource subject areas and teaching methodology necessary for delivery of effective environmental education; clarifies key competencies; programs a mechanism for evaluating performance; and establishes a process for improvement. EEAO holds forums around the state to continue developing stakeholder commitment and support. The grantee researches existing curricula and aligns it with certification program requirements, carries out administrative requirements for a state-approved program, and establishes EEAO as the accrediting body for the state-approved EE certification program.
Beaverton School District - $43,325
16550 SW Merlo Road
Beaverton, Oregon 97006
Steve Day – (503) 591-4115
District-wide “Marmot Dam Removal Study
This grant conducts teacher training and a student study of the eco-system change in the pre-and post-dam removal. This project takes advantage of a dramatic, one-time event in the life of the Beaverton community to inspire environmental study and stewardship. 10 K-12 teachers from across the district per year for 3 years are to be involved as well as 800 students in a comprehensive watershed-monitoring program in the area surrounding and affects by the removal of the Marmot Dam in 2007. The project also includes building a database of watershed ecology parameters - before, during, and after the dam removal - that will be accessible to the public.
Cascadia Region Green Building Council - $20,000
721 NE Ninth Avenue, Suite 300
Portland, Oregon 97209
Glen Gilbert – (503) 228-5533
“High Performance Green Building: Weighing the Options”
This grantee plans to coordinate a series of workshops entitled “High Performance Green Building: Weighing the Options” to teach 500 commercial and residential building design and construction professionals how to evaluate the costs and benefits inherent in high performance buildings. This Portland program expands to Seattle, and the City of Seattle is a partner in the project. Participants learn how to measure potential construction cost premiums against savings generated over a building’s life cycle. The participants are better able to evaluate choices in materials, equipment, and building techniques in order to build in a manner that is both environmentally sustainable and economically profitable.
WASHINGTON
Port Townsend Marine Science Society-$10,000 (funded under EPA’s Puget Sound Cooperative Agreement)
532 Battery Way
Port Townsend, Washington 98368
Anne Murphy – (360) 385-5582 x 102
This project provides additional laboratory equipment for its hands-on-sea-water-research and science lab project. The project is a collaborative effort with Olympia Region Harmful Algal Bloom Partnership and Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program. This additional equipment allows the lab to participate in two local research projects collecting data on harmful algal blooms and the dissolved oxygen problems in Hood Canal. The grantee trains teachers, students, and local volunteers to use the monitoring equipment. The monitoring activities are grade appropriate at all levels and include individual student initiated inquiry projects. Other activities in the grant are teacher training on monitoring and remote sensing techniques, site visits for students, and pre- and post field trip classroom activities.
Pacific Northwest
Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources - $10,000
121 Hickory Street – Suite 2
Missoula, Montana 59801
Frank Allen – (406) 543-3812
Salmon Country Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources – This project educates journalists about agriculture, forestry, and water quality so that they are able to report more accurately and with more depth. Participants study logging practices, watershed-restoration projects, dams, and agricultural operations on several field experiences into coastal parts of Oregon, Washington, and Canada. They talk with more than 40 experts who can provide knowledge on all aspects of environmental issues. The Institute follows-up the training with individualized professional coaching and mentoring that lasts for at least one year. Better journalism expands and reinforces public understanding of these issues.