Profiles of Environmental Education Grants Awarded to Organizations in Minnesota
- Indicates a Headquarters grant
Independent School District #625 $35,324
Rebekah Doyle, 360 Colborne Street, St. Paul, MN 55102
Integrating Environmental Education into Instruction
The Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) District in Minnesota integrates an environmental learning program called Belwin Outdoor Science (BOS) to target fifteen K-12 schools, specifically 3rd and 5th grades. SPPS student demographics show that 76% of the student population are of color, 36% are English Language Learners (ELL), and 71% are enrolled in the reduced/free lunch program. Between 2009 and 2010, SPPS district scores for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) exam were at a 27% proficiency level. SPPS's project leverages BOS as a training platform for teachers to utilize an integrated method of outdoor classroom management and environmental education content that is present in the Minnesota state science standards. The broad program goal includes developing an extensive outdoor education learning format for instructors/teachers and students. Trained teachers use BOS as part of an annual science focused field trip with their respective classes. Field trip plans can include students’ observations of school yard or green space vegetation and wildlife. Through BOS, the goal is to increase scientific understanding and skills in urban students' by utilizing the outdoors as a science laboratory, triggering an increase in students' MCA science test scores.
Regents of University of Minnesota $44,155
Elizabeth Rumsey, 200 Oak Street, Minneapolis, MN 55455
School Forest Carbon Sequestration Pilot
The School Forest Carbon Sequestration Pilot challenges students from five Minnesota high schools to use inquiry-based methods to explore and assess climate change in a local context as they investigate the carbon sequestration rate of their school's forest. The curriculum guides students through development of recommendations to maximize carbon sequestration in their school forest and extrapolation of results to the greater landscape. Students assess how their stewardship plan, if implemented across the watershed, might affect local and regional carbon budgets and human systems such as public health, the local economy, and recreation. To learn the curriculum and strategies for implementation, teachers from the selected schools attend a 2-day summer training. Local experts including climatologists, ecologists, and foresters visit each school monthly as a part of the curriculum. The best student project is presented at the State School Forest Conference to inspire others in the community. This program empowers students on their path to environmentally literate citizenship.
Wilderness Inquiry $115,500
Sarah Milligan-Toffler, 808 14th Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis, MN 55414
Urban Wilderness Canoe Adventures
Through an innovative classroom and fieldwork curriculum, Urban Wilderness Canoe Adventures seeks to improve middle school student academic performance in science and language arts and help schools meet their education improvement goals. Academically underperforming middle-school students from all three major metro area summer school programs study the Mississippi River from a canoe, discuss environmental issues, and participate in experiential classes that are extensions of topics being covered in traditional classroom lessons. To help students develop concrete ways of protecting the river and adjacent wetlands, teachers and students develop and execute a service learning project where the students assess how the community interacts with the river. In preparation for the classes, teacher workshops are held to fully integrate the topics with traditional lesson plans. Educators from the Minneapolis Public Schools and the National Park Service develop a draft curriculum for 5th through 8th grade students designed to build an understanding of the Mississippi River. Key partners in the effort include the University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, Minneapolis Public Schools, St. Paul Public Schools, and the Department of Interior's National Park Service. Key partners include the Minneapolis Public School District, the Mississippi River National Park and Recreation Area of the National Park Service, St. Paul School District, and the University of Minnesota's Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement.
Red Lake Band reservation of Chippewa Indiana $34,227
Jenilynn Bohm, P.O. Box 550, Red Lake, MN 56671
Water Festival and GLOBE
The 5th Grade Water Festival and Citizen Science Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program promotes environmental stewardship, science skills, and environmental literacy. It also sparks an interest in environmental careers through education on non-point source pollution, water quality and water monitoring on the reservation. Students learn about aquatic invertebrates, groundwater, the water cycle, and soils. The achievements of this project include integrated community stewardship of the watershed; the connection of people with nature; increased understanding of the watershed size, pollutant sources, and natural resource environmental issues; and improved teacher training and involvement on environmental concerns. The water festival introduces students to climate change and key water quality concepts such as the water cycle, watersheds, land use practices and run-off, and contaminants in fish. Teaching students the value of clean water and the impacts of water quality degradation on habitat are valuable steps to promoting community stewardship.
