Profiles of Environmental Education Grants Awarded to Organizations in New Jersey
- Indicates a Headquarters grant
- 2015
- 2012
- 2011
- 2010
- 2009
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
- 2005
- 2004
- 2003
- 2002
- 2001
- 2000
- 1999
- 1998
- 1997
- 1996
- 1995
- 1994
- 1993
- 1992
2015 Grants
Greater Newark Conservancy $91,000
Ingrid Johnson, 32 Prince Street, Newark, NJ 07103
http://citybloom.org/Exit
Education Programming for Newark Public Schools
Under this grant, the Greater Newark Conservancy expands its existing environmental education program to reach 1,750 students in kindergarten through grade six students throughout Newark Public Schools in New Jersey. Using outdoor, placed-based, hands-on learning as a primary learning tool, the students are learning how to become environmental stewards. Students visit the conservancy’s 1.3-acre Outdoor Learning Center to learn about native plants, as well as its 2.5-acre Hawthorne Avenue urban farm.
2012 Grants
NJ Academy for Aquatic Sciences $199,821
Barbra Kelly, 1 Riverside Dr., Camden, NJ 08103
Njaas.org
Camden Urban Waters Community Awareness Partnership
Camden Urban Waters Community Awareness Partnership is a community-based waterway project and career development program that creates a corps of environmental stewards who are able to conduct water monitoring in sites in and around the city of Camden.
2011 Grants
Township of Woodbridge, N. J. $27,800
Caroline Ehrlich, One Main Street, Woodbridge, NJ 07095
Woodbridge Township Wetlands Restoration Education Project
This project focuses on educating Woodbridge Township high school students and residents about the importance of stewardship and provides skills needed to restore degraded resources and improve the quality of the environment. Field seminars focus on a contaminated sites including the "El Paso" site, wetlands and Brownfield sites along the Raritan River. Field-based, hands-on learning experiences about wetland restoration is reinforced and expanded by additional educational sessions conducted by the Edison Wetlands Association. Students will use the knowledge and skills learned to produce programs and materials to educate elementary students, their families and teachers.
Greater Newark Conservancy $10,083
Robert J. Sikora, 32 Prince Street, Newark, NJ 07103
Living Lab Stewardship Convocation
The Greater Newark Conservancy (GNC) is partnering with the Newark Public Schools (NPS) and the Rutgers Cooperative Water Resources Team to conduct a Living Lab Stewardship Convocation for 4th-grade students from five elementary schools in Newark, New Jersey. This program targets children in a predominantly African American and Hispanic community where 35 percent of the students live below the poverty level. Each school also has a parent and a teacher involved in the program. Living Laboratories, a GNC program since 1990, are urban outdoor garden classrooms that provide Newark students with regular access to the natural world. This project encourages greater engagement by students, teachers, and parents in local habitat stewardship as they learn design concepts for wildlife attraction, native plant gardens, rain conservation gardens, and urban farming. The program includes a 3-hour parent and teacher training session, and a 3-day convocation with workshops on garden and design principles. The convocation also includes design of a Living Laboratory garden for each school and presentation of designs to the entire convocation. GNC staff assists each school in executing the school garden design and integrating the NPS curriculum into a garden-based environmental education program.
Monmouth County Park System $12,400
Joseph Stuart Reynolds, 805 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft, NJ 07738-2695
A Field Day Along the Bay
Monmouth County Park System is providing a teacher workshop and outdoor field trips for 5th-grade educators and students in the Bayshore region of Monmouth County, New Jersey. The teacher workshop covers the ecology and biology of Sandy Hook Bay, which lies within the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary. After the workshop, the teachers' classes take part in a free outdoor day trip to the Bayshore Waterfront Park. In the first segment, students rotate through a series of hands-on activities including seining and investigating the fauna that inhabit the estuary, learning to identify shellfish, and conducting a trash audit. The second part of the day takes place on a catamaran when students collect and identify plankton and conduct water quality tests. Both sets of experiences are designed to motivate teachers and students to understand the estuary and the ways humans can change their impacts on it.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey $24,942
Cara Muscio, 3 Rutgers Plaza, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Supporting Volunteer Water Monitoring for Bacteria
The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) is a part of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, that extends educational and research programs to New Jersey's communities. In collaboration with ReClam the Bay, the New Jersey Master Naturalist Program, the Atlantic County Environmental Stewards Program, and various Watershed Associations, NJAES is managing and implementing Supporting Volunteer Water Monitoring for Bacteria, a program that trains volunteers to detect and track pathogens in the water and analyze and interpret data. By training volunteers to perform screening surveys for bacterial pathogens and optical brighteners, this program is creating empowered citizen scientists who can extend monitoring areas and alert regulatory agencies to any potentially impaired areas they discover.
American Littoral Society $40,000
Eileen Kennedy, 18 Hertshome Drive, Suite 1, Highlands, NJ 07732
Environmental Education Expansion Project
With this grant, the American Littoral Society (ALS) expands its coastal environmental education programming to provide field-based learning experiences to additional students. The 12-week afterschool coastal environmental enrichment program, coastal environmental science immersion weekend, and dune restoration program targets middle and high schools students from urban coastal areas. The ALS programs fills a gap in the students' environmental science program and enables traditionally underserved students in Camden, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Newark, and Keansburg to become better stewards of their coastal ecosystems.
Atlantic City Historical Waterfront Foundation $12,797
Joyce Hagen, 800 North New Hampshire Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 08401
Environmental Ambassador Workshops
The Atlantic City Aquarium, a subdivision of the Atlantic City Historical Waterfront Foundation, conducts two 1-week programs, both known as Environmental Ambassador Workshops, for middle school students. The participating students, from Boys and Girls Clubs in traditionally underserved communities, take part in educational field experiences at four local ecosystems: an upland river valley, a salt marsh, a beach, and the open ocean. The students produce models or posters about what they have learned and use these visuals for presentations at their schools. The student ambassadors encourage their peers to organize cleanup events and to implement conservation practices. These hands-on and follow-up experiences are designed to foster environmental stewardship among the ambassadors and the students, teachers, and community residents they reach.
Burlington County College $24,000
Cathlene Leary-Elderkin, 601 Pemberton Browns Mills Road, Pemberton, NJ 08068
New Jersey Pinelands, Pollution and You
This project, “New Jersey Pinelands, Pollution and You” takes students into the New Jersey Pinelands to learn the ecological principles, human impacts on, and the role environmental stewardship play in the Pinelands, a large watershed for 19 rivers within the Pinelands Natural Reserve. Pre- and post-trip classroom activities enhance the lessons learned on the field trips. This project provides environmental education programs for sixth through eighth grade students in schools designated as “in need” in Camden, Burlington, and Ocean Counties. A poster contest encourages students to incorporate the lessons learned about environmental stewardship into a visual message. Copies of the winning poster are distributed to schools throughout the regional watershed to further encourage development of stewardship for this important natural resource. Pine Barrens Ecology, a curriculum resource, is revised as part of the funded project.
Great Swamp Watershed Association $8,966
Hazel England, P. O. Box 300, New Vernon, NJ 07976
One River, One Community Project
The Great Swamp Watershed Association is partnering with two fourth-grade classes — one from the upper and one from the lower Passaic River — and two high school classes, from Great Swamp Watershed and Newark, to take part in learning and discovery on the biological and environmental issues that affect the Passaic River. Students take part in classroom, online, and field educational programming. Teachers and students learn about water quality issues that affect the Passaic and explore similarities and differences between the upper and lower river ecosystems. Innovative methods in this program include peer-to-peer teaching: the high school students teach the fourth graders. Students prepare posters and, at a culminating event, share with the community various steps citizens can take to be stewards of the river and its drainage area.
