Fiscal Year 2023 NOAA California Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program

Overview

California B-WET funds locally relevant, authentic experiential learning for K-12 audiences
through Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs). The MWEE is a learner-centered framework that focuses on investigations into local environmental issues, leads to informed action, and increases environmental literacy. MWEEs are composed of multiple components that include learning both outdoors and in the classroom, and are designed to increase the environmental literacy of all participants by actively engaging students in building knowledge and meaning through hands-on experiences.

While the CA B-WET Program uses the MWEE as the backbone and foundation for
meaningful outdoor experiences, this solicitation does not directly fund MWEE
implementation. This solicitation is focused on building capacity for climate literacy.
However, the ultimate goal is to use MWEEs as a way to teach about our changing climate.

Program Priorities
Build Capacity for Implementing Climate Literacy in Classrooms: 
Our quality of life and, ultimately, our survival depend on our “climate literacy” — our ability to understand, predict and adapt to the reality of a warming planet. Projects proposed through this solicitation should build capacity for county or district-wide K-12 climate literacy initiatives which support the policies and structures necessary to advance climate literacy. 

Proposals should create frameworks, incentives, support systems, and/or drivers for climate literacy to encourage or support systemic planning and implementation in local school districts. Projects should also seek to connect to existing education initiatives like Career and Technical Education (CTE), Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programming, project-based learning, or other efforts/initiatives that already have momentum at the county or district.

Examples of activities that may be funded under this priority include but are not limited to:
1) Developing a district-wide climate literacy strategy, plan, or framework.
2) Building a cadre of formal educators, including Career and Technical Education, to work
across the county or districts, to increase knowledge sharing and communication pathways to
scale best practices for systemic and sustainable climate literacy programming (aka
“Network Weavers”) with an emphasis on reaching underrepresented communities.
3) Creating a climate literacy advisory group to inform decision makers.
4) Building capacity for agencies, organizations, and collaboratives that are working to
modify or enhance existing programs that ultimately support systemic climate education in
classrooms.
5) Supporting and providing resources for key partners to elevate awareness of and the
importance of climate literacy among decision makers, including boards of education,
superintendents, county or district department of education leadership, funders, and others
who create policies, set standards of learning, and make funding decisions to support formal
education (aka “Network Influencers”).

Eligible Applicants
Eligible applicants are K-12 public and independent schools and school systems, institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations, state or local government agencies, interstate agencies, and Indian tribal governments.

Informational webinars