New England B-WET recognizes the unique cultural, economic, and environmental issues New England communities face and seeks to fund projects that build capacity for environmental literacy in K-12 schools using the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE) framework. Current projects engage teachers in professional development, while providing students with outdoor experiential learning opportunities.
New! 2023 Award Recipients
Maine
- Maine Audubon Society. $127,126.00. Penobscot Classrooms: An Integrated Approach to Community Science. Working with Bangor public school’s entire 5th grade class, Maine Audubon and their community partners will help students and teachers explore the environmental and cultural landscapes of the Penobscot River watershed, New England’s second largest river system.
- Sunrise County Economic Council and the Downeast Fishing Partnership. $145,382.00. Reconnecting Downeast Maine's Watersheds and Communities. This project brings together many different community partners and 5 different downeast Maine elementary schools to better understand the multiple dimensions surrounding fish passage and habitat connectivity - especially as they pertain to, building climate change resilience, potential outcomes from restoration projects, and how values, culture, and tradition impact each person’s views surrounding watershed restoration.
New Hampshire
- University of New Hampshire. $149,514.00. Seabrook, NH. New Hampshire Schools Saltmarsh Ecosystem Exploration (NH Schools SEE). UNH will continue to build on a previous B-WET award to help Seabrook Middle School to build student and teacher understanding of their local salt marsh ecosystem, habitat protection, and resiliency. This program will work with partners to develop a team of field docents who support teachers in creating sustainable, long-term field experience curriculum development and implementation.
Massachusetts
- Buzzards Bay Coalition. $149,134.00. Harvesting Hope in Buzzards Bay: Empowering Wareham Youth through Aquaculture-focused MWEEs. Wareham (MA) Public School students will be given the opportunity to effect positive change in their community by providing a district-wide program where students and teachers will explore how local blue economies, such as shellfish aquaculture, can provide a natural solution to climate-change and nitrogen pollution in their watershed.
- Hitchcock Center for the Environment. $58,510.00. Inspiring Creative Problem-Solving in Our Watershed. This project will connect partners and multiple rural schools within the Connecticut River Valley in Western Massachusetts focusing on watershed based community-based action, civic engagement learning, and community resilience engineering design challenges that draw from NOAA’s Climate Education toolkit.
Connecticut
- Bridgeport City School District. $73,967.00. Rooster River Watershed Warriors: Local Watershed Experience and Education for Bridgeport's Youth. This project will develop and implement teacher workshops to train five teachers (grades 5-8) at Geraldine Clayton Magnet Academy, to introduce inquiry-based classroom activities to their grade level classrooms. Field experiences will explore climate change and human impacts on the local Rooster River watershed and local communities, and how informed-decision making and stewardship actions can help create positive change.
Continuing Projects
The following projects are still underway.
2022
- Massachusetts Audubon. Lincoln, MA. Rivers to Sea Anywhere, Anytime Watershed Education
- Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at Basin Harbor. Vergennes, VT. Learning from the Lake
2021
- Interdistrict Committee for Project Oceanology, Groton, CT, Project Oceanology Outdoor Learning Alliance
- EdAdvance, Litchfield, CT, Blue Science
- Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research, Cohasset, MA, Moving MWEE to the Summer Months
- New England Science & Sailing Foundation, Stonington, CT, Ocean Experiential Learning Program
2019
- Save the Bay, Providence, RI, Salt Marsh Nursery Program: How Do You Enhance Coastal Resilience in Narragansett Bay
- Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT, Finding Our Way: Building a College-Ready STEM Pipeline for At-Risk High School Youth Through Watershed Stewardship
Past Projects
2020
- Gulf of Maine Institute, West Newbury, MA, Bringing Community-Based Stewardship to the Gulf of Maine
2019
- Buzzards Bay Coalition, New Bedford, MA, Discover Buzzards Bay: Providing Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences for New Bedford Youth
- Sound Waters, Inc., Stamford, CT, One Million Bottle Caps: Meaningful Environmental Education and Stewardship for Middle School Students and Teachers
- Interdistrict Committee of Project Oceanology, Groton, CT, Rising Waters: The Thames River Resilience Project - To Engage Students, Teachers, and Community Members to Promote Environmental Stewardship and Improve Community Resilience in the Thames River Basin
- University of New Hampshire. Seabrook, NH. New Hampshire American Eel Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) Program
2017
- Save the Bay. Narragansett bay field studies: how healthy is your local urban system?
- Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Building sustainable regional capacity to advance environmental literacy
- Massachusetts Audubon. Delivering meaningful watershed and fish experiences through science for solution
- Soundwaters, Inc. Long Island Sound Oyster Investigation
2016
- Bridgewater State University. Stormwater stewards: protecting and restoring fisheries through watershed stewardship
- Western CT State University. Finding our way: an experiential watershed learning program for middle school children and families
- EdAdvance. Blue Science: Monitoring Sea and sky at long island sound and in Housatonic River Watershed
2015
- Gulf of Maine Institute. Learning to steward the Gulf
- Salem Sound Coastwatch. School to Sea in Salem
2013
- Lake Champlain Maritime Heritage Museum. The Lake Champlain Maritime Museums on the water ecology teacher education program
- University of RI. The Smile program watershed monitoring and stewardship project
- Save the Bay. Discover the Narragansett Bay Watershed: A pilot marine science program for providence 4th grade teachers and their students
- University of Maine. Future of four seasons in Maine: a scientist-teacher-student partnership to investigate climate change in seasonally snow-covered watersheds
- Gloucester Maritime Heritage. Cape Anne Explorers
- Strugis Charter Public School. Waquoit Bay as a National Lab: training the next generation of environmental stewards of Cape Cod
- Salem Sound Coastwatch. School to Sea
- EdAdvance. Project Periphyton
2012
- Westport River Watershed Alliance. Dune Restoration Project
- Center for Coastal Studies. Cape Cod Watershed Experience
2010
- Friends of Casco Bay. Casco Bay Curriculum
- Acadia Partners for Science and Learning. Acadia BWET
- New England Aquarium. Get Wet in New England: Ocean literacy through watershed education and training
- Cohasset Center for Student Coastal Research. Finding the nexus of school, community, government in the watershed
- EdAdvance. Project Periphyton
- Soundwaters Inc. Long Island sound watershed educational experience
2009
- Gloucester Maritime Heritage. Watershed Investigation Program
- Sturgis Charter Public School. Estuary is a natural laboratory
- Soundwaters Inc. Long Island sound watershed educational experience
2008
- Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Vital Venture: Immersing Middle School Learners in authentic aquatic science investigations
- Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. Teachers on the Estuary (TOTE)
- Quebec-Labrador Foundation. Muscongus Bay Watershed Questing Program
- New Haven Urban Resource Initiative. UWET Urban Watershed Educators Training
- Project Oceanology. Building New England connections
