Profiles of Environmental Education Grants Awarded to Organizations in Arizona
- Indicates a Headquarters grant
- 2013
- 2012
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2013 Grants
Mesa Community College $81,600
Peter Conden, 1833 W. Southern Ave., Mesa, AZ 85202
Mesacc.edu
Center for Urban Agriculture
This assistance agreement provides federal funding to support the grantee's cutting-edge environmental education program that works with Kindergarten through 8th (K-8) grade schools to teach STEM skills through urban agriculture and aquaponics in their greenhouse classroom and gardens. The grantee offers an Associate in Applied Science and Certificate of Completion in Sustainable Urban Agriculture, as well as train-the-trainer workshops. Volunteers help five to seven schools receive sub-grants to develop aquaponics systems that serve as a learning experience for 1,000-1,500 K-8th grade students.
2012 Grants
Prescott College, Inc. $149,644
Melanie Wetzel, 220 Grove Avenue, Prescott, AZ 86301
Protecting Arizona's Waters Sub-Grant Program
This project awards 19 sub-grants to secondary schools, school-based environmental clubs and non-profit environmental organizations with youth activities to implement education projects in both inquiry-focused and standards-based learning with a focus on protecting Arizona’s water resources. Through this program, sub-grant recipients engage project participants in environmental problem-solving with a focus on topics such as water quality, surface water protection, ecosystem function of wetlands and riparian habitat, and the economic impact of water shortages. The project meets the EPA priority for Capacity Building through the implementation of a process that provides sub-grant recipients with financial support and the knowledge and skills necessary to make informed environmental decisions. The project provides academic leadership, scientific framework and project management guidance for educational projects that inspire students toward careers in environmental science. Prescott College provides a technical development workshop to assist the targeted groups in preparing their proposal applications, project designs, budget management plans, scope of activities, public communication outcomes, assessment methods and long-term project sustainability strategies. Each sub-award project is required to document its project implementation and outcomes using digital video documentary and audio recording of its participants in action during project activities. An Outcomes Conference, scheduled toward the end of the grant period, provides participants an opportunity to share the outcomes of their instructional projects.
2011 Grants
Watershed Management Group $86,920
Lisa Shipek, PO Box 44205, Tucson, AZ 85733
Closing the Nutrient Loop-Community Desert Soils Education Program
The Watershed Management Group partners with the Community Food Bank and Friends of the Santa Cruz River to educate urban gardeners and neighborhood organizers about the importance of enhancing soil quality to support food production and develop urban forests, and of sustainably managing waste and reducing pollutants. Its two-year project, Closing the Nutrient Loop: Community Desert Soils Education and Action, promotes critical thinking skills and stewardship practices regarding soil management and composting in Tucson, Arizona. Education components address the environmental links between soil nutrients, food production, waste reduction, and water conservation. A series of free soil workshops includes presentations, hands-on activities, webinars, and videos, offered in Spanish and English to a community with a significant percentage of low-income and Hispanic members. Among program features supporting community education are two projects: the Compost Toilet Action Research and Mulch Your Waste into Resources; and Creating a Desert Soil Multi-Media Handbook.
Arizona Board of Regents for and on behalf of North Arizona University $19,447
Mehrdad Khatibi, P.O. Box 4130, 1298 South Knoles Drive, Building 56, Suite 240, Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Tribal Sands Dunes Project
The Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) investigates the impact of drought and climate change on sand dunes. Brought by drought in Northern Arizona, and potentially affected by broader climate change, sand storms initiate geographically broad dust plumes and mobilize sand transport, blocking roads and threatening infrastructure. The mobile sand dunes threaten wildlife habitat and reduce grazing lands for domestic animals, particularly impairing traditional subsistence herders living at the poverty level. The Tribal Sand Dune project uses curricula provided by partner Arizona Project WET to engage Native American middle and high school students in collecting and analyzing scientific data and in identifying appropriate actions for mitigating the impacts of drought on their communities. Students learn about career opportunities in environmental science and teachers receive professional development, assisted by the U.S. Geological Survey. During the project, students and teachers live in college residence halls for 1 week.