2007 Grants
Montclair State University $39,888
Kirk Barrett, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, NJ 07043
Passaic River Environmental Education and Monitoring Organization (PREEMO)
This project brings together a diverse set of schools within New Jersey's Passaic River basin to study river ecology and water quality in the Passaic River, how rivers are affected by urbanization and pollution and, finally, what can be done to protect them by personally involving students and fostering environmental stewardship. The project includes teacher training, numerous field trips, a long-term and expanding hands-on environmental education program and a project Web site to serve as an information repository, resource center, virtual meeting place, and clearinghouse. Data is entered on line by the students into existing Internet-based data management systems. Students use data they and others collect to investigate an environmental science question and produce a report. Another output is a year-end conference that brings participating students together to present and discuss their results and other environmental concerns. The Passaic River Institute will continue to support PREEMO and its Web site in subsequent years and will seek to add more schools. This project increases student knowledge and personal involvement in environmental quality and results in better trained and more highly motivated teachers.
2006 Grants
Collier Services, Inc. $7,174
Ellen Kelly, 160 Conover Road, P.O. Box 300, Wickatunk, NJ 07765
Environmental Career Odyssey
The Environmental Career Odyssey is a program focused on fostering environmental stewardship among middle school students from traditionally underserved communities in Monmouth County. The youth, ages 11 to 14, participate in a 1-week program where they increase their knowledge about environmental topics, such as marine science, forestry, water pollution, and habitat destruction, and learn how to take responsible actions to protect the environment. During the week, the students also participate in field trips that enhance the traditional classroom experiences by providing hands-on access to environmental activities. The students also learn about careers in the environmental field.
Georgian Court University $10,600
Louise Wootton, 900 Lakewood Avenue, Lakewood, NJ 08701
Curricular Unit on Invasive Species with Focus on Phragmites Australis
Georgian Court University has developed an integrated curriculum unit on invasive species for use by middle school teachers. The unit, consisting of a series of lesson plans and links to other related sites, is posted on the university’s Web site and deals with Phragmites australis, the common reed. “Learning trunks” with materials for educators using the unit, are available for loan by teachers to integrate the unit into classroom programming. By focusing on a highly visible invasive species, teachers and students are developing a better awareness of how human activities alter the environment and are increasing their ability to act as environmental stewards.
Pequannock River Coalition $7,390
Michelle Brook, P.O. Box 392, Newfoundland, NJ 07435
River in the Classroom and Watershed Detectives
The Pequannock River Coalition conducts classroom programs with students in grades 4 thorough 6 in Morris, Sussex, and Passaic Counties in New Jersey to teach them about the Pequannock River and its watershed. Students learn about nonpoint source pollution, watershed dynamics, and pollution prevention strategies for the Pequannock. Students identify areas where temperature has changed and participate in native planting restorations at sites as a hands-on stewardship project.
Seton Hall University $14,218
Michael Taylor, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079
Environmental Quality Monitoring and Public Education
Seton Hall University has developed a volunteer environmental quality monitoring and public education program for the East Branch of the Rahway River. University students learn about surface water issues and collecting monitoring data. They share their knowledge and skills with community volunteers and organizations to promote environmental stewardship. This project supports establishing and collecting data at water monitoring stations, training community volunteers in water quality monitoring, developing educational brochures and a Web site on surface water issues and water pollution prevention, and programs in classrooms and at local events on watershed ecology protection.
2005 Grants
Hopeworks 'N Camden $10,000
Manthu Tekhna, 543 State State, Camden, NJ 08102
Hopeworks GIS Summer 2005 City Green Survey
Career and educational experiences are provided to youth of Camden, New Jersey, through their participation in the Hopeworks GIS Summer 2005 City Green Survey project. High school students learn about the environment and develop the skills to perform surveys and environmental analysis using ArcGIS and City Green software. Classroom instruction and field work give students from traditionally under-served communities experience in transferable career skills and an opportunity to earn free college credits.
Marine Mammal Stranding Center $5,000
Sheila Dean, 3625 Brigantine Boulevard, Brigantine, NJ 08203
Future Coast Keepers
Under this project, residents of Brigantine, New Jersey, and vacationers receive education about marine ecosystems through hands-on activities. The activities include seining, beach cleanups, training for stranded marine mammal response, and beach walks. Experts from outside organizations provide presentations about various environmental issues that affect marine ecosystems. The project promotes environmental stewardship through first-hand experience, with a goal of establishing life-long respect for the environment and inspiring participants to pursue environmental careers.
New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium $9,306
Claire Antonucci, Building 22, Fort Hancock, Highlands, NJ 07732
Biology of the Hudson Raritan Estuary
Under this project, high school teachers from New Jersey and New York receive training and professional development on the biology of the Hudson Raritan Estuary, two significant estuarine zones in the region. Educators acquire knowledge and skills on sustainability and its application to the coastal zone. Participants in this project receive 24 hours of professional development training during the 2005-2006 school year. The goal is to reach teachers who will use the strategies in the classroom. Additional teachers receive 6 hours of professional development in sustainable coastal zone science.
Seton Hall University $7,000
Miriam Lyons-Frolow, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079
Teachers Institute for Environmental Studies
The Teachers Institute delivers four workshops on environmental topics that affect northern New Jersey to build ecological and scientific literacy for kindergarten through grade 12 teachers and Seton Hall University students. Experts present workshops on an environmental or community health issue. A breakout session follows, when participants develop strategies to incorporate the topic into curricula. Participants share results, strategies, and resources, which are posted on Blackboard.
2004 Grants
Camp Vacamas Association, Inc. $5,000
Michael Friedman, 256 Macopin Road, West Milford, NJ 07480
Environmental Awareness Project
The goal of the Environmental Awareness Project (EAP) is to immerse Vacamas Academy students in a study of the Camp Vacamas environment that includes exploration of the indigenous plants and trees, wildlife, aquatic life, and insects. The students also explore potential threats to the area, both natural and manmade. EAP combines field studies with research and culminates in the creation of a nature trail at the camp and a Web site dedicated to the students' findings. EAP develops environmental stewardship by educating low-income and culturally diverse students about environmental issues in formal and nonformal settings and by encouraging the dissemination of environmental information.
Comité De Apoyo A Los Trabajadores Agrícolas $5,000
Nelson Carrasquillo, 4 South Delsea Drive, P.O. Box 510, Glassboro, NJ 08028
Delmarva Environmental Education Program
The purpose of the Delmarva Environmental Education Program is to empower agricultural workers to take an active part in addressing the pesticide exposure hazards that place them and their families at risk. The Comité De Apoyo A Los Trabajadores Agrícolas (CATA) is conducting the project in the Delmarva Peninsula. Project activities include providing extensive outreach to the migrant and immigrant Hispanic communities, performing an environmental assessment of the workers’ living and working conditions, conducting educational workshops about pesticides and protective measures in which critical-thinking and decision-making skills are developed, and coordinating an evaluation of the project by its participants and staff. CATA has four pesticide educators, three of whom are Master Trainers.
Friends of Palmyra Cove, Inc. $21,014
Clara Ruvolo, 1335 Route 73 South, Palmyra, NJ 08065
Friends of Palmyra Cove - Wetlands Education Program
The goal of the Wetlands Education Program is to provide 240 college, secondary school, and elementary school educators with 12 training sessions on wetland ecology over a 12-month period. By engaging in this biodiversity study program, the participants learn how to define and identify wetlands, identify wetland plants and animals, characterize macroinvertebrates, and test water quality. The participants also develop an understanding of wetland restoration and remediation. The participants modify the training to provide their students with hands-on lessons about wetland ecology and its relationship to the local watershed, which encourages stewardship.