Regents of the University of Minnesota $67,520
Jeffrey Corney, 450 McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Improving Ecological Literacy in Central Minnesota
The University of Minnesota's Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve uses training and field-based learning activities to provide ecological science education to high school-level teachers and students. These activities enhance student and teacher understanding of complex ecological concepts and the practice of sound scientific methodology. As part of the project, teachers attend a 2-day intensive workshop that combines ecological science content and environmental education pedagogy. The goal of the workshop is to provide teachers with a foundation in how EE can be used effectively to teach Minnesota's academic standards. After the workshop, teachers take students on a full-day field trip to the Cedar Creek Ecosystem Reserve to implement hands-on, critical thinking lessons in environmental education. The reserve provides students with equipment and instruments for conducting environmental tests at the site. Through this field-based experience, students learn about aquatic and terrestrial ecology and the human impact on water quality and the ecosystem. This project is conducted in partnership with four Central Minnesota school districts: Anoka-Hennepin, Forest Lake, St. Francis, and Cambridge-Isanti.
Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs $15,000
Julia Nerbonne, 2233 University Avenue W, Suite 210, St. Paul, MN 55114
Environment and Agriculture
The Higher Education Consortium for Higher Affairs offers a 2-week immersion course for undergraduate students in environment and agriculture. The program offered in the spring focuses on connections among agriculture, sustainability, and global environmental justice. During the first week, students explore environmental themes as a group through reading, discussions, and group field trips to select farms. During the second week, students participate in a 3-day farm stay, where they use a set of guided questions to better understand the day-to-day challenges of running a sustainable farm. After the farm stay, students explore how farming relates to urban sustainability in Minnesota and abroad.
Proctor Public Schools ISD 704 $44,446
Diane Podgornik, 131 9th Ave, Proctor, MN 55810
Lake Superior Youth Symposium
A Lake Superior Youth symposium for middle and high school students throughout the Lake Superior watershed is hosted by Proctor Public Schools. The goal of the symposium is to enhance the ability and motivation of middle and high school students and teachers to understand and act on the environmental issues that face Lake Superior, both now and in the future. To accomplish the goal, students explore hands-on investigations, field trips, challenge courses, workshops, and exhibits. Through educator workshops, teacher and parent chaperones obtain new knowledge and problem-solving skills that can be integrated into their work with young people. Model student groups are invited to make presentations on projects they have implemented in the local communities around Lake Superior to inspire participants to do the same after the symposium.
Eco Education $15,000
Kathy Kinzig, 509 Sibley Street, #375, St. Paul, MN 55101
High School Urban Environmental Education Initiative
The project builds on a successful 2001 grant that focused on workshops for teachers in grades 5 through 8 to build their knowledge of current urban environmental issues and apply it to environmental service-learning and issue investigation in the classroom. The model is expanded to local high schools and provides teachers the opportunity to learn, practice, and teach the skills and components of service-learning, issue investigation, making and keeping community contacts, and facilitating youth leadership in environmental issues, thus acquiring proficiency to eventually conduct projects on their own. The goal is to assist teachers in exposing students to and involving them in addressing current environmental issues that face their communities and the State of Minnesota. The primary audience is teachers in grades 9 through 12 from Minneapolis and St. Paul schools. Eco Education’s program coordinators and community resource partners work with individual teachers and their classrooms during the school year to model and facilitate the issue investigation process. Partners are community and regional organizations and agencies that provide experts to teachers and students and who share their knowledge on the most pertinent environmental issues facing the Twin Cities community. Each teacher involved works with three to four partners. Partners already established include the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy, the University of Minnesota Extension Service, Friends of the Mississippi River, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The Patricia L. and Wendell W. Maltby Foundation $6,285
Jeff Maltby, 789 Sciota Trail East, Randolph, MN 55065
Connecting Communities to the Cannon River
Teachers are recruited to the program via a summer institute that is taught, in part, on the Cannon River. This institute is presented in partnership with the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics and the Science Museum of Minnesota, with funding from the National Science Foundation. After a week of intensive river study, participants are required to develop an action plan to implement what they have learned into the classroom curricula. The Maltby Nature Preserve contains more than 90 acres of woodlands, prairie, open grasslands, ponds, and almost one mile of Cannon River shoreline. Watershed education is a major focus for the center’s outreach program. Scientific inquiry and the nature of science are benchmarks at every level under the recently adopted Minnesota academic standards. A model is designed and implemented to involve students in grades 7 and 8 in an authentic inquiry of the health of the Cannon River. The activities used build a sense of connection to the river as students investigate water quality, explore the concept of watersheds, and recognize that their daily actions and choices have effects on water quality. Students make repeated trips to the river to collect and analyze information.