Watershed Management Group Inc. $75,734
James MacAdam, 3809 East 3rd Street, P.O. Box 65953, Tucson, AZ 85728
Green Streets - Green Neighborhoods
The goal of Green Street- Green Neighborhood is to build a base of knowledgeable and motivated citizens who can improve environmental conditions through the use of green infrastructure (GI). Through residents' participation in public workshops and an interactive webinar series, the project increases awareness and adoption of GI strategies in the community. The interactive webinar provides a multi-city education exchange to share case studies and lesson learned in GI approaches, which reaches the cities of Tucson, Arizona, Portland, Oregon, Vancouver, Canada, and Washington, D.C. Residents also acquire skills and hands-on experience by participating in the design, installation, and maintenance of GI practices. Additionally, the project builds the capacity of neighborhood leaders in Tucson (with a focus on under-served neighborhoods) to address urban environmental issues through a 15-month Neighborhood Leaders training program. The program trains leaders from four Tucson neighborhoods through workshops in community development, urban watershed assessment and GI design. Participants work with the Watershed Management Group staff to design, install, and maintain GI sites in each of the neighborhoods. At the completion of the workshop, the neighborhood leaders provide a tour and present a demonstration of each site to reach additional residents. Partners include PRO Neighborhoods, Tucson Clean and Beautiful, the Center for Watershed Protection, the City of Vancouver Community Services/Planning Group, and the City of Portland Environmental Services Sustainable Stormwater Group.
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum $22,052
Debra Claire Colodner, 2021 North Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ 85743
Adapting to Aridity
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) is a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum, and botanical garden. Its mission is to inspire visitors to live in harmony with the natural world by fostering appreciation and understanding of the Sonoran Desert. Museum outreach programs serve children at schools, community centers, and libraries, in a region with a significant Hispanic population, a portion of which lives below the poverty level. The Adapting to Aridity project focuses on adaptations of desert plants and animals and how people can best manage precious resources in an arid environment. Development of a day-long teacher education workshop includes a segment on human water use and its impact on wildlife and introduces participants to resources for examining and managing their own use of water. Teacher education provides practice with digital resources and techniques for whole-class, small group, and individual instruction on site and on outdoor field trips. Five workshops train teachers for instruction of grades 3 through 6. To enhance the long-term potential to change awareness of desert adaptation and human water use, the project builds on the museum's existing digital library by creating informational pages and interactive games featuring Adapting to Aridity project topics.
ABOR, Northern Arizona University $15,000
James Allen, 1501 S. Knoles Drive, Building 56, Suite 240, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4130
Junior Forester Academy
In light of the enormity of the issues and the problems surrounding global climate change, solutions must be sought at the local level in each of our communities. Northern Arizona University addresses this reality by modeling it—by offering a week-long overnight summer camp focusing on finding solutions to global climate change and on empowering students within the context of environmental career potential. A collaboration between the College of Education and School of Forestry, the Junior Forester Academy program brings together Arizona youth, ages 13 through 16, in career groups led by experts in the environmental sciences. Among the career fields introduced are environmental engineering, forestry, political science, and conservation. Teaching staff recruited from college campuses throughout the United States undergo rigorous training in the climate-change curriculum and in hands-on learning techniques that engage students. This highly structured program includes in-class learning, projects and activities, guest speakers, a National Science Foundation field trip, and field work. Each career group creates a professional presentation, to be given before a panel of experts and community members. Empowered with new visions of their career opportunities and the initial tools to do something positive for the environment, students represent the community based model for solutions to global climate change.
2006 Grants
Scottsdale Community College $12,000
Roy Barnes, 9000 East Chaparral Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85256
Sonoran Desert Biodiversity Educational Outreach Program
The Center for Native and Urban Wildlife (CNUW), a conservation biology organization based out of Scottsdale Community College (SCC), anticipates reaching students in grade 4 over the next two years. The short-term goal is to instill an appreciation and understanding of biodiversity in desert ecosystems; the long-term goal is to be an additional point of reference during a student’s education, culminating in greater environmental literacy. Teachers are provided with a CNUW learning packet that contains educational materials that meet the Arizona state science standards. After they work with these materials, the fourth graders come to SCC, where they tour CNUW’s living biodiversity exhibits in Toad Hall, wildlife demonstration gardens, and a greenhouse and amphibian vivarium, and receive a presentation from the Liberty Wildlife Foundation. At these facilities, students learn about endangered species, reintroduction, restoration, the scientific method, and how all of these concepts relate to biodiversity and science.
The Arboretum at Flagstaff $19,555
Rachel Edelstein, 4001 South Woody Mountain Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Navajo Uses of Native Plants
The goal of “Navajo Uses of Native Plants” is to educate northern Arizona youth about the traditional uses of native plants and to encourage stewardship on their part. By teaching school groups to appreciate the traditional uses of native plants, local children can see that the plants are not only beautiful, but can also be part of their cultural heritage. The Arboretum plans to recruit and train contract educators from the Indigenous Studies Program at Northern Arizona University and the Navajo language program at Coconino Community College. By training Navajo educators to lead field trips, the Arboretum can offer curricula about native plants that meet the national and state standards for all area schools.