Greater Newark Conservancy $4,789
Robin Dougherty, 303-9 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102
Environmental Field Trips to Branch Brook Park, Newark, New Jersey
The Greater Newark Conservancy is developing a program in which students in kindergarten through grade 3 in Newark, New Jersey, take part in an environmental education field trip to Monarch Meadow, a habitat established for butterflies in Essex County's Branch Brook Park. During the field trip, the students learn about the environmental resources that are available in their urban community and about such matters as the importance of trees, the preservation and restoration of habitats for birds and butterflies, and the need for open urban spaces. After learning about the vegetation in Monarch Meadow, which is selected and planted to attract butterflies, the students help to restore the park using plant plugs and seed balls and then participate in a literacy activity related to their meadow experience. The program fosters environmental stewardship by involving the students in restoration of an urban habitat to attract wildlife. This is an approach that has proven successful in giving students a sense of responsibility for their environment.
Rocky Springs Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, Inc. $2,250
Donna A. Fox, P. O. Box 141, Broadway, NJ 08808
Our Wildlife Neighbors
The Rocky Springs Wildlife Rehabilitation Center's "Our Wildlife Neighbors" program educates young people about coexisting with wildlife in their communities. The students learn how to respond to orphaned or wounded animals and how to deal with encounters with wildlife as the human population grows in Warren and Hunterdon Counties. The program consists of interactive presentations for students and scout groups in these counties.
Seton Hall University $8,775
Miriam Lyons-Frolow, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079
Seton Hall University Sustainable Communities Roundtable
The College of Arts and Sciences at Seton Hall University is launching the Sustainable Communities Roundtable, a model outreach program. The goal of the Roundtable is to educate the public about environmental and health issues in northern New Jersey. The program provides members of the community with access to the latest information about such issues. The Roundtable’s participants include scientists, government officials, and representatives of community-based organizations and industry. During the roundtable's panel discussions, experts and a moderator present multiple points of view and recommendations regarding specific environmental issues that impact northern New Jersey. Roundtable topics include open space preservation in the face of urban and suburban sprawl, transportation and associated air pollution, and watershed management. Participants become better informed, better equipped to make responsible decisions, and are encouraged to become more involved in community efforts to address the issues. A pamphlet summarizing the key points discussed at the roundtable and identifying additional resources will be provided.
Seton Hall University $5,800
Miriam Lyons-Frolow, 400 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079
Master Classes in Environmental Studies
Master Classes in Environmental Studies provides opportunities for both high school and Seton Hall University students to learn from experts about the current issues in the environmental field. The class instructors and presenters provide career development information and describe educational pathways to environmental careers. Four Master Classes of 20 to 30 students each are scheduled for the 2004-2005 academic year.
Stevens Institute of Technology $85,373
Edward A. Friedman, Castle Point on the Hudson, Hoboken, NJ 07030
Do Particulates Matter?
"Do Particulates Matter?" is an Internet-based science curriculum for students in grades 6 through 12 that raises awareness of environmental and health hazards posed by fine particle pollution. Using real-time data downloaded from EPA’s AirNow web site, students in New Jersey, New York, Florida, Ohio, and Arizona collect, record, and analyze particulate matter data. By conducting “real world” scientific investigations, the students are learning firsthand about air quality issues. The project also targets a small subset of teachers who attend workshops to learn about current air quality issues, particularly as they relate to particulate matter; how to use the air quality curriculum materials in their classrooms; and how to train other teachers to use the curriculum. At the end of the project, the Particulates Matter curriculum will be available on the Internet for use by schools across the country and will be distributed at national and regional conferences and workshops attended by thousands of educators. The Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University’s Teachers College is a key partner of the project.
2003 Grants
Camden City Garden Club, Inc. $4,994
Mike Devlin, 3 Riverside Drive, Camden, NJ 08103
Educating Home Gardeners about Water Management
The Camden City Garden Club, Inc., project is educating the public about the importance of efficient water use and the environmental impact of using water in a garden. The project encourages English- and Spanish-speaking visitors to tour the Cityscapes Garden. The garden features interactive signage about using water efficiently. Visitors are also given materials about efficient use of water and other environmentally friendly gardening practices. The gardening activities addressed also include mulching, plant selection, rain barrel use, and prevention of nonpoint source pollution.
County College of Morris $16,700
Dr. Jack M. Bernardo, 214 Center Grove Road, Randolph, NJ 07869-2086
Stream to Sea: A Workshop Series on Water Quality for Middle School Teachers
The primary goal of the Stream to Sea project is to improve the environmental education skills of sixth- through ninth-grade science teachers in northwestern New Jersey. The workshop series helps teachers implement environmental education programs at their schools with classroom lessons that meet New Jersey's Science Core Curriculum Standards. Using water as a theme, the New Jersey Statewide Initiative Regional Center at the County College of Morris conducts a series of teacher workshops and field trips using hands-on materials and activities. Teachers are then able to bring the skills gained to their students. For example, after teachers instruct their students about water pollution using classroom inquiry-based lessons, the students investigate a local pond's ecosystem, continue their investigation at associated streams, and study the streams as they flow to the ocean. The students analyze the water and study flow rates, currents, and the plants and animals living in the pond and streams.
Greater Newark Conservancy $5,143
Robin L. Dougherty, 303-9 Washington Street, Newark, NJ 07102
Distance Learning Program: "My City, My Responsibility"
The Greater Newark Conservancy is partnering with Verizon to educate eighth-grade students in urban centers in New Jersey about environmental issues in their communities. Participating teachers attend a seminar to develop the skills needed to explore communication technology and help students research environmental issues in their communities. The students develop a publicity campaign and associated materials to teach other students about urban environmental issues. The teachers use the Internet to share their lessons, experiences, and progress. By means of video conferencing, the students present what they have learned. The student presentations integrate communication, organizational, and critical thinking skills.
North Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council $5,000
Christine Hall, 54 Old Highway 22, Suite 201, Clinton, NJ 08809
Stream Teacher Training
In this project, middle and high school teachers in Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Warren Counties learn to incorporate biological and chemical field testing techniques into their science, math, and language arts classes. The project partners are the County Soil Districts in Hunterdon, Morris, Sussex, and Warren Counties; the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Division of Fish and Wildlife; and the NJDEP Division of Watershed Management's AmeriCorps Watershed Ambassador Program. The partners provide three 1-day workshops on background information and associated inquiry-based lessons addressing watershed concepts, stream ecology, the value and function of riparian buffers (measures for preventing damage to and pollution of stream banks), and benthic macro-invertebrates (large invertebrates found at the bottom of a body of water). In addition, an overview of Project WET and Project WILD activities is presented. Follow-up sessions assess the benefits of the training and its implementation in classrooms.
North Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council $5,000
Christine Hall, 54 Old Highway 22, Suite 201, Clinton, NJ 08809
Tools for Community Resource Protection
The North Jersey Resource Conservation and Development Council is partnering with the Sussex and Warren County Planning Departments and the Upper Delaware and Wallkill Watershed Management projects to focus the attention of community representatives on natural resources, water quality, and smart growth. Participants in project workshops develop decision-making skills in the context of the competing demands for development and protection of the water supply and natural resources of Warren and Sussex Counties in northwestern New Jersey. The workshops also provide participants from all levels of municipal government with technical resource information and geographic information system (GIS) tools to help them implement resource protection practices in their communities.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey $18,500
Dr. Joan Ehrenfeld, 3 Rutgers Plaza, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Watershed and Water Quality Monitoring Web Site for New Jersey
This project provides a web site where students and citizens can access information about watershed issues pertaining to most of New Jersey's urbanized watershed areas. The site is maintained in English and Spanish and has a section where volunteers can enter their water quality data. Watershed reports on the site are developed and maintained by the Rutgers University Center for Information Management to educate individuals about urban watershed issues such as flooding, nonpoint source pollution, degraded stream habitat, stream bank erosion, and limited riparian buffers. The web site is interactive and encourages critical thinking by helping users identify and implement solutions to urban watershed problems.
