Chesapeake Bay Trust Environmental Education Grants
Ahhh, summer vacation. A time for relaxing, laying by the pool, and for teachers, getting a much needed break from the classroom. But don’t completely disconnect just yet, because the Chesapeake Bay Trust has some opportunities you may want to start planning for during this upcoming school year. If you aren’t familiar, the Chesapeake Bay Trust is a non-profit grantmaking organization that gives funding to students, teachers and communities to help improve their environment and the Chesapeake Bay. These projects can range from outdoor field experiences with students, to rain garden planting, to the installation of living shorelines.
In 2011, 4,688 teachers used funding from the Chesapeake Bay Trust to teach their students about the environment and the Chesapeake Bay, sending 83,688 students on outdoor field experiences. Most of these projects were funded through our Environmental Education Mini grant that gives up to $5,000 to support Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEE) and teacher professional development in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia. Recent projects in this grant program included raising trout in classrooms, sending students to NorthBay environmental camp, and student-led invasive species removal on school grounds. The next deadline for this grant is August 9 at 5pm, so make sure you check out these opportunities now!
With the new Maryland environmental literacy requirement in full swing, many school systems are turning to the Trust’s larger Environmental Education grant program to help fund environmental literacy programs in their schools. One of the Trust’s most recent grantees, Allegany County, saw life science and earth science test scores increase by 50 percent after implementing their literacy program! Environmental Education environmental literacy track grants can range from $30,000 to $50,000 for up to three years. Another opportunity in the Trust’s Environmental Education grant program is the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience track. This grant is designed to help fund organizations who are interested in providing outdoor field experience programs to students. Both tracks in the Environmental Education grant program are open to state and local agencies as well as 501(c)3 private non-profit organizations in Maryland. This grant program’s deadline is expected to be in late November 2013.
How are we able to do all of this? With help from people like you. The Chesapeake Bay Trust receives most of its funding from the purchase of the Maryland Treasure the Chesapeake license plate, or Bay plate. When you buy a Bay plate for just $20, you are helping to support environmental education, restoration and community engagement programs around Maryland. We are proud to say that 90% of all donations we receive go directly back into restoration and education for the Chesapeake Bay.
For more information on the Trust’s environmental education grant opportunities, please contact Kacey Wetzel, 410-974-2941, ext. 104 or Jamie Baxter, 410-974-2941, ext. 105.