Alliance for Sustainability $10,000
Sean Gosiewski, 1521 University Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414
Congregations Caring for Creation
The Alliance for Sustainability supports 15 congregations in the Twin Cities metropolitan area to become “energy star'” congregations. Participants at the workshops prioritize, implement, and report on energy conservation actions taken by the congregation. Volunteers from the congregations form environmental stewardship committees to engage their members to make informed choices to save energy, support renewable energy, reduce waste, prevent pollution, and improve environmental health.
Minnesota Council on Economic Education $10,000
Claudia Parliament, 1994 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108
Environmental Decision Making for Grades 4 Through 6
The Minnesota Council on Economic Education is conducting two national train the trainers workshops in St. Louis and Atlanta for middle school and college teachers. The newly trained teachers then serve as trainers for other teachers for the curriculum “Seas, Trees and Economies.” The lessons in “Seas, Trees and Economies” provide students with the tools they need to recognize fundamental trade-offs, to explain how and why choices are made, and to explain how people can make better choices about the use of natural resources and disposal of wastes that production and consumption unavoidably create.
North Shore Community School $9,900
Barbara Kohlstedt, 5226 Ryan Road, Duluth, MN 55804
Solar Energy Education Project (SEEP)
Sixth graders at North Shore Community School gain first-hand environmental experience by assisting in installing solar photovoltaic panels that generate a portion of electricity at the school. This project pilots a national “best practice” education reform model called the Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC). EIC incorporates the teaching strategies of local community focus, team teaching, and cooperative learning and student-centered investigation of local issues. The project, combined with classroom lessons, activities, and field trips, enables students to expand their technological literacy and environmental awareness. The students also create educational displays about the photovoltaic panels for the rest of the school.
Initiative Foundation $10,000
Kathy Gaalswyk, 405 First Street SE, Little Falls, MN 56345
Healthy Lakes and Rivers Partnership Program
This program is expanding the Healthy Lakes and Rivers Partnership program model to include new communities throughout the region. The program is designed to build the capacity of citizen leaders and local government officials to develop strategic water management plans as well as to help the public make informed decisions regarding the natural environment. The goals of the program are to provide opportunities for shoreline property owners to network, work cooperatively, learn from one another, and work toward healthier waters in Minnesota.
Minnesota State Horticultural Society $13,000
Vicky Vogels, 1755 Prior Avenue North, Falcon Heights, MN 55113
Healthy Soil, Healthy Food-Healthy Me!
In this program, children and their parents, teachers, members of the community learn that their health depends on the health of the environment and the educated choices they make about land and food. The “Healthy Soil” curriculum focuses on soil, worms, and composting, while the “Healthy Food” curriculum addresses the important role that insects play in pollination and in the planting of seeds for food crops. Program information is disseminated through classes, demonstrations, and articles in the "Northern Gardener" Magazine.
City of Duluth $23,250
Carin Skoog, 411 West First Street, Room 208, Duluth, MN 55802-1192
Energy: Dollars and Sense
This project involves creating an interpretive exhibit and resource center at the main branch of the Duluth Public Library. The exhibit includes an interactive kiosk featuring an Internet site that is used to educate Duluth residents about energy production, use, and conservation. Also, the real-time and historical performance of a 2.4-kilowatt photovoltaic system located on the roof of the library is monitored and is displayed in the kiosk and on the Internet site. The site is enhanced by a variety of energy-related links and tools. The exhibit inspires critical thinking about the economic, environmental, and health issues related to energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Duluth residents are taught decision-making skills that help them to reduce energy-related pollution.