South Branch Watershed Association $6,225
Fran Varacalli, 41 Lilac Drive, Flemington, NJ 08822
The Explorer Project
This project provides an interactive web site that teaches students about the importance of protecting the land in the South Branch Raritan River Watershed to ensure better water quality and to maintain the health of the watershed. The project is intended to support middle and high school teachers in more than 80 schools in this watershed. In a workshop, teachers learn how to use a web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) to help their students analyze land use changes and use data sets. Workshop participants can use the web site to create activities that their students can complete in order to understand how to protect the environment in their communities.
Teaneck Creek Conservancy, Inc. $5,000
Mary Arnold, 20 East Oakdene Avenue, Teaneck, NJ 07666
Hands Across the Creek
The Hands Across the Creek project provides an understanding of past and present open space and land use issues to seventh and eighth graders at Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin Middle Schools. Students examine the advantages of preserving open space to benefit air and water quality, providing contact with the natural world, reduce pollution, and enhance biodiversity in Bergen County. Students learn about land use history, participate in eco-art and technology projects, and become involved in land use decision-making and environmental stewardship practices.
Wallkill River Watershed Group $4,000
Nathaniel Sajdak, 34 South Route 94, Lafayette, NJ 07848
Wallkill River Watershed Management Project
The Wallkill River Watershed Management Group is developing a calendar to provide monthly educational materials on watershed-related environmental issues such as water conservation, storm water management, point and nonpoint source pollution, and watershed management. The calendar has event and meeting dates as well as information designed to encourage stakeholders to get involved in watershed projects. Stakeholder groups; government officials at the federal, state, county, and municipal levels; and educational, environmental, and agricultural groups have worked together to produce the appropriate informational entries. The project fosters greater public involvement in the meetings and other gatherings associated with watershed stewardship.
2002 Grants
Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District $8,625
Katrina Macht, 844 Brown Road, Bridgewater, NJ 08807
Hillside's Habitats of New Jersey
This program develops the educational potential of an outdoor learning site, Hillside's Habitats of New Jersey. Hillside students, community residents, and students from East Orange learn how urban sprawl and habitat destruction are effecting the ecosystems of New Jersey and, specifically, the Bridgewater community. The school district's third graders work with other students and adults of the school's Outdoor Site Committee and environmental club. Together, they design activities for the district's third graders who come to the habitat as part of their course of study. Students also make presentations about the program to the school's Outdoor Site Committee and serve as guides for visitors to the habitat. The program, which focuses on the effect of human development on natural ecosystems, is of special interest to residents of New Jersey, the country's most densely populated state.
Citizen Policy and Education of New Jersey $5,000
John Weber, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601
Lead Poisoning Prevention
Because lead poisoning remains a significant threat to the health of children, the Citizen Policy and Education Fund teaches staff members of social service organizations and community groups across New Jersey to help their clients determine whether lead is present in their homes and identify ways they can avoid lead poisoning. The workshops focus on training social service and community organization staff because they interact with families considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning. Trainees attend a full-day workshop that teaches them about the sources, pathways, medical effects, prevention methods, laws, regulations, and tenants' legal rights regarding the presence of lead. Participants are encouraged to develop poisoning prevention strategies that relate specifically to the communities they serve.
EnvironMentors Project $19,000
Whitney Montague, 229 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
New Jersey EnvironMentors Project
The EnvironMentors Project helps students become knowledgeable about the academic and career possibilities open to them in environmental and scientific fields. High school students develop an increased competency in science and mathematics through one-on-one mentoring with adults who hold degrees in and are employed in environmental fields. The students also participate in a program to facilitate their applications to colleges and universities. Monthly seminars on environmental issues of local relevance enhance their environmental literacy and help them identify opportunities to improve conditions in their neighborhoods. This project serves 80 public high school students in Trenton and Princeton who, through environmental presentations, reach out to 1,600 local elementary school students.
Greater Newark Conservancy $3,500
Robin Dougherty, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
Environmental Health Education Program
The Greater Newark Conservancy conducts a series of workshops on environmental health for the annual 2-day conference of the Alliance for New Jersey for Environmental Education (ANJEE). Each day consists of workshops on topics including asthma, air quality, and lead poisoning in urban and suburban communities. The goal is to help the formal and informal environmental educators who attend the conference understand key issues in environmental health education. The workshop familiarizes participants with a variety of teaching techniques and community service project models so they can implement environmental health education programs at their schools and facilities. Workshop materials include those developed by the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute and the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Management's AirCURRENTS curriculum.
Greater Newark Conservancy $4,998
Robin Dougherty, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
Environmental Health Discovery Box
The goal of this project is to teach second- and third-grade students about the connection between health and the environment. The Greater Newark Conservancy has created an Environmental Health Discovery Box that is available to teachers in Newark through a free loan program. The box enables teachers to present a course of study, lasting from 1 day to several weeks, on environmental health to a class. During the loan period, the teacher has use of the box's age-appropriate materials including lesson plans, teacher guides and all necessary materials, equipment, and supplies. The lessons focus on air quality, the respiratory system, asthma, toxins in the home, the circulatory system, and lead poisoning. The hands-on inquiry lessons correlate with state curriculum standards. The Conservancy provides one-on-one support for the teachers who borrow the box of materials.
The Port Republic School District $6,200
Kimberly Smitelli, 135 Pomona Avenue, Port Republic, NJ 08241
The Bristow-Phillips Enrichment Project
Partnering with the Atlantic Audubon Society, Port Republic School students study the ecosystem of a 300-acre mixed woodland and cranberry bog in order to develop it as a wildlife preserve and study center. The acreage, a recent bequest to the New Jersey Audubon Society, serves as a field study resource for students and teachers who will work with the faculty at Stockton State College and Audubon staff to catalogue and investigate the flora and fauna at the site. In addition to developing an understanding of the ecosystem, students create and rehabilitate trails and look for evidence of the previous use of the site as a 19th century farm and lumber resource. The school population and neighboring community also benefit from workshops that are held over the course of the study.
Wetlands Institute $5,000
Lucinda O'Connor, 1075 Stone Harbor Boulevard, Stone Harbor, NJ 08247
Expansion of the Junior Naturalist Program
As part of this program, the Wetlands Institute works with the Middle Township Public School System, The Cape May County Mosquito Commission, The Cape May Municipal Authority, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, and The Nature Conservancy to expand its Junior Naturalist Program to include economically disadvantaged students. Middle grade students participate in a week-long program that develops and supports their interest in science by providing them with in-depth opportunities to explore the natural world. Scientists and staff from the participating organizations provide guidance for the students' exploration, research, and discovery. The program helps students learn about New Jersey's natural habitats, understand the challenges humans pose to the natural world, and evaluate everyday environmental choices.
2001 Grants
Camp Vacamas $5,000
Michael Friedman, 256 Macopin Road, West Milford, NJ 07480
Youth Environment Squad (YES)
The YES program provides intensive preparation for five environmental education assistants who are graduates of the residential alternative education program at Vacamas Academy. The program, which prepares the assistants to work with approximately 150 middle school students from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York, focuses on hands-on environmental and interdisciplinary programs and development of skills in planning, designing, and scheduling lessons. The YES teaching assistants then work with environmental education counselors from Vacamas to provide environmental education programming to the students from Brooklyn, who make five visits to the camp during the school year.
