Environmental Literacy Grants: Supporting the education of K-12 students and the public for community resilience

to severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, heavy precipitation events, persistent drought, heat waves, increased global temperatures, acidification of the ocean, and sea level rise (Weather-ready Nation: NOAA’s National Weather Service Strategic Plan 2011; Melillo et al., 2014). These extreme weather and climate events put stress on infrastructure, ecological systems, and the humans that live in the impacted places. U.S. communities can become more resilient to such events by exploring the hazards they face, assessing their specific vulnerabilities and risks, considering options, prioritizing and planning, and finally taking action (U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit). This process is typically performed by scientists and municipal planners, but in order for resilience to occur, other members of a community must have some understanding of the hazards they face and how to mitigate them, both at the individual and the community level. Education projects focused on resilience enable and empower community members, including children and youth, to protect themselves and their communities from these hazards. Projects should build the environmental literacy necessary for communities to become more resilient to extreme weather and other environmental hazards they face. In order for communities to become more resilient, their members must have the ability to reason about the ways that human and natural systems function and interact; to understand the scientific process and uncertainty; to reason about the ways that people and places are connected to each other across time and space; and to weigh the potential impacts of their decisions systematically. Projects should leverage and incorporate relevant state and local hazard mitigation and/or adaptation plans and collaborate with institutions that are involved in efforts to develop or implement those plans. Projects may focus on a single type of environmental hazard or a range of hazards that may impact a community or communities. Projects will be based on the established scientific evidence about current and future natural hazards and stresses facing communities and should consider relevant socio-economic and ecological factors in the targeted geographic area(s). Projects should engage participants in active learning activities. In addition, projects must utilize NOAA’s scientific data, data access tools, data visualizations, and/or other physical and intellectual assets available on these topics. In order to facilitate the use of NOAA’s assets, projects are strongly encouraged to partner with relevant NOAA entities (offices, programs, etc.) and/or NOAA employees and affiliates. Applicants are also strongly encouraged to review the resilience education projects funded by this program since 2015 and proposed projects should be informed by the lessons learned by these current grantees. Projects must be implemented within the United States and its territories. Projects will likely be implemented at the local level, but may occur in more than one locality. Project topics must relate to NOAA's mission in the areas of ocean, coastal, Great Lakes, weather, and climate sciences and stewardship and should focus on one or more of the goals of NOAA's Next Generation Strategic Plan: healthy oceans; weather-ready nation; climate adaptation and mitigation; and resilient coastal communities and economies. Eligible applicants for this funding opportunity are limited to institutions of higher education; other nonprofits, including informal education institutions such as museums, zoos, and aquariums; K-12 public and independent schools and school systems; and state, local and Indian tribal governments in the United States. Federal agencies, for-profit organizations, foreign institutions, and individuals are not eligible to apply.Proposed projects must be between 2 and 5 years in duration and have total federal requests of $250,000 to $500,000 for all years of the project. It is anticipated that awards funded under this announcement during this fiscal year will be made by September 30, 2018 and that the projects funded under this announcement will have a start date no earlier than October 1, 2018. Note: Links to helpful information for applying to this opportunity are available at http://www.noaa.gov/office-education/elp/grants/apply.