Book: The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas

When: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 | 7:00 PM ET 

Upcoming meeting dates, book selections, and how to log into our meeting are found in the Book Club Section of our Upcoming Events Page.

You can find over 50 fiction, non-fiction, and Young Adult selections from past Book Clubs - with discussion questions, on our Book Club Archive Page.

Catch up on some knowledge, enjoy a quick fun read, or find a book to use with your students, there’s something for everyone at the NOAA Planet Stewards Book Club!

Looking for an inspiring way to engage your students – or entire school in hands-on stewardship? – and be funded by NOAA Planet Stewards? Read Increasing Biodiversity by Replacing Lawn With Prairie Plants and learn how students at Little Miami middle school in Ohio created a native prairie landscape on a school-site yard where there was once only a 2.75-acre lawn. Students worked with community members to research planting and maintenance of prairie plants. After installation, students were able to track an increase in biodiversity of plants and animals over a four-year span. They also compared the biomass of lawn and prairie and calculated the savings of carbon emissions due to a reduction of mowing.

If you're looking for educational resources or ideas to plug into your academic planning, check out archived issues of The Watch! Our team has reviewed all content for use by educators working to increase their ocean, climate, and environmental awareness and that of the individuals they work with.

If you have an item you'd like to share with our education community, email us at: oceanserviceseducation@noaa.gov. Be sure to include:

• Event or Item announcement title
• Date and time if applicable
• One paragraph description
• Clear thumbnail image
• Link for more information

The Presidio Graduate School K12 Climate Education Program provides FREE professional development for teachers focused on teaching about climate change. Each course gives K-12 educators the knowledge, skills and resources to successfully incorporate the topic into their classroom, from the basics to the deeper topic of climate justice. Learn more and enroll today!

This is the seventh educational summit hosted by the Smithsonian Science Center which supports over 100 teams to develop a strategy to increase the prevalence of educators of color in STEM classrooms through more inclusive and culturally relevant hiring and retention practices.  

At the Summit, 20 teams of educators will create logic models for attracting and retaining STEM teachers from underrepresented populations at the school, district, or state-level.  Following the Summit, select teams are supported by mentors to implement the action plans described in their logic model in the subsequent school year. Learn more and submit your team application.

The Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington, D.C., will hold a series of free three-day professional development workshops where teachers will learn and practice strategies for using primary sources with K–12 students. In each session, LOC education specialists will model a variety of hands-on, inquiry-based teaching strategies for using primary sources to engage students, build critical-thinking skills, construct knowledge, and launch original research. The workshops are aimed at educators across many disciplines, including science, social studies/history, English language arts, art, and music. Librarians and curriculum/professional development specialists also may apply.

Information session: Wed., January 18 | 7-8 pm ET

Session dates: July  10-21, 2023 

Application Deadline: February 15, 2023

Middle school teachers spend two weeks in Washington, D.C., working with education and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) experts to explore the connections between informal STEAM education and authentic learning as part of the museum’s Teacher Innovator Institute (TII). Set goals for your own professional development, acquire the skills to incorporate museum learning into your practice, and meet colleagues from around the country. Teachers will participate at no charge, and most expenses will be paid by the museum. Join educators from the museum and current TII teachers for an informational webinar session to get tips for completing your application and learn more about the program.

Hey teachers! It’s time for you to have a terrific time getting your hands dirty exploring physical oceanography and weather!  The American Meteorological Society's 2023 summer courses, Project Ocean and Project Atmosphere, are accepting applications through 24 March, 2023. These competitive professional development courses are open to K-12 teachers and include online and in-person components and field experiences. All travel expenses are covered and participants receive stipends and earn graduate credit upon successful completion of the courses. Don’t miss this chance to learn from the experts, connect with other outstanding teachers, and have the earth science experience of a lifetime! Learn more and apply!.

You can help others understand climate change and inspire people to take action through art. Youth ages 13-17 are invited to submit artwork related to the topic of climate, people, and nature. Winning artists will be featured in the chapters of the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which is seen by hundreds of thousands of people across the country and around the world. Learn more!

NOAA  has launched the “Picture Climate Change'' student photo contest and is looking for images showing climate change in the United States. This contest is a chance for students to showcase their climate change experience through the lens of a camera, and provide a short written narrative. The narrative should describe the student’s climate change photo, provide a short story about how the climate variability, change, or resilience is captured in the image, or describe how climate change will impact their local community and future. Details are available here. 

Participants will be create a one-minute video outlining an innovative solution to a current environmental issue that they’re passionate about. Winning videos will be selected to receive cash prizes, and an invitation to the iconic National Geographic Explorers Festival in Washington, D.C.

Students ages 13-18 and educators looking to engage young people around environmental action are encouraged to sign up. Participation is free!