2005 Grants
Arizona Board of Regents, University of Arizona $19,971
Marti Lindsey, P.O. Box 210207, Tucson, AZ 85721
TCE Contamination and Clean-up Curriculum (TCE CCC)
Under this project, the environmental and environmental health teaching skills of high school teachers are improved by focusing on the trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination that occurred in the 1950s at the airport in Tucson, Arizona. The area is now a Superfund Site. High school science and social studies teachers who use the project’s curriculum in the Sunnyside Unified School District are trained during a conference. The trained educators in turn teach the interdisciplinary curriculum to students. The curriculum focuses on hard sciences and social studies and advances student comprehension of the science associated with contamination and cleanup, as well as the social and governmental processes involved.
Cibecue Community School $11,160
Juan Aragon, P.O. Box 80068, Cibecue, AZ 85911
Repeat Photography Project
This project engages Cibecue high school and college students and teachers to observe and interpret ecological change through repeat photography of wetlands in the community. This community’s watershed and forestlands were severely damaged by wildfire in 2002. The most important environmental issue in this community is restoration of the lands and water, as its economic development depends completely on natural resources and the culture depends on a strong understanding of springs and other traditional places. This interdisciplinary project develops skills in ecological assessment, scientific reasoning, geography, social science, and visual arts. Through this project, the students and the community at large develop active, collective visions of how the land and waters have changed in recent decades and how to make decisions about restoration.
Pima Vocational High School $85,163
Gloria Proo, 97 East Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85701
The Green Careers Program
Through the Green Careers Program, at-risk young people learn about environmental careers and the value of environmental stewardship. This program is a new environmental education and training initiative at Pima Vocational High School in Arizona and is designed to help unemployed, out-of-school young people obtain their high school diplomas and sustainable jobs. Building on existing curricula, the program provides its high school-age participants with a broad understanding of environmental issues and principles through the new Conservation Leadership course, which is an introductory environmental science course, as well as field investigation activities. The participants are also provided with job counseling, on-the-job training, mentoring, and on-site technical training. Following their completion of the course, the participants are provided with job-shadowing opportunities and paid internships with environmental professionals at the key partner organizations. The young people, who live in a low-income, minority community, gain marketable skills, job training, and practical experience while being introduced to career opportunities in the environmental science and technology fields. The key project partners are the Tucson Audubon Society; Pima County One-Stop Employment Center; Pima County Department of Natural Resources, Parks, and Recreation; and City of Tucson Water Department.
2004 Grants
Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc. $5,000
Ann Marie Wolf, 3202 East Grant Road, Tucson, AZ 85716
Environmental Education Center for Rillito, Arizona
The town of Rillito is disproportionately affected by pollution from a number of sources. The major issue facing the town is air pollution generated by a local cement plant. The residents believe that they lack the information needed to make informed decisions about their environmental future. The project, which is a result of a partnership between the town residents and Sonora Environmental Research Institute, Inc., involves establishing the Rillito Environmental Education Center. The center provides a variety of educational opportunities, including workshops, an after-school program for local students, and volunteer activities. The project aims to increase the decision-making abilities of community members and provide them with the skills needed to critically analyze the air quality issues affecting them.
Southwest Center for Education and the Natural Environment $15,968
Kathryn Kyle, P.O. Box 873211, Tempe, AZ 85287-3211
Inquiry Teacher Training Model
The purpose of this project is to develop and pilot a model for training teachers to conduct open-ended science inquiries with their students on school grounds while focusing on the local ecology and other environmental topics. State and national science standards require that science be taught as a process of inquiry, but most teachers are not equipped to teach science as inquiry. The project addresses how best to train teachers so that they are able to provide authentic inquiry experiences for their students without needing outside "experts" to lead those experiences and model them for the teachers over a long period.
2003 Grants
Arizona Board of Regents - University of Arizona $17,834
Anne Browning-Aiken, P.O. Box 3308, Tucson, AZ 85722
ECOSTART and the San Pedro River
ECOSTART is a watershed-based environmental education program that builds the capacity of Sierra Vista elementary schools to educate their students about water conservation, basic ecological concepts, and bird and fish habitats associated with the San Pedro riparian corridor in southeastern Arizona. ECOSTART links University of Arizona educators, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, the Tucson Audubon Society, and Arizona Project Wet with Sierra Vista elementary school teachers and their students, the Sierra Vista Water Wise school program, and the Friends of the San Pedro. ECOSTART uses a series of teacher workshops and student and teacher field trips to address community and school needs for knowledge and understanding of the relationships between a geographic sense of place, ecosystem functioning, and natural resources.
Tucson Audubon Society $5,013
Jennie Duberstein, 300 E. University Boulevard, #120, Tucson, AZ 85705
Proyecto Corredor Colibri
Proyecto Corredor Colibri (PCC) is a binational, collaborative project that works directly with communities in the Mexican portion of the Upper San Pedro Watershed. PCC focuses on natural and cultural resource conservation. Specific project goals include (1) capacity building among local residents; (2) conservation of biodiversity; and (3) development of ecologically, economically, and socially sustainable programs that stand as examples to communities throughout the watershed. PCC accomplishes its goals through environmental education and community outreach, research and monitoring, and economic diversification activities, seeking win-win situations for both communities and conservation.
