The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently awarded $5.5 million in K–12 education grants for watershed studies as part of the agency’s Office of Education Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program. Examples of winning projects include field investigations in the Gulf of Mexico, stormwater management studies in the Great Lakes, and creating urban schoolyard habitats in the Chesapeake Bay. Projects are meant to be responsive to regional environmental priorities, and focus areas include California, Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, New England, and the Pacific Northwest. NOAA also provides formal K–12 educator training programs.

Through the B-WET program, NOAA has supported more than 680 projects with more than $50 million. The request for applications for 2013 grants is coming to a close, but this page has information on all NOAA Office of Education funding announcements. Read more.