Heron Lake Watershed District $10,770
Jan Voit, P.O. Box 345, Heron Lake, MN 56137
Where Does this Drain?
This project is providing educational opportunities for students living in the West Fork Des Moines River Watershed. The project emphasizes the effects of nonpoint source water pollution and the benefits of pollution prevention, and it increases environmental awareness by showing the students how they can personally help improve their environment. Guided by project leaders, the students identify lakeshore properties in a certain area, collect environmental samples for analysis, present their findings at a public meeting, and create public education brochures.
Minnesota Lakes Association $5,000
Paula West, 19519 State Highway, 371 N, Brainerd, MN 56401
Educating Youth in Minnesota about Lake Ecology and Stewardship
The Minnesota Lakes Association is continuing work begun during Phase I of the Youth and Ecology Stewardship curriculum project. Phase II builds on the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services lake ecology curriculum that was modified to educate more than 1,000 fifth- and sixth-grade students in Minnesota. An additional 500 students in at least six schools are studying under the new curriculum, which is tailored specifically to Minnesota. Students continue to learn about the specific types of lake ecology that they personally experience and about stewardship practices for lake protection. Phase II is improving academic achievement by exposing students to multidisciplinary environmental education concepts that are not routinely taught in their classrooms.
River Bend Nature Center $4,920
Nalani McCutcheon, 1000 Rustad Road, PO Box 186, Faribault, MN 55021
Developing a Community Environmental Education Initiative
Partnering with the Chamber of Commerce and the City of Faribault, the River Bend Nature Center is conducting environmental outreach to business leaders, government officials, and educators. Business guests at an after-work event raise their awareness of the social, economic, and cultural value of natural resources and build an understanding of environmental threats and environmental protection. At a policy forum, government officials are introduced to the tools available for natural resource protection and discuss ordinances and other policies designed to preserve the environment. Another part of the initiative, a professional development workshop for educators, provides guidance and tools for incorporating local natural resource issues into classroom curricula.
Carver County $5,000
Joe Enfield, 600 East Fourth Street, Chaska, MN 55318
Metro Area Children's Water Festival
This water festival provides hands-on water education for 1,300 fifth-grade students in the Minneapolis - St. Paul metropolitan area. The festival gives students the opportunity to learn about the water cycle, ground and surface water, ecology, wetlands, and other related natural resources.
Kathy Kinzig, 210 E. 10th Street, #375, St. Paul, MN 55101
Twin Cities Environmental Issues, Urban Teachers Network
This project provides environmental education in an urban area through a workshop series and the establishment of a support network for participants. A series of 2-hour workshops are held, along with one field trip, highlighting key environmental issues in the Minneapolis - St. Paul area.
Minnesota State Horticultural Society $12,000
Vicky Vogels, 1755 Prior Avenue, Falcon Heights, MN 55113
Community Gardening the Organic Way
The Minnesota State Horticultural Society has developed an educational series on organic gardening for Minnesota Green participants. Minnesota Green is a community outreach program that coordinates resources of horticultural-related organizations, state and local governments, and businesses to revitalize communities through plants. Feeding the soil, not the plants, embracing plant and community diversity, and working with the natural cycles in a garden are some of the basic principles of organic gardening that are taught in the series.
Prairie Country Resource Conservation and Development Area $4,490
Kylene Olson, 629 North 11th Street, Montevideo, MN 56265
Bringing Stream Biology Monitoring into the Classroom
This project includes a 2-day workshop designed to teach 18 teachers about biomonitoring methods and techniques. Staff conduct follow-up sessions with the teachers in their classrooms and in the field to help establish regular monitoring sites and to help with the identification of macroinvertebrates, such as mosquitoes, bloodworms, and dragon flies.
Kathy Kinzig, 275 East Fourth Street, #821, St. Paul, MN 55101
Model Schools in Urban Environmental Education
Teachers from schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul are trained to deliver urban environmental education models through Eco-Education’s existing Model Schools in Urban Environmental Education Initiative. Teachers of grades 5 through 8 participate in workshops designed to build their knowledge of current urban environmental issues and the ability to apply that knowledge in their classrooms.