Citizen Policy and Education Fund of New Jersey $5,000
John Weber, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601
Lead Poisoning Prevention: Train the Trainer Statewide Initiative
The project targets staff members of social service organizations and leaders of community groups in neighborhoods in which the incidence of lead poisoning is high. Participants attend a day-long seminar on lead poisoning; the hazards of lead poisoning; techniques for preventing lead poisoning; ways to help clients understand their legal, housing, and educational rights; and strategies for assisting families of children at risk for lead poisoning. The materials used during the workshop are provided to participants so they can use them to train others in their communities. Participants receive assistance in preparing presentations and developing activities related to the prevention of lead poisoning. An electronic bulletin provides additional post-training support.
Cross-County Connection $5,000
Rebecca Pierson, Transportation Management Association, Inc., Greentree Executive Campus, 2002D Lincoln Drive West, Marlton, NJ 08053
Commute Awareness Classroom Teaching
The educational program conducted by Cross-County Connection teaches students in grade 3 about the problems associated with traffic congestion and air pollution and examines the ways in which air pollution can affect human health. The program targets approximately 1,000 children in school districts in Camden and Burlington counties. Staff of Cross County Connection conduct classes in the schools and provide take-home materials. The interactive and hands-on program helps students understand what air pollution is, what causes it, and how transportation choices can affect levels of air pollution. The students learn about the formation of ground level ozone and its effect on youngsters, the elderly, and those affected by respiratory ailments. Students design ride-share billboards and explore alternatives to travel by single-occupant vehicles as a method of decreasing air pollution. Participants receive certificates that salute them as Friends of the Environment.
Society of American Foresters $5,000
Terry O'Leary, New Jersey Division, 370 East Veterans Highway, Jackson, NJ 08527
Protecting Stream Headwaters
The program consists of a series of four workshops that reach approximately 150 leaders and facilitators in environmental education. The project focuses on the Pinelands National Reserve, the location of the headwaters of streams in the ecologically significant Pinelands region of New Jersey. The workshops provide leadership education about the sensitivity of headwaters to changes in the environment and the need for watershed planning and management. The field-based workshops examine factors that affect watersheds, including non-point source pollution, and provide participants with hands-on experience in examining the headwaters of a tributary of the Toms River.
Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association $22,315
George Hawkins, Environmental Education Program, 31 Titus Mill Road, Pennington, NJ 08534
Watershed Education Initiative
Building Environmental Education Solutions (BEES), the community-based environmental education program of the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, educates teachers throughout the state about watershed management and issues related to watersheds. In partnership with the New Jersey Audubon Society, the Youth Environmental Society, and Project Urban and Suburban Environments, BEES seeks to improve the environmental education skills of teachers. The project includes a week-long Water Education Institute, a workshop on watershed education and the techniques of monitoring for water quality, an intensive day of field experience on the Millstone River, and a resource guide for educators compiled from existing sources. A web site and support for teachers after the workshop are key components of the program. In addition, the Watershed Stewardship Program and a student colloquium provide additional opportunities for community members, teachers, and students to become involved in experiences related to stewardship of watersheds.
The Passaic River Coalition $5,000
Ella Filippone, 246 Madisonville Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Where Are You in Your Watershed?
The Passaic River Coalition is a watershed association that works in water and land-use management in northern New Jersey and southern New York. A participant in the water management program of the state of New Jersey, the coalition is developing a poster, Where Are You in Your Watershed?. The poster is used, along with stickers, to help people of all ages identify their location in the Passaic River watershed. The initial audience is reached through distribution of the materials to local government agencies, libraries, and schools. In addition, a take-home version is distributed to schools to help families understand their relationship to the watershed. The poster also identifies water and sewage treatment facilities and such ecologically sensitive areas as the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge.
Union City Board of Education $5,000
Silvia Abbato, Hudson Elementary School, 3912 Bergen Turnpike, Union City, NJ 07087
Recycling Education Project at Hudson Elementary School
The project overcomes language and cultural barriers to promote recycling as a community ethic among the immigrant Latino population served by Hudson Elementary School. Teachers and parents are involved in workshops, while students take part in classroom activities and field trips related to recycling. To promote recycling, students develop a Spanish-language publication targeted at early elementary grades. The publication, which includes posters developed by students under the program, is featured on the web site of the Union City Public Schools, and the publication is distributed to elementary schools in the district, as well as other local and state information centers.
2000 Grants
Greater Newark Conservancy $16,467
Lesley Parness, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
ToxRAP Teacher Training Workshops
The Greater Newark Conservancy, in partnership with the Resource Center of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) and the Newark Board of Education, trains more than 200 sixth-grade teachers in Newark public schools in the use of EOHSI's ToxRAP Curriculum. Educators use the intermediate elementary module What is Wrong with the Johnson Family? to develop the skills needed to teach students to evaluate environmental health problems through application of risk assessment framework. Students assume the roles of health hazard detectives and, while investigating a carbon monoxide problem, learn to gather information, collect and analyze data, and draw conclusions based on evidence.
Society of American Foresters, New Jersey Division $5,000
Amy Mallet, 370 East Veterans Highway, Jackson, NJ 08527
Community Stewardship Action Partnership
The Society of American Foresters, in partnership with Project Learning Tree (PLT) and the New Jersey Tree Foundation, educates teachers and students about environmental stewardship by developing their ability to plan urban tree planting and urban tree maintenance. Two professional development workshops that focus on PLT's secondary education modules provide educators with the skills needed in forestry planting projects, tree identification, and inventory and community tree care. Participating urban teachers plan stewardship projects and, as they work with students, enable the students to effectively plan projects that encourage stewardship of community forest resources.
Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association $5,000
George Hawkins, 31 Titus Mill Road, Pennington, NJ 08534
Creating River-Friendly Schools
Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association works with students, educators, and administrators to develop pilot, school-based, watershed education programs that highlight local issues, non-point source pollution, development, and the effects of those factors on water quality. The four-part program involves development of a River-Friendly School Manual, a workshop for school administrators and educators, and an evaluation of the school's effect on the local water supply. After implementing a pilot project in a local school and conducting workshops for schools in the watershed, the model will be made available on the Web site of Building Environmental Education Solutions, Inc. (www.beesinc.org).
Weehawken Board of Education $5,000
Kevin McLellan, 53 Liberty Place, Weehawken, NJ 07087
Environmental Preservation Through Recycling
The Weehawken School District, with its partner, the Hudson County Improvement Authority, is implementing a special environmental program in recycling. The program, provided in both Spanish and English, targets seventh- and eighth-grade students and their parents, with an emphasis on the local and global importance and practice of recycling. A particular focus is the translation of appropriate materials into Spanish to serve a student population that is approximately 48 percent Latino. The program involves bringing experts to the schools, engaging students in a range of hands-on activities that involve family members, and providing field trips to and projects at the Hackensack Meadowlands Environmental Center.
1999 Grants
Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) $5,000
Frank Gallagher, c/o New Jersey Division of Parks and Recreation, P. O. Box 404, 501 East State Street, Trenton, NJ 08625
Establishment of a Resource Information Center
The Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) is developing a World Wide Web site to encourage and enhance communication among environmental educators in New Jersey. The Web site provides a means of unifying environmental education programs in the state and improving New Jersey's capacity to deliver effective environmental education. Grant funds support the development of an on-line resource information center and a directory that links formal educators, informal educators, and resource professionals. The Web site and center also provide a platform for sharing information.