2002 Grants
International Sonoran Desert Alliance $20,000
Nina Chambers, 201 Esperanza Avenue, P. O. Box 687, Ajo, AZ 85321
Community Stewardship of the Sonoran Desert Bioregion
This grant funds activities at the Arizona/Mexican border in the U.S. communities of Ajo and Gila Bend, the Tohono O'odham Native American community of Gu Vo, and the Mexican communities of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonoyta, and Puerto Penasco. International Sonoran Desert Alliance's Community Stewardship project provides teacher training in a bilingual curriculum about the Sonoran desert. It also provides for the construction of schoolyard and community habitat projects, allowing students and community members to track birds, insects, and animals. Partners for the project include Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, and the Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar Biosphere Reserve.
2001 Grants
Flagstaff Unified School District $5,000
Cameron Kern, 3285 East Sparrow Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Community Partnership for Environmental Education Classroom Experiences
The project provides hands-on environmental science presentations for individual classrooms. The projects are developed by drawing upon existing curricula, including Project Learning Tree, Project WILD, Project WET, and others. Presenters from the Resource Center for Environmental Education use their knowledge of topics related to environmental science, collections, specimens, slides, and materials to involve children actively in learning about the environment. Teachers are offered continuing education workshops at no cost and have access to kits and materials they can use to teach students about the local environment.
Northern Arizona University $13,550
Virgil Masayesva, Institute for Tribal Professionals, NAU Box 4130, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-4130
Tribal Schools Ecological Monitoring Project
The Tribal Schools Ecological Monitoring Project trains and supports teachers of kindergarten through grade 12 in rural schools in the application of ecological concepts through local, hands-on environmental monitoring programs. By collecting data on water chemistry, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and the condition of stream habitats, students develop a better understanding of riparian and aquatic systems in ecologically rich sites. Teacher training workshops are provided at the beginning of the school year. The four-day workshops focus on materials used in the GLOBE Program and on protocols related to the areas of atmosphere, remote sensing, land cover and biology, and soils. Students carry out the monitoring, analysis, and reporting. A follow-up meeting is held to encourage networking and allow participants to discuss the progress of their efforts.
Town of Oro Valley $5,000
Melissa Shaw, 11,000 North La Canada Drive, Oro Valley, AZ 85737
Save a Plant
The project educates the public about the need to preserve native plants and the unique environment of the Sonoran Desert and techniques for doing so. Two field-based courses are conducted, one for youth volunteers and citizens involved in community service projects and the other for volunteers representing non-profit organizations. Each course is designed to increase public awareness and provide volunteers practical education in organizing and carrying out efforts to salvage native plants from sites that are undergoing development. Through the program, landowners, developers, and volunteers are brought together to preserve the unique plants of the Sonoran environment.
2000 Grants
American Lung Association of Arizona and New Mexico $4,900
Nancy Cangemi, 102 West McDowell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85003
Open Airways for Schools Program
This program provides a train-the-trainer workshop to implement the Open Airways for Schools curriculum. Following the training, the program continues with six sessions at five selected elementary schools in the city of Yuma. The target audience is students 8 through 11 years of age who have been diagnosed as asthmatic. The program incorporates a hands-on interactive teaching approach that uses cartoons to illustrate the lessons. Children who have asthma gather in small groups and use role playing, story telling, and games to learn to work as a team to help each other develop asthma management skills.
Colorado River Union High School District $5,000
Nancy Silk, P. O. Box 21479, Bullhead City, AZ 86439
Re-establishment of Native Riparian Habitat
The project is a joint educational effort of the Colorado River Union High School District, Mohave High School, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Southern California Edison's Mohave Generating Station. The two external partners contribute their professional knowledge and skills, as consultants to the high school faculty during a summer workshop. They also provide students facilitators and role models for environmental careers for the duration of the project. The plan calls for students to document with photographs the changes they observe in wildlife or soil and water analysis over time and to produce a video to inform the local community of the effects exotic species have on the Colorado River. Each student's final report presents a discussion of the environmental careers the student encountered during the project.
H.M. McKemy Middle School $5,000
Meg Davis, 2250 South College Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85282
Urban Lakes Watershed Project
The project enables 340 seventh- and eighth-grade students to explore the impact of events on a watershed by researching water quality in various man-made lakes in their urban community. Students are measuring water quality, monitoring changes, surveying plant and animal populations, and inventorying human activity, maintaining journals and sharing results with parents and community members through a Web site. Also on their agenda is a report to the city council and a picnic workday at a lake. The project is supported by the city of Tempe; Arizona State University; the Arizona Alliance for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education, and the school's Parent Teacher Student Association.