Hennepin Conservation District $4,550
Tim Reese, 9600 Wedgwood Road, #140, Maple Grove, MN 55311-3541
Wetland Health Evaluation and Education Project
To educate citizens about the function and value of wetlands and to foster public awareness and citizen involvement, the Hennepin Conservation District is organizing and training a minimum of three teams of citizen volunteers. The three teams are made up of adult and teen volunteers. Training sessions are conducted to teach the teams how to sample and analyze plant and invertebrate communities in four wetlands. The testing gives resource managers a clearer picture of what constitutes a healthy wetland ecosystem and gives the district a reference for comparison, analysis, restoration, and mitigation efforts.
Minnesota Lakes Association $5,000
Paula West, P. O. Box 321, Brainerd, MN 56401
Educating Today's Youth to be Tomorrow's Stewards
Using the existing curriculum Interactive Lake Ecology, students in grades 5 and 6 learn how to be responsible stewards of the lakes that are, and will remain, crucial factors in their future well-being. The curriculum covers basic information about lake ecology, including properties of water, food chains, watersheds, pollution, and more. The project targets 500 students and from 20 to 25 teachers in at least five schools.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency $21,725
Sandeep Burman, 520 Lafayette Road, St. Paul, MN 55155
Karst Education Project
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is hosting two-day workshops for elected state and local officials, educators, citizens, and the regulated community. The four workshops enhance understanding of the vulnerability of water resources in a sensitive geologic setting. The project promotes and facilitates the adoption of decisions and practices at the local government and community levels that protect the environment and human health in those vulnerable areas. The project begins a self-sustaining process of collaboration, information-sharing, and decision making. Included in the workshop are a half-day field trip to nearby sites at which karst geology and hydrogeology are apparent, as well as sites at which karst problems are occurring and sites at which such problems have been remedied.
Prairie Ecology Bus Center $5,000
Chrystal Dunker, P. O. Box 429, Lakefield, MN 56150
Water Wonders Ecology Bus
Through the project, the Prairie Ecology Center’s Ecology Bus is available to approximately 1,500 students in grades 4 through 12 and their teachers. Both students and teachers have an opportunity to take part in hands-on, problem-based education programs about aquatic resources in their communities. Naturalists use the bus to transport students from their schools to nearby natural areas. Educators teach about aquatic systems and provide information about the water cycle and water quality. The program can be duplicated easily throughout Minnesota and in other states.
St. Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium $5,000
JoAnne Peters, 624 Selby, St. Paul, MN 55104
Multicultural Recycling Outreach
The project promotes recycling and makes information about recycling available to St. Paul’s Hmong and Hispanic communities. The project’s goals include: 1) increasing recycling rates by making recycling accessible to diverse communities, 2) building relationships with both communities to facilitate efforts to meet their needs, and 3) testing an outreach model for reaching other communities. Approximately 35,000 residents have access to the outreach information.
Twin Cities Tree Trust $5,000
Janette Monear, 6300 Walker Street, #227, St. Louis Park, MN 55416
Teaching Naturally - A Workshop
Tree Trust, an organization founded to reforest public and low-income properties devastated by Dutch elm disease, is holding a two-day teacher education workshop that focuses on developing and using easily accessible natural areas on or near school grounds. The workshop reaches 50 to 60 elementary and middle school teachers throughout Minnesota and is held at a site that offers a variety of ecosystems that are used for teaching purposes.
University of Minnesota Extension Service, Dakota County $5,000
Charlotte Shover, 4100 220th Street West, Suite 101, Farmington, MN 55024
Dakota County School Lake Monitoring Program
Along with collaborators, the Dakota County environmental education program provides training, resources, equipment, and the opportunity to adapt a model curriculum to secondary educators performing monitoring of lakes throughout the county. The goal of the program is to provide countywide consistency in methodology and quality measures for data gathered by students monitoring lakes.