Citizen Policy and Education Fund of New Jersey $5,000
Anthony Wright, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601
Statewide Train-the-Trainer Program
This program leverages the resources of community groups and social service agencies in New Jersey's cities, including Elizabeth, Camden, and Jersey City, to educate the public about lead poisoning. In those urban centers, where lead-based paint often is found in housing, lack of education about lead poisoning and its prevention puts thousands of children at risk. Grant funds support a statewide program of day-long seminars and follow-up outreach through which community leaders and agency staff teach parents how to prevent and respond to lead poisoning. The program empowers a highly motivated group of agency and organization staff who interact regularly with at-risk families.
Farmworker Health and Safety Institute, Inc. $40,000
Teresa Niedda, 4 South Delsea Drive, Glassboro, NJ 08028
Farm Worker Training and Development Program
The Farm Worker Health and Safety Institute, Inc. is a consortium of three community-based farm worker organizations that will replicate an innovative curriculum and model training program for farm workers. The institute conducts a unique educational program that trains farm workers to teach their peers and their families; the program takes advantage of the workers' capacity to be effective teachers and bridge the cultural gap that might occur between students and conventional teachers. Using the Popular Education Methodology, the institute has created materials and workshops that teach farm workers how to: 1) analyze their work and community for environmental hazards (mapping), such as pesticides and unsafe drinking water; 2) train their fellow farm workers; and 3) evaluate the program and the comprehension of those they train through follow-up training and community visits. The institute's specialized Master Training Program also teaches experienced farm worker trainers how to conduct train-the-trainer workshops. The institute is conducting three train-the-trainer workshops (four days each) and one session for master trainers (three or four days). Three follow-up training sessions (two days each) are conducted approximately two months after the initial training. Follow-up evaluations also are conducted throughout the duration of the project to evaluate the program, as well as to ensure that the methodology and tools are being used and the training conducted in a consistent manner. Farm workers in New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, New Mexico, and the state of Chihuahua in Mexico receive training. The project could serve as a model for similar programs in other states.
Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission $5,000
Anne Galli, 2 DeKorte Plaza, Lyndhurst, NJ 07072-3707
Urban Watershed Education
This project teaches 150 teachers of grades 6 through 12 about the Hackensack River watershed. The content of the workshop and resource packages for participants includes several environmental curricula, including Project Wet and WOW!, as well as state and regional curricula that focus on watershed science, map skills, regional history, and management issues. Participants in the workshop develop a deeper understanding of the effects on the environment and human health of human activity in watersheds, leadership skills for student stewardship projects, and training for faculty in incorporating environmental education into classroom programs.
International Youth Organization (IYO) $13,391
Derek Winans, 703 South 12th Street, Newark, NJ 07103
Newark Asthma and Lead Poisoning Education and Risk Reduction Project
This project reaches 1,000 parents and caregivers of young children, teaching them about risk reduction and better management of chronic conditions related to asthma and lead poisoning. Through the program, 12 participants in the Youth Corps/School-to-Work program and 16 Volunteers In Service to America (VISTA) are being trained to work with the parents and caregivers to adopt practices in the home that can help reduce the risks of asthma and lead poisoning. The International Youth Organization (IYO) uses its network of daycare centers, elementary schools, block clubs, tenant associations, and community centers in Newark's Enterprise Community target area to reach its intended audience and educate people about important indoor air quality issues that affect children's health.
1998 Grants
Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas $5,000
4 South Delsea Drive, P. O. Box 510, Glassboro, NJ 08028
Farm Worker Family Environmental Project
The purpose of this program of the Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA) is to educate and empower Puerto Rican farm workers and their children to take an active role in protecting themselves from health risks posed by environmental hazards. The program, which is conducted in southwest Puerto Rico, is intended to reach migrant farm workers and their families. CATA is conducting a study of current environmental hazards, educating agricultural workers about the hazards posed by pesticides and techniques for preventing exposure to them, and developing the leadership skills of farm workers.
County of Somerset $5,000
Ross Zito, P. O. Box 3000, Somerville, NJ 08876-1262
Non-Point-Source Pollution Workshop
The program on non-point-source pollution consists of a full-day workshop for middle school students and their teachers. The workshop will focus on the effects of non-point-source pollution on the Great Swamp watershed. Planned for Earth Week 1999, the session will provide 80 students and 20 teachers with presentations, discussions, and field activities designed to engage them in watershed issues. Speakers and facilitators will be drawn from the Somerset County Park Commission Environmental Center, the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education, and environmental organizations. Teachers will participate in sessions on teaching techniques for familiarizing their students with crucial environmental issues.
East Brunswick Public Schools $5,000
Thomas P. Smith, 760 Route 18, East Brunswick, NJ 08816
Collaborative Stream Monitoring Program
The project will educate students, parents, and community members in East Brunswick, New Jersey about the importance of clean water to stream quality and the threat posed to human health and the water supply by environmental pollution. The collaborative project involves the East Brunswick Environmental Commission, the public schools of East Brunswick, and members of parks and watershed groups in the township who monitor water quality in Ireland and Lawrence brooks and compare and report data. Students trained in water monitoring procedures will visit two sampling locations regularly to collect samples. They then analyze data and share the information with others in person and on local cable television.
El Comite de Apoyo a los Trabajadores Agricolas $20,000
Nelson Carrasquillo, 4 South Delsea Drive, P. O. Box 510, Glassboro, NJ 08028
Pesticide Education Outreach Program
This program seeks to educate approximately 11,000 Mexican migrant workers and their families who live in the southern portion of Chester County about issues related to environmental justice, legal rights, pesticide safety, and regulations intended to protect workers from exposure to pesticides. Workers are encouraged to take a more active role in protecting themselves and their families. They participate in interactive learning programs, role-play, and examine case studies through the program, which is designed to achieve the goals of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's agricultural workers protection standard.
Environmental Commission of Camden County $3,135
Peter Kroll, 1301 Park Boulevard, Cherry Hill, NJ 08002-3752
Education for Environmental Awareness
The Education for Environmental Awareness program presents the concept of the geographic information system (GIS) to Camden County educators, public environmental officials, and the general public through workshops, lectures, and presentations. Participants learn how to use GIS technology, which displays data, including environmental data, to make more informed assessments of their environment and of environmental issues. By presenting case studies of circumstances in which GIS has been applied, the project introduces relevant environmental issues and trains educators and environmental groups to use GIS in addressing such issues.
Greater Newark Conservancy $24,425
Lisa Leal, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
Healthy Environment, Healthy Me - Teacher Training Project
The Greater Newark Conservancy (GNC), in partnership with the Resource Center of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), trains 70 elementary school teachers in the city to use the Healthy Environment - Healthy Me curriculum. The program teaches students about possible environmental hazards and how to reduce environmental risk in their lives. EOHSI staff will train GNC staff who then will conduct seven workshops for Newark teachers. The areas of study included are: My Environment and Me; Recycling: A Community Pollution Solution; Using my Safety Sense; Creating a Safer Environment; Exploring Water Pollution; Exploring Air Pollution; and Garbage, Garbage, Garbage.
Liberty Science Center $5,000
Karen R. Longo, Liberty State Park, 251 Phillip Street, Jersey City, NJ 07305-4699
Environmental Education in the Urban Classroom
The Liberty Science Center and the Interpretive Center at Liberty State Park offer the program Environmental Education in the Urban Classroom (EEUC) through workshops and hands-on field experience. The goals of the program are to educate teachers about local environmental issues, enhance their teaching skills, and empower them to teach students about local issues that involve considerations of environmental justice. Teachers from urban schools in the Jersey City, Newark, and Paterson, New Jersey school districts participate in the program.