Navajo Resource Conservation Development Council, Inc. $4,995
Wallace Tsosie, P. O. Box 499, St. Michaels, AZ 86511
Stream Hydrology Demonstration Model for Youth and Adult Education
The project provides a trailer-mounted hydrology model for use in teaching young people and adults to promote science-based management of watersheds, streams, and streamside areas. Through demonstrations of the effects on watersheds of both correct and poor management practices and how change in a portion of a stream affects the entire watershed, the consequences of various forms of farming, forestry, ranching, and urban development are tracked. The demonstrations are presented at schools, grazing workshops, conservation field days, and Navajo Nation fairs.
Southwest Center for Education and the Natural Environment (SCENE) $14,885
Kathryn Kyle, P. O. Box 873211, Tempe, AZ 85287-3211
Schoolyard Habitat Program
The project brings together Arizona State University's Center for Environmental Studies and School of Planning and Landscape Architecture with Logan Simpson Design, Inc., a private landscape design firm, to offer six schools in the Phoenix metropolitan area a program that facilitates the creation of native habitat areas on school campuses and their use as outdoor learning laboratories. Enrolled in the program are two preschools, one elementary school, two kindergarten through grade eight schools, and a high school. Activities conducted during the project include a teacher training workshop, one-on-one pairing of landscape design professionals with schools, establishment of an e-mail network, and conduct of an annual meeting of program participants.
1999 Grants
Arizona 4-H Youth Foundation $5,000
Jolie Ogg Graybill, 4341 East Broadway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85040
4-H Project S.T.O.P. (Stop Trashing Our Planet)
4-H Project S.T.O.P. (Stop Trashing Our Planet) trains 10 middle school and junior high school groups, a total of some 200 students, to become peer teachers for their own age group and teachers for elementary school children to increase environmental awareness, with emphasis on recycling. The program, begun in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1990, was introduced to the Phoenix area in 1996. Under the grant, the project is being expanded to other areas of the state. At introductory school assemblies, a life-sized walking globe (Earth Person) uses songs, dances, and skits to convey the awareness message. The assembly is followed by hands-on workshops in paper-making, recycling art projects, and similar activities that reflect the recycling theme.
Douglas Unified School District #27 $5,000
Hans Bodenhamer, Douglas High School, 1132 12th Street, Douglas, AZ 85607
Viva la Rana: Dissemination of Curricula on Ponds and Wetlands and Teacher Training
In the summer of 1998, ponds were dug at one high school and four elementary schools to provide habitats for the Chiricahua leopard frog. This project brings staff of the Nimon S. Hopkins Conservation Education Center together with staff of the Douglas Unified School District to produce environmental science lessons for teachers at the schools at which the ponds are located, train teachers to use the lessons, and provide high school students with opportunities to teach elementary school children. During the workshops, participating teachers (and high school students) take part in model lessons and use supplies provided to each school through the project.
The Hopi Tribe $5,000
Steve Blodgett, P. O. Box 123, Kykotsmovi, AZ 86039
Educate Teachers and Students About Environmental Issues on the Hopi Reservation
This project establishes a partnership among the Hopi Environmental Protection Office, the Institute for Tribal Professionals at Northern Arizona University, and the school communities of the Hopi Tribe to develop and deliver a culturally sensitive curriculum of environmental education lessons for elementary school children living on the Hopi reservation. Teaching staffs are trained through workshops that focus on recognized environmental materials (Project WET, A Child's Place in the Environment, and Native American Lands) that have been adapted to Hopi culture and the environment of the reservation, with portions of the curriculum to be taught in the Hopi language. The materials are augmented by field trips, demonstrations by tribal elders, videos, and hands-on projects that deal with both local and global environmental issues.
1998 Grants
Southwest Public Recycling Association $23,125
Mitra Khazai, P. O. Box 27210, Tucson, AZ 85726
Community Environmental Education Campaign
Focusing on the issues of recycling, proper disposal of waste oil, and alternatives to household chemicals, this project offers training for the teachers of grades 3 through 5 in the six elementary schools of Douglas, Arizona. Backup for the training includes development of bilingual classroom teaching materials and establishment of a resource library. A supplemental radio and newspaper advertising campaign aimed at parents coincides with the school lessons. The goal of the project is to increase awareness of the effect of an individual's choice of actions and behaviors on water and air quality and generation of solid waste.
Yavapai/Prescott Tribe $4,514
Debbie Roberts, 530 East Merritt Avenue, Prescott, AZ 86301
Organic Garden Project
Under this project, an organic garden affords hands-on experiences for approximately 40 young people of the Yavapai/Prescott Tribe, under the direction of an educational coordinator and volunteer parents and elders. The coordinator prepares a curriculum manual for Native American organic gardening that emphasizes plants used by the tribe. Each participant is held responsible for planting and caring for specific crops that were planted by their ancestors. In place of pesticides, the young people learn how to use the interaction and interdependence of insects and animals, such as butterflies, worms, and bats, to cultivate plant development in a natural setting. They then invite their parents and members of their community to a harvest festival featuring food they have grown and prepared.
1997 Grants
Agua Fria-New River Natural Resource Conservation District $5,000
Kathy Killian, 3150 N. 35th Avenue, Suite 7, Phoenix, AZ 85017
Project Preserve Expansion Effort
This project is designed to expand the community's 20-acre outdoor environmental education facility to include a desert tortoise habitat that complements the dry wash, modern vegetable and flower garden, native Arizona plant garden, pond, and Native American village currently in place. In addition, the curriculum that accompanies the outdoor resource is being updated to incorporate lessons on threatened and endangered species and on aquatic ecosystems and water quality. Teachers, in particular 40 who are new to the area, are being trained in the use of the facility.
Arizona 4-H Youth Foundation $5,000
Jawanda Mast, 4341 East Broadway, Phoenix, AZ 85040
Maricopa County 4-H Project: Stop Trashing Our Planet
This project trains teenagers from 10 junior high schools to deliver environmental education to schools and community groups. The mentor teens, in keeping with the 4-H learn-by-doing tradition, organize children in their own and nearby schools to participate in recycling activities. The project also is producing a guidebook to help teachers support the teen activities. Partners in the effort include the Extension Service of Maricopa County; Phoenix Clean and Beautiful; and Kennedy K-8 School, which conducted a successful pilot program.
Nothern Arizona University $5,000
Lynda Hatch, P. O. Box 4085, Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Northern Arizona University Alpine Partnership
Alpine Partnership brings together faculty and pre-service teacher candidates at the university with staff of informal education facilities in the Flagstaff area to develop and implement an environmental education curriculum that the teacher candidates present to school children and other visitors to those institutions. Lessons developed for this project enable students and visitors to examine and identify the ecological, political, economic, social, and educational issues that affect each environmental decision. Major partners working with Northern Arizona University's Education Department to support the project include Lowell Observatory; the Arboretum at Flagstaff; the Museum of Northern Arizona, and the National Park Service monuments of Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, and Wupatki. Those institutions provide visitor services to approximately 40,000 school children per year, as well as to more than 100,000 other visitors from throughout the United States and the world.
Phoenix College/Maricopa County Community College District $23,677
Kathleen Preece, 2411 West 14th Street, Tempe, AZ 85281-6941
Fresh Air Project: Collaborative Program to Link Community Problem Solving and Awareness About Air Pollution to K-12 Systemic Reform Initiatives
This project establishes 35 collaborative teams, each usually made up of a class, a teacher advisor, and a community advisor, to explore air pollution problems in Phoenix. Teachers attend workshops, 20 of which are scheduled under the project, at which they learn about the city's air pollution problems, appropriate hands-on classroom activities, and a format for developing student projects. A similar number of workshops for parents acquaint them with air pollution problems and increase their knowledge of potential hazards to their children's health. During the workshops, parents also explore ways to minimize those effects. The closing event scheduled for the project is a Fresh Air Fest at which students display their science fair projects and explore environmental careers. The event also provides an opportunity to solicit innovative solutions to air quality issues in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Pima Center for Conservation Education $4,816
Kimberly Otero, 4343 North Oarcle Road, M-192, Tucson, AZ 85705
A Simulation Activity in Natural Resources Management: Working Within the Framework of the National Environmental Policy Act
This project is developing resource material for social studies classes at Cross Middle School that employ simulation and role-playing to demonstrate the steps usually taken to perform an environmental impact assessment. The students are assigned a role as a member of one of four stakeholder groups: proponents, public agencies, private consulting firms, and the general public. Over the course of several weeks, students visit a site; research the environmental and economic factors that affect it; and identify the regulatory, sociopolitical, and resource constraints that influence the particular position they will defend. The culminating activity is the effective communication to the group of the stand each student developed during the simulation.
Pima County Department of Environmental Quality $4,030
John Bernardo, 130 West Congress Street, 3rd Floor, Tucson, AZ 85701-1317
Bilingual Air Quality Education
The Bilingual Air Quality Education project is training 15 teachers who are bilingual in English and Spanish through a half-day workshop designed to increase their knowledge of air quality issues. Each school represented at the workshop receives 10 copies of a clean air curriculum. After the teachers complete the workshop, trainers work with them in their classrooms for a minimum of two class sessions to demonstrate ways to integrate air quality lessons into the classroom schedule.
