In early 2023, the Running Wild Media team worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE) to produce a series of videos highlighting different STEM related after-school programs put on by environmental educators. We had a great time meeting educators in Virginia, Texas and California, and getting to see just how excited students were to get out in kayaks, wetlands and beaches.
We spent two days with Boxerwood Eduaction Assocation in mountainous western Virginia, where students learned how to kayak, fish and conduct research on where the best place to fish for bass is.
Partners - Boxerwood Education Association
With a seine net in hand, students were able to wade out into the bay looking at the different organisms they could find, conduct water quality tests and catch-and-release various insects in the nearby native prairies.
Partners - Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, Galveston Bay Foundation, Artist Boat, and Pasadena ISD
Students got hands-on experience with their local tide pools during a visit to Natural Bridges State Beach on the coast of California.
Partners - Stanislaus County Office of Education
The NOAA Office of Education and NAAEE partnered to increase environmental and science literacy among NOAA’s partners and external networks. In this five-year eeBLUE partnership supported by the U.S. Department of Education, NOAA and NAAEE worked together to provide enriching after-school watershed-related STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) projects through NOAA-21st Century Community Learning Centers Watershed STEM Education Partnership grants. These grants supported programming for a total of 100 local 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) sites and their students. The 30 selected projects served 18 states, ranging from Alaska to Florida.
Learn more about eeBLUE at https://naaee.org/programs/eeblue