New Jersey Audubon Society $23,250
Patricia Kane, 9 Hardscrabble Road, P. O. Box 126, Bernardsville, NJ 07924
Bridges to the Natural World
The New Jersey Audubon Society holds 10 workshops in various locations around the state to familiarize teachers with a variety of New Jersey habitats and equip them to provide their students with educational field trips in the outdoors. The program uses the curriculum Bridges to the Natural World, which conforms to the state's content standards for core curricula, to incorporate a variety of learning styles. Teachers are provided 10 workshops covering hands-on activities and lessons about the diversity and interdependence of species in a variety of New Jersey habitats.
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School $110,000
Audrey R. Gotsch, University of Medicine and Dentistry, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, P. O. Box 1179, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1179
ToxRAP for Spanish Bilingual Classrooms
This project addresses health issues by teaching Spanish bilingual educators and Spanish-speaking students how to minimize the threats to human health posed by environmental pollution. The Public Education and Risk Communication Division of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School provides Spanish bilingual educators with curriculum materials by adapting and translating its new and successful curriculum ToxRAP (Toxicology, Risk Assessment, and Pollution). Bilingual educators participate in the review and evaluation of the curriculum to ensure that the materials are adapted appropriately. At its annual summer institute, the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute trains more than 50 bilingual educators from Arizona and New Jersey in the use of the ToxRAP materials. Partners in the project include school districts in Arizona and New Jersey and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona, whose mission is to strengthen education and research in toxicology and environmental health.
1997 Grants
Camp Vacamas Association, Inc. $5,000
Michael H. Friedman, 256 Macopin Road, West Milford, NJ 07480
GREEN YOUTH Program
Under the GREEN YOUTH Program, Camp Vacamas provides experiential education for at-risk inner city youngsters from diverse backgrounds. GREEN YOUTH educates students from Paterson's Eastside High School to become peer trainers in environmental education. Through four in-school workshops, the program teaches a corps of 20 juniors and seniors the activities, environmental concepts, and skills they need to conduct workshops for other students. Participants in the program explore important environmental issues as they acquire the problem-solving and decision-making skills that are the core of education.
Citizen Policy & Education Fund of New Jersey $14,995
Ralph Scott, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601
Newark Area Lead Poisoning Education, Train-the-Trainer Project
This project creates a Newark area infrastructure in lead poisoning education by training staff from 24 area organizations and agencies. The Citizen Policy & Education Fund (CPEF) works in partnership with agencies that provide services to families at high risk for lead poisoning. Staff learn to incorporate lead-poisoning prevention education into their regular work with families, thereby establishing programs in their own agencies. CPEF facilitates communication and collaboration among agencies to increase their effectiveness and provides ongoing assistance and follow-up training.
Global Learning Inc. $5,000
Jeffrey Brown, 1018 Stuyvesant Avenue, Union, NJ 07083-6023
New Jersey and Sustainable Development Conference
The New Jersey and Sustainable Development Conference gives middle and high school science and social studies teachers the opportunity to address the issues of sustainable development in New Jersey. The program demonstrates and distributes supplemental interdisciplinary curriculum materials developed under the New Jersey Sustainable Development Project. The project also addresses recently adopted state educational standards and provides interactive, highly motivating educational activities.
Greater Newark Conservancy $5,000
Lisa Lerl, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102
Water Quality Project
The Water Quality Project's goals include improving the quality of environmental education in three urban elementary and middle schools in Newark, New Jersey, by working with teachers to create an environmental education program that has the potential to become a permanent part of the three schools' programming. Teachers focus on the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, learning about the area's ecology and exploring methods of incorporating hands-on activities into their curricula. An information exchange among the three schools allows students to conduct comparative monitoring of the estuary and link the project to other statewide water monitoring programs.
Hackensack Meadowlands Development Commission $4,995
Robert Sikora, 2 DeKorte Park Plaza, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071-3707
Improving Environmental Education Teaching Programs
This project employs two successful teacher training models, the summer seminar on environmental issues and an in-service training and curriculum revision meeting. The project assists teachers in the development, delivery, and institutionalization of quality environmental education programs through districtwide planning for the revision of curricula. The in-service training involves fifth- and sixth-grade teachers from schools in Hoboken in three days of training and five curriculum planning sessions. The summer session for 20 teachers is a two-week graduate level course that incorporates a variety of teaching methods, hands-on workshops, and laboratory exercises, as well as a mock public hearing that serves as a problem-solving exercise.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection $30,150
Tanya Oznowich, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, P. O. Box 402, Trenton, NJ 08625-0402
New Jersey Classroom Reform
This project provides faculty, parents, and students in kindergarten through grade 12 comprehensive and effective supplemental and enrichment materials in environmental education that support the New Jersey core curriculum content standards (CCCS) and other needs identified through education reform efforts in the state. Under the project, 13 trained facilitators develop a multisubject matrix for each activity and a master matrix of cross-referenced activities for each of the four projects the program includes. Further, 15 to 20 trained facilitators identify needs and develop new modules or a series of enhancements of current workshops that link each project to the CCCSs. The modules or enhancements are pilot-tested in eight project workshops. A three-day workshop for facilitators that highlights support for education reform rounds out the project.
North Arlington Board of Education $1,100
Loris Chen, 222 Ridge Road, North Arlington, NJ 07031
Project WET/WOW Workshop
The North Arlington Board of Education provides a one-day in-service training program to assist elementary school teachers in developing environmental lessons based on Project WET/WOW and ensuring that those lessons meet the standards for core curricula established by the state of New Jersey for various disciplines. The workshop is designed to educate teachers about critical issues related to watersheds and to improve environmental instruction in the elementary schools of the district. Teachers are introduced to environmental lessons that can be integrated into the curriculum to meet state standards for kindergarten through fifth-grade programs.
Schooner Clyde A. Phillips, Inc., t/a Delaware Bay Schooner Project $5,000
Meghan E. Wren, 2800 High Street, Port Norris, NJ 08349
The River as Classroom
This project supports environmental education sailing trips for more than 3,000 New Jersey students. The program emphasizes compatible and incompatible uses of the Delaware Estuary resource and explores the stresses on the estuary that result from daily decisions. Students in grades 4 through 12 in public, parochial, and independent schools take part in the program. The activities conducted on the schooner, as well as related preparation and follow-up experiences, encourage a heightened awareness of the interdependence of humans and the Delaware Estuary.
1996 Grants
Camp Vacamas $5,000
Michael H. Friedman, 256 Macopin Road, West Milford, NJ 07480
The Teachers Utilizing Natural Environments Program (TUNE)
The Teachers Utilizing Natural Environments Program (TUNE) will train 15 teachers and provide 100 students from elementary schools in Paterson to use the camp's outdoor facility for hands-on environmental learning experiences. TUNE will provide inner-city educators and students with the knowledge and opportunity to explore the environment and acquire the thinking skills needed to solve problems. The teacher workshops will be followed by a practical teaching weekend during which the educator-participants will teach the environmental lessons to students from their schools. The resulting In-TUNE With Nature manual will combine teaching materials and participants suggestions.
Citizen Policy and Education Fund of New Jersey $5,000
Ralph Scott, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601
The Paterson Childhood Lead Poisoning Train-The-Trainer Project
The Paterson Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Train-The-Trainer Project is training 60 staff members from organizations in Paterson to teach their constituents about childhood lead poisoning and its prevention and enhance efforts to teach family members about local lead poisoning regulations. It is one of the first to target Paterson's Arabic population. This program will bring in as partners key organizations, agencies, and institutions that have strong relationships with low-income families and have the capacity to interact directly with them. The goal is to educate and encourage compliance with local laws requiring lead inspection and remediation in residential properties prior to re-rental or sale.