University of Arizona $4,992
Nader Chalfoun, P. O. Box 210075, Tucson, AZ 85721
House Energy Doctor: Interactive Multimedia Workshop
This project conducts energy awareness and conservation seminars at three Tucson high schools. Approximately 120 high school students participate in the round of three workshops. Under a competitive format, teams of 11th-grade science students assess various energy-saving strategies to reduce the utility bills for a residence typical of the neighborhood. Multimedia computer analysis showing the fundamentals of each strategy, the energy-saving results achieved, and the resulting reduction in annual utility bills provides information that students on the various teams use to debate among themselves which plan is most effective before they submit their selections for judging.
1996 Grants
American Lung Association $4,000
Liz McAuliffe, 102 West McDowell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85003
Open Airways Indoor Air Quality Education with Emphasis on Second-Hand Smoke
This project identifies elementary school children who are at-risk for asthmatic illness in three metropolitan Phoenix school districts. Working with school nurse staff, the association conducts twice weekly sessions for three weeks to educate the children about asthma and the effects of environmental pollution, with special emphasis on second-hand smoke. Follow-up support seminars showing the effect of the disease on school attendance are being held for parents and school staff of asthmatic students.
Northern Arizona University $15,000
Anita Polehla, Box 4130, Flagstaff, AZ 86011
Strategic Environmental Plan for the Hopi Nation
This grant generates a plan for the Hopi Tribe to assess current and potential environmental education materials and practices with reference to their cultural appropriateness for use on reservation schools. The study is producing clear guidelines for allocating time and resources to curricula which have a significant impact on improving the quality of life, health, and heritage within the Hopi community.
The Nature Conservancy $15,000
Val Little, 300 East University Boulevard, Suite 230, Tucson, AZ 85705
Riparian Ecology Education Program (A teacher-training environmental education program)
Training under this grant is provided for 40 high school teachers from Maricopa and Yavapai Counties in water quality issues and riparian ecology. The sessions are conducted at Hassayampa River Preserve, one of the few places in Maricopa County where the Sonoran Desert is graced with perennial water, offering a wide array of plant and animal life. The workshop trains teachers to use curriculum which explores issues of resource allocation of natural elements, human use, and economic sustainability. The follow-up study involves field trips attended by classes of the trained teachers and is expected to attract 1,500 students to the preserve.
1995 Grants
Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. $17,500
John R. Lewis, 4205 North Seventh Avenue, Suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85013
Environmental Education Workshops for Teachers Employed on Indian Reservations
This project will provide a model environmental education curriculum for kindergarten through 8th grade. Ten educators' workshops also will be held for teachers employed on reservation schools. The project director will work with school boards and parents in the Native American community to institutionalize environmental education into the overall curriculum in schools on tribal lands.
Madison Simis Elementary School $4,857
Lisa J. Dent, 7302 North Tenth Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020
Water Conservation: A Creative Children's Workshop
This project seeks to enroll elementary school students in a four-week summer institute during which students will investigate water quality and conservation issues. In a second phase of the project, representatives of the teaching staff will join the students for a three-day interactive workshop. In the fall semester, the student institute participants will co-present with the classroom teacher the units they developed during the summer to the classes directly below in grade level.
Pima County Department of Environmental Quality $5,000
Beth Gorman, 130 West Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85701-1317
Clean Air Teacher Training
This project will provide workshops for as many as 65 elementary school teachers in Sunnyside School District, a culturally diverse neighborhood on the southside of Tucson. With knowledge gained by the teachers and conveyed to the students and their parents, the population of this area will learn the effects of air pollution and what steps the public can take to reduce this pollution for a healthier future.
Southwest Center for Education and the Natural Environment (SCENE) $5,000
Kathryn Kyle, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2512
Building Local Environmental Education Capacity through a Living Resource for Schools
The goal of this project is to connect high school teachers in Maricopa County and outlying rural and tribal communities with science professors and graduate students at Arizona State University. The clearinghouse will link secondary schools with science experts for telephone consultations, for guest speaker classroom visitations, and for access to the university campus to participate in environmentally-related scientific research.
1994 Grants
Growing Connections, Inc. $5,000
Linda Herzog, 2123 E. Grant Rd., Tucson, AZ 85719
Workshop on Environmental Gardens
Organic gardening and nutrition are the themes of the two-day workshop which will be presented twice for 32 elementary school teachers. Teachers will then guide their students in planting environmental gardens. Parents will be surveyed to determine if students' eating habits or other behavior has been affected.