Using the following resources, students will learn about the relationship between extreme weather events and climate while exploring how these events are predicted.

Resources:

• Activity: Extreme weather on Earth
• Video: Does Climate Change Cause Extreme Weather?
• Article: How climate change affects tornado season — and how it doesn’t

This activity from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History helps K–8 students practice the skill of recording observations. The activity includes a digital field book template to use or copy, as well as additional information about the evolution of the use of field books in science and tips for maximizing students’ observation skills in the field. For example, teachers can jump start students’ thinking with the activity’s provided Guiding Questions to Encourage Observations and Discussion.

Green Guardians, a California-based educational technology company, has developed an environmental literacy curriculum for grades K–5. The curriculum consists of a series of multimedia lessons and games exploring topics such as pollution, climate change, sustainability, energy, watersheds, waste management, and environmental justice. The lessons use a story base to engage students in learning about their environment, and through inquiry and problem-solving, devise solutions to the problems they study.

Lessons on Climate Change, Evolution and Nature of Science

The National Center for Science Education is celebrating its 40th anniversary of providing classroom resources created and tested by teachers from around the United States. View this comprehensive teacher tested set of lessons on Climate Change, Evolution and Nature of Science.

The Ocean Optimism podcast shares little known stories of ocean conservation successes. While the ocean is facing unprecedented challenges, we are also making great strides in ocean conservation efforts. It is often the greatest challenges that lead to the greatest opportunities. So let’s not just talk about the problems but the solutions too. Join host, marine biologist, and science storyteller, Ellen Spooner, as she interviews scientists, activists, and leaders about how they are working together to take care of our ocean. Episodes drop on the last Monday of the month. Check out more ocean optimism at www.oceanoptimism.org/

This film begins with phenomena linked to climate change, examines how Earth’s temperature is controlled, how we know it is changing, and how the current changes compare to those over the last 800,000 years. We meet scientists working at the forefront of climate change who explain how we know what we know about Earth’s changing climate and make the critical point that we can solve climate challenges.

What if we didn't have to spend any money on the things we need, and could instead get them from our neighbors and build a stronger community in the process? When Liesl Clark and Rebecca Rockefeller started the Buy Nothing Project. With hundreds of groups around the world now, the infrastructure of Buy Nothing could transform our economy into one where resources are cycled rather than wasted. Liesl & Rebecca were propelled to Buy Nothing by two motivating factors: Liesl's beach cleanups full of plastic, and Rebecca's status as a newly single mother of 2 struggling to feed her kids. They invited their neighbors to join them in simply asking each other for whatever they needed before buying, and soon it became a way of life for their entire community. Check out the video!

SubjectToClimate is a nonprofit online connector for K-12 teachers of all subjects to find credible, unbiased, and engaging materials on climate change at no cost. Their goal is to enhance climate change knowledge and inspire action by making climate change teaching and learning accessible to all.

Check out the Welcome to SubjectToClimate Video to learn more about SubjectToClimate.

The NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program grant competitions are open now! The B-WET program promotes place-based experiential learning for K-12 students and professional development for teachers. This year’s competitions emphasise climate change education. Competitions are now open in California, Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, New England, and the Pacific Northwest.  Check out the website to learn more.

NOAA invites qualified small businesses to submit proposals for research and development of highly innovative technologies that have strong commercial potential and fit within NOAA mission areas. Topics for this year’s solicitation include 1) Extreme Events and Cascading Hazards, 2) Coastal Resilience, 3) The Changing Ocean, 4) Water Availability, Quality, and Risk, 5) Effects of Space Weather, and 6) Monitoring and Modeling for Climate Change Mitigation.

To be eligible to submit a Phase I application, small businesses must submit a required Letter of Intent via this form. NOAA Phase I SBIR awards provide up to $175,000 with up to a six (6) month period of performance for conducting feasibility and proof of concept research, with a tentative award start date of August 1, 2023.

 For more information on this solicitation, visit the NOAA SBIR website or contact the NOAA SBIR Program via email at noaa.sbir@noaa.gov.

Fund for Teachers 2023 Fellowship

Application Deadline: January 19, 2023

Fund for Teachers provides grant money to full-time, classroom teachers (up to $5000 per individual teacher, up to $10,000 for a team) to design and execute their own summer learning experience.  The money can be used to create your own learning experience or to attend a conference/professional development that already exists.  Full-time teachers (who are in at least their third year of teaching), anywhere in the US can apply.  Learn more and apply.

Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) is seeking applicants for their Summer 2023 Marine Conservation Internship. This program will start on May 30 and end on August 11 2023. The application deadline is March 12 2023. Visit www.REEF.org/internship for complete information on how to apply. REEF provides housing and a $200 monthly stipend to each selected Marine Conservation Intern. Reliable transportation is required for this program.