Hackensack Meadowlands Development Corporation $4,870
Anne Galli, Two DeKorte Park Plaza, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071-3707
The New Jersey Critical Environmental Issues Seminar
The New Jersey Critical Environmental Issues Seminar is a two-week graduate level course for formal and nonformal educators of sixth through twelfth grades which consists of presentations, field trips, hands-on workshops, laboratory testing, and role-plays. The programming is designed to improve the environmental literacy and decision making skills of teachers and parents and encourage them to disseminate this knowledge and these skills to their constituencies. The focus of this seminar will be to pilot an environmental health component with a concentration on community-based issues and a newly strengthened section on wetlands.
The Wetlands Institute $22,039
Karen Bage, 1075 Stone Harbor Boulevard, Stone Harbor, NJ 08247-1424
Facilitator and Teacher Training Workshops: WOW!: The Wonders of Wetlands
WOW!: The Wonders of Wetlands workshops are training 120 educators throughout New Jersey. The project provides additional training for 40 Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) facilitators and 80 educators in three workshops in WOW!, a recently developed Project WET curriculum. WOW!, designed to improve environmental education skills for formal and nonformal educators, provides hands-on activities emphasizing problem solving, investigative learning, and critical thinking about wetlands. Additional workshops on freshwater and saltwater wetlands will teach participants environmental education techniques and ways to incorporate wetlands curricular activities into their programs. In addition, within one year 800 additional educators should be reached as trained facilitators conduct additional workshops.
1995 Grants
Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority $2,250
Herman B. Engelbert, 1645 Ferry Avenue, P. O. Box 1432, Camden, NJ 08101-1432
Environmental Education Workshop Program
The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA) will develop an interactive computer program depicting operation of a secondary wastewater treatment facility. The computer program can be adapted into an animated instructional video. The CCMUA will produce, duplicate, and distribute the materials to 220 schools in Camden County. CCMUA professional staff will be available to provide supplementary discussions before and after use of the materials.
Citizen Policy and Education Fund $5,000
Ralph Scott, 400 Main Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601
Paterson Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Education Project
The Citizen Policy and Education Fund (CPEF) of New Jersey will educate families with children under six years of age about lead poisoning, the importance of lead screening, and how Paterson's lead poisoning prevention law can enhance lead poisoning prevention practices. CPEF will translate a brochure they developed into Spanish and Arabic. The Spanish translation will target a community that makes up more than 40% of the population. The Arabic translation will serve a population that is smaller, but substantial. This will be the first systematic lead poisoning education effort to target Paterson's Arabic population.
City of New Brunswick, Bureau of Recycling $5,000
Donna Y. Caputo, 78 Bayard Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Recycling in Multi-Family Dwellings
This project will educate multi-family residents, superintendents, and city management about recycling. Multi-family dwelling recycling has not reached the level of success which single family dwelling areas have demonstrated. This program will produce and disseminate print materials in multi-language format and provide presentations to building managers and supervisors on recycling. The plan will be implemented by a local cooperating committee which is comprised of representatives from residents and the local government.
Greater Newark Conservancy $5,000
Deborah Hadley, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor, Rm 3, Newark, NJ 07102
Teacher Training: Water Quality Projects for Newark Elementary Students
The Greater Newark Conservancy proposes through the Water Quality Project to train nine upper elementary and middle school teachers in three inner-city Newark schools. Through four workshops and on-going technical assistance, educators will be empowered to use hands-on activities from existing appropriate environmental curricula. As a result, more than 300 students will learn about the Hudson-Raritan Estuary and issues related to water quality. Each participating school will receive curricular materials and water testing equipment to enable students to assess local water pollution problems.
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School - Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) $24,589
Audrey R. Gotsch, 681 Frelinghuysen Road - P. O. Box 1179, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1179
Bilingual Environmental Education and Training Project
This project will reach Latino students and their families with environmental health science education. Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) will, in collaboration with educators, adapt an existing successful curriculum, "Healthy Environment-Healthy Me," to meet the needs of bilingual (Spanish/English) and English as a Second Language (ESL) educators and students. The grantee will prepare a bilingual supplement to its curriculum for kindergarten through 3rd grade and hold environmental education workshops for bilingual educators. The curriculum focuses on ecology, pollution prevention, solid waste management, safe handling and reduction of hazardous household products. Objectives include developing skills to evaluate, prevent, or avoid environmental health risks.
1994 Grants
American Littoral Society $18,500
D.W. Bennett, Highlands, NJ 07732
ESTUARIES Workshops
The American Littoral Society will sponsor teacher workshops in the New York Harbor area using an existing curriculum, ESTUARIES. This program is designed to motivate teachers to introduce estuarine-related studies to students, introduce interdisciplinary curricula related to estuaries, complement efforts in the public and private sectors in environmental education related to harbor and estuary programs, and demonstrate how individuals can protect estuaries.
Genesis Farm, Inc. $5,000
Sister Patricia Daly OP, 41a Silver Lake Road, Blairstown, NJ 07825
Teacher Workshops on Ecosystems
Genesis Farm embodies the ideal of "living lightly on the earth." This program will consist of teacher workshops for elementary school educators, which will provide them with materials for classroom implementation and current scientific understanding of ecosystems. The workshops will enable teachers to collaborate on the development of environmental education programs and share information regarding effective models.
Greater Newark Conservancy $5,000
Deborah Hadley, 303-9 Washington Street, 5th Floor Room 2, Newark, NJ 07102
Weatherwatch Pilot Program
With this grant, the Weatherwatch Pilot Program will continue and expand a pilot project to measure the impact of meteorological phenomena and pollution on the environment by creating partnerships between Newark schools and nonprofit environmental organizations. This phase of the program that began in 1993 will reach ten schools, enabling educators to use the hands-on weather curriculum with an estimated 400 students.
New Jersey Audubon Society $24,000
Peter Bacinski, 790 Ewing Avenue, P. O. Box 125, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417
New Jersey Audubon Society's Bridges to the Natural World
This grant funds the New Jersey Audubon Society's Bridges to the Natural World, the first natural history guide providing educators with information specific to New Jersey. The guide will be the basis for teacher and facilitator workshops, which will reach educators throughout New Jersey. The goal of the project is to empower the educators to make environmental education relevant, exciting, and accessible in urban, suburban, and rural settings.
New Jersey Department of Education $224,583
Sylvia Kaplan, NJ Department of Education, 225 E. State St., CN 500, Trenton, NJ 08625
Project CLEEN
"Project CLEEN" will prepare New Jersey vocational technical students for environmental careers. It will identify ten occupational areas throughout the state which have the greatest pollution problems, develop environmental management curriculum resources to address problems at these sites, host educator workshops, and disseminate curriculum and professional development materials nationwide. The focus of the project will be to prepare individuals to prevent pollution in the workplace.
Warren County 4-H Leaders Association $5,000
Carol Knowlton Ward, 165 County Road, Route 519 South, Belvidere, NJ 07823
Training for Teens
The New Jersey 4-H Conservation School will be a hands-on program for teens, introducing them to environmental issues such as waste management and water quality. State, county, and private sector partners also fund this program that will draw youth from throughout New Jersey. Participants learn about the environment and how to relate their concern about environmental issues to policy makers.
Washington Township Board of Education $4,000
Helen E. DiPascale, 234 Sharon Road, Robbinsville, NJ 08691
Family Learning for Environmental Education
This grant will fund "Family Learning for Environmental Education." The project will involve students in grades 4 through 6 and their parents. It provides them with the opportunity to learn about the environment and prepares them to make informed decisions. The family learning sessions will be conducted in evening and Saturday morning sessions.
1993 Grants
Bridgeton School District $4,875
Douglas Frost, