Perhaps the best way to foster Bay stewardship is through education, especially for the millions of children who live in the watershed. The long-term health of the environment will depend on their interest and ability to protect nature. Bay Program partners continue to promote environmental education at elementary, middle and high schools, with a focus on providing MWEEs for all students before they graduate. Partners also provide lifelong learning opportunities for citizens of all ages, with information and interpretation at a multitude of locations in the region.
Learn more about education and interpretation.
In 2000, the partnership set a goal to provide a MWEE for every student in the watershed portions of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia before graduation from high school. In 2008, the partnership increased the number of experiences to provide each student to three, which means that students will receive MWEEs in elementary, middle and high school.
Amount completed since 2006
73 percent of the goal was achieved during the 2007-2008 school year, compared to 60 percent in 2006-2007. This MWEE index score is based on the average of the achievement of individual goals for elementary, middle and high school students:
- Elementary school students: 75 percent of goal achieved (878,525 out of 1,171,686 elementary school students received a MWEE) in 2007-2008, compared to 57 percent (726,471 out of 1,271,736 students) in 2006-2007.
- Middle school students: 78 percent of goal achieved (502,195 out of 647,137 students received a MWEE) in 2007-2008, compared to 65 percent (425,821 out of 652,218 students) in 2006-2007.
- High school students: 65 percent of goal achieved (490,491 out of 753,691 students), compared to 57 percent (428,398 out of 751,152 students) in 2006-2007.
* Note: Maryland was not able to provide 2006-2007 data, so 2007-2008 data were used for both years.
NOAA B-WET Evaluation
The NOAA B-WET Program, with support from the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Keith Campbell Foundation for the Environment, recently completed an intensive multi-year evaluation that shows that students are more knowledgeable about the watershed and more likely to take action to protect the Bay after participating in B-WET supported programs. The study also showed that B-WET trained teachers are more confident about and more likely to use field experiences to teach about the watershed.
Progress toward Providing MWEEs
While no baseline exists for the MWEE commitment, input received from the agencies in charge of implementing and tracking this data indicates that tremendous progress has been made since 2002. This progress represents not only an increase in the amount of students and teachers served with MWEE experiences, but also in depth and quality of programming and overall coordination of the effort within each jurisdiction and among jurisdictions.
The NOAA B-WET grants have been cited by all jurisdictions as being instrumental in assisting the states to meet the C2K commitment.
Shannon Sprague at 800-968-7229 ext. 664