Kathy Kinzig, 275 East 4th Street, #821, St. Paul, MN 55101
Environmental Education Workshops for Teachers
The Eco-Education program trains teachers in urban environmental education and service learning by providing two workshops, two technical planning sessions, and year-long classroom support. Through the workshops, teachers examine current urban environmental issues and learn how to facilitate environmental service-learning projects that allow their students to use their knowledge to exert a positive influence on their communities and their environment. The year-long support provided allows teachers to seek the advice of environmental education professionals and refine their ideas and activities.
Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School $4,588
Larry Johnson, 715 101st Avenue, West Duluth, MN 55808
Community Garden Plots
In collaboration with the Valley Youth Center, Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School develops community garden plots that allow students to integrate classroom lessons and hands-on field activities. Material composted at the school is used to fertilize the gardens and build the plots. While students work in the gardens, graduate students conduct activities that educate students about waste reduction and life-cycle processes. The gardening program is conducted after school in a youth center attended by 50 to 100 students each day.
Initiative Foundation $24,102
Kathy Gaalswyk, 70 SE 1st Avenue, Little Falls, MN 56345
Training for Lake Associations Teams
During three day-long training workshops, members of Minnesota's Lake Associations teams are trained to provide leadership to their respective groups. Leaders are expected to return to their lakes and educate fellow owners of lakeshore properties about crucial environmental issues that affect water quality, shoreland, wildlife, and fisheries. The participants in the leadership training also are expected to lead the development of lake management plans for their particular lakes.
Washington County $5,000
Cindy Weckwerth, 14949 62nd Street, North, P. O. Box 3803, Stillwater, MN 55082
Children's Water Festival
The Children's Water Festival provides a hands-on water education program for fifth graders in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. At the festival, students visit more than 30 learning stations to learn about such topics as the water cycle, groundwater and surface water, ecology, wetlands, and other natural resources. Participating teachers receive a curriculum enhancement workbook they can use after the festival to continue water education in their classrooms.
Brown/Nicollet/Cottonwood Water Quality Board $4,800
Jane Starz, 301 S. Washington, St. Peter, MN 56082
Children's Water Festival
The Brown/Nicollet/Cottonwood Water Quality Board is creating, developing, and coordinating a Clean Water Festival to be held in the spring of 1999. Before the festival, fourth grade students will participate in classroom activities through which they will learn about water quality issues in their local communities. At the clean water festival, students will participate in hands-on, interactive activities, applying the knowledge they have learned in the classroom. Displays, exhibits, and presentations also will help the students understand water quality issues. While students attend the festival, teachers will attend an intensive workshop, during which they will learn water education activities and other environmental education strategies.
University of Minnesota Extension Service - Hennepin County $5,000
Anna Sonmore-Costello, 1525 Glenwood Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55405
The J.D. Rivers Outdoor Discovery Center has designed and is implementing an environmental education program for pre-school children. The program is targeted at those children who live in typically underserved, culturally diverse areas of the community. More than 160 children participate in the six-week program, through which they learn about environmental issues. Learning kits increase the children's environmental awareness. Thematic gardens, wildlife habitats, and mini-science centers allow the children to participate in outdoor, hands-on activities. A community fall festival event will celebrate the accomplishments of the participants in the program.
Hamline University $5,000
Tracy J. Fredin, Center for Global Environmental Education, 1536 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104
A Thousand Friends of Frogs
Under this project, the Center for Global Environmental Education at Hamline University uses frogs as bioindicators to educate the public about the state of the environment. The center is expanding its education program into the neighboring states of Wisconsin, Iowa, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Hamline Center for Environmental Education is distributing 500 copies of the curriculum Frogs as Bioindicators to formal and informal educators, as well as reaching 10,000 people through an on-line education project. The program provides educators the opportunity to attend a summer workshop at which they learn how to incorporate the study guide and activities into their classroom activities. The center also maintains a World Wide Web site, manages a listserver to facilitate communication among participants, conducts an interactive Internet project that links students with experts, and provides a toll-free hotline to answer questions.
Southwest State University $4,240
Elizabeth Desy, 1501 State Street, Marshall, MN 56258
Guidebook and Hands-on Activities Using Regional Resources
Southwest State University uses the wildlife area on its campus to promote the development of environmental education programs in local schools. Approximately 29,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers and students in a 16-county area take part in the project. The university is surveying the animal populations of the wildlife area, developing pre-visit activities for students who tour the area, and developing hands-on activities for teachers to conduct with their students while they are in the wildlife area.