Hualapai Tribe $5,000
Thomas Gordon, P. O. Box 179, Peach Springs, AZ 86434
Hualapai Environmental Education Program
The "Hualapai Environmental Education Program," aimed at all community members, will also have particular emphasis for high school youth. Community activities will include recycling workshops, clean-up days, poster contests, and an Earth Day Fair. An environmental education summer camp and habitat study will be conducted for the tribal youth.
Rough Rock School Board, Inc. $5,000
A. Keith Warner, P. O. Box 217 RRDS, Chinle, AZ 86503
Reservation Environmental Science Education Training
The "Reservation Environmental Science Education Training" project includes staff development training in the environmental science curriculum. The project allows Native American students to get involved in hands-on projects that address daily environmental problems of waste management and water pollution on the Navajo Reservation.
Southwest Center for Education & Natural Environment $5,000
Kathryn Kyle, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2512
Workshop on the Effects of Urbanization on the Sonoran Desert Ecosystem
The effects of urban development on the Sonoran Desert ecosystem is the theme of this teacher workshop designed to transform scientific content into classroom environmental education activities. The grant will also help to identify gaps in the database of existing environmental education materials and offer teachers training in accessing the database.
Tempe Unified High School District $4,965
Mike Trimble, 500 W. Guadalupe Rd., Tempe, AZ 85283
Investigating the Desert
This project will provide training for 24 high school students who will investigate and explore the fragile and varied desert environment. Their observation of key wildlife species, riparian ecosystems, and the relationship of human influence on these species and habitats will form the basis of a report to be disseminated at Arizona teacher conferences.
1993 Grants
Casa Grande Elementary School District $5,000
Yvonne Billingsley, 1460 North Pinal Avenue, Casa Grande, AZ 85222
Environmentally Smart Students
The "Environmentally Smart Students" project will provide for an outdoor environmental education center consisting of a garden, aviary, ponds, and a meeting area. The project features hands-on activities for 90 at-risk students in partnership with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, Arizona Department of Game and Fish, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona $25,000
John Lewis, 4205 North 7th Avenue, Suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85013
Environmental Education Curriculum Project
The "Environmental Education Curriculum Project" implements a program for teachers of kindergarten through 8th grade in schools on reservations and communities of 19 member tribes in Arizona. Teachers will receive training in knowledge, skills, and attitudes to teach a curriculum consisting of endangered species protection, solid waste management, clean air, and clean water. Arizona Clean and Beautiful, Desert Botanical Garden, and Arizona Indian Education Department will participate in the development of the curriculum.
Payson Unified School District #10 $5,000
Roy Sandoval, P. O. Box 919, Payson, AZ 85547
Enhancing Student and Community Environmental Awareness through the Use of Portal Sites Specific Modules
The "Enhancing Student and Community Environmental Awareness through the Use of Portal Sites Specific Modules" project creates a network between the school district, government agencies, and commercial businesses to develop a curriculum and materials for grades 4 and 8. Students will use field techniques to gain an insight on local environmental issues of water conservation, air quality, forest management, range and riparian management through field trips to desert, chaparral, conifer, and alpine sites within a 30-mile radius of Payson. The training of instructors will require that they experience the field activities as a "student" before leading a group.
Pima County, Department of Environmental Quality $4,800
John A. Bernardo, 130 West Congress Street, Tucson, AZ 85701-1317
Clean Air Concepts
This project introduces clean air concepts to students in grades 1 through 3 at Tucson schools. The project will offer teacher training workshops, three to five demonstrations in the classroom featuring a puppet show, detailed lesson plans, follow-up activities, and a help hotline for teachers' questions.
1992 Grants
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality $25,000
Phoenix, AZ 85012
Educators' Academy
This grant funded a project to develop an Educators' Academy that will focus on environmental issues facing Arizona, such as water pollution and use, hazardous waste dumping, and riparian habitat preservation. The Academy will also provide practical ideas for environmental activities through the exploration of curriculum resources and the development of regional and state networks of environmental educators. The Academy seeks to increase knowledge about effective instructional methods.
Chandler Unified School District $4,900
Chandler, AZ 85224
Environmental Play
This project involves an environmental play performed locally, which will utilize acting, song, and dance to teach content, explore problem-solving strategies, and encourage individual and group action toward projects related to the environment. Prior to the performance by elementary school students, teachers will test student knowledge and attitudes towards topics such as recycling, water conservation, ozone depletion, acid rain, and others.
Resource Center for Environmental Education $4,704
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Solid Waste Alternatives
This program involves in-service training for educators for kindergarten through 12th grade to increase awareness and knowledge of solid waste alternatives in an area where open dump burning is common.
Tucson Audubon Society $5,000
Tucson, AZ 85705
Biodiversity Identification in the Classroom
Students from the inner city will attend classroom sessions to identify plants, birds, and animals in their neighborhood. The students also will be transported to three nearby desert habitats to compare and contrast them with their local neighborhoods.