Twin Cities Public Television $78,107
Richard Hudson, 172 E. 4th Street, St. Paul, MN 55101
Newton's Apple: Environmental Impacts on Children's Health
"Newton's Apple: Environmental Impacts on Children's Health is a series of three video segments designed to be aired on the public television series Newton's Apple to educate viewers about environmental threats to health and strategies for minimizing the exposure of children to those threats. The videos are reinforced by an outreach effort that includes lessons and resource pages in the teacher's guide to the series and a special feature on the Newton's Apple World Wide Web site. The video segments and supplementary materials, broadcast on 300 stations across the nation, educate millions of parents, teachers, and young people about environmental hazards and guide them in taking responsible action to minimize the exposure of children to those threats.
Bell Museum of Natural History, University of Minnesota $5,000
Kevin Williams, Curator of Exhibitions, 10 Church Street, SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Making Urban Students Environmentally Aware Through Object-Based Learning
The Making Urban Students Environmentally Aware Through Object-Based Learning project provides professional development opportunities on environmental issues such as wetlands, soils, and habitats for teachers in ten urban, alternative schools of Minneapolis. Workshops employ object-based learning and will be followed up with class visits by educators in museums to assist teachers in the transfer of materials and teaching strategies to the classroom.
Dakota County Environmental Education Program $5,000
Charlotte Shover, Environmental Education Coordinator, 821 Third Street, Suite 100, Farmington, MN 55024
Dissemination and Embellishment of Project WET Materials
Dissemination and Embellishment of Project WET Materials involves a partnership with the Minnesota Zoo to support Project WET teacher workshops by providing and disseminating resource materials throughout the county. The environmental education coordinator is developing water history trunks and is purchasing materials that educators can use after they attend Project WET workshops. Dakota County also will work to connect teachers interested in water-quality education with city staff working on water quality and natural resource issues.
Minneapolis Public Schools $4,820
Linda Bjorklund, Development Coordinator, 807 Northeast Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55413
Lincoln Environmental Project
The Lincoln Environmental Project enhances teacher effectiveness in the teaching of science at Lincoln Fundamental, a public elementary school located in a federally-designated enterprise community. Along with parent and community volunteers, Lincoln's staff will be trained to design and establish a natural environment on the school grounds. Once trained, the teachers will lead their students through hands-on experiences in order to beautify the school grounds.
Minnesota Environmental Education Association, $5,000
Jennifer Gasperini, 3815 E. 80th Street, Bloomington, MN 55425
1995 Midwest Environmental Education Conference
Funds from this grant will partially sponsor the 1995 Midwest Environmental Education Conference held in Rochester, Minnesota in the fall. The conference will draw more than 500 formal and nonformal environmental educators and offer a broad range of workshops, seminars, and exhibits.
Southwest State University, $4,996
Elizabeth Desy, 1501 State St., Marshall, MN 56258
Field and Lab Experiences in Prairie and Wetland Conservation
The purpose of this project is to hold a three-day workshop for teachers of kindergarten through 6th grade in southwest Minnesota on investigating water and habitat quality in wetlands and prairies.
The International Coalition for Land/Water Stewardship in the Red River Basin $4,728
Julie Goehring, P. O. Box 127, Moorhead, MN 56561-0127
The International Coalition for Land/Water Stewardship in the Red River Basin
The purpose of this project is to develop 10 different flyers and distribute them to residents of the Red River Valley. Organizers of the project hope to promote land and water conservation among cafe and gas station owners.
Twin Cities Public Television $95,200
Richard Hudson, 172 East Fourth Street, St. Paul, MN 55105
The goal of this project is to develop a series of environmental education video segments to be broadcast nationally on the Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) as part of their long-running science series "Newton's Apple." "Environmental Adventures" will address ecosystem protection, environmental justice, pollution prevention, and the role of science in environmental protection. "Newton's Apple" is carried on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide; the environmental education segments are expected to reach five million viewers (one-third children and two-thirds adults). The segments and supporting educational materials will be disseminated further to 50,000 educators as well as on cable services, videotape, videodisc, and CD-ROM through commercial distribution channels and various environmental education resource centers.
Bell Museum of Natural History $5,000
Don Luce, 1100 Washington Ave. South, Suite 201, Minneapolis, MN 55415
Public Understanding of Endangered Species
The purpose of this project is to develop and conduct a series of focus groups to assess public understanding of issues surrounding endangered species in the north central region of the United States. Bell Museum will use data collected from these focus groups to shape a series of exhibitions the museum is now developing in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The exhibit's goal will be to challenge visitors to think about the extended consequences of their actions on the natural world and to further develop their conservation ethic. Some of the exhibitions will be used to travel to classrooms and will actively engage viewers by including dioramas, graphics, interactive objects and videos, learning kits, and games.
Prairie Island Tribal Council $26,260
Lin Nelson, 118 Island Blvd., Prairie Island Tribal Council, Welch, MN 55089
Curriculum on Community Environmental Issues
This project will enhance environmental awareness and motivate area school children, tribal members, and visitors to the reservation community to be more environmentally conscious in making decisions that affect the environment. The project will develop a culturally sensitive curriculum that addresses a wide-range of environmental problems on the reservation, including problems associated with air and water pollution, woodland ecology, and solid waste disposal.
Red Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) $5,000
Irene Hill, Route 1, Box 31B, Red Lake Falls, MN 56750
Value of Wetlands
The purpose of this project is to offer outdoor education on the value and benefits of wetlands to local educators. Funds will enable the Red Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District to reach at least 20 educators who will then teach more than 400 local students about wetland biology, plant identification, water quality, adjacent land use, and other related subjects.
The International Coalition for Land/Water Stewardship in the Red River Basin $4,120
Karla Parkinson, P. O. Box 127, Moorehead, MN 56561-0127
The "Smart Shopper's" program is currently disseminating environmental education materials through grocery stores. The funds from this grant will expand this program to include new waste reducing tips and also add "WaterWise" tips promoting the more efficient use of water. The goal of the program is to educate, inform, and help the grass roots population address these important issues. Please note that although the mailing address for this project is in Minnesota, the project is taking place in North Dakota.
District 14 Community Council $4,910
Deborah Meister, 320 S. Griggs Street, St. Paul, MN 55105
This project aims to change behavior so that consumers learn to make purchases that reduce waste. The District 14 Community Council will also work with buyers to evaluate current packaging alternatives that reduce waste at the source.
St. Olaf College $5,000
Gary Deason, 1520 St. Olaf Avenue, Northfield, MN 55057
School Area Nature Project (SNAP)
The "School Area Nature Project (SNAP)" is designed to extend to ten economically-depressed, rural schools in southeastern and southwestern Minnesota. The funding will enable SNAP to establish nature areas within walking distance of each school and assist teachers in integrating outdoor learning activities into existing curricula.
Education Coop Service Unit of the Metro Twin Cities Area $9,212
St. Paul, MN 55104
Aquatic Ecology and STELLA Models
This grant funds a workshop for 20 high school math and science educators. The purpose of the workshop is to introduce the educators to current issues in aquatic ecology using STELLA software. Necessary testing equipment will be made available to participants for use at their schools.
Minnesota Extension Service $4,800
Clarkfield, MN 56223-0128
Environmental Education Camps
This project will focus on educating more than 360 youths, grades 4 to 11, using environmental education camps. The camps will provide a hands-on approach to environmental education and will draw on assistance from other state environmental agencies.
Northwoods Audubon Center $20,000
Sandstone, MN 55072
Ecological Education Curriculum
This project will focus on developing an experiential ecological education curriculum program for multi-cultural populations and young people with disabilities.
Regents of University of Minnesota, Morris $5,000
Morris, MN 56267
Environmental Education Curriculum Development
This project involves developing and testing a pre-service educator training model that focuses on infusing environmental concepts, issues and methodologies into an educational curriculum. The project will involve a full-day workshop for pre-service educators for kindergarten through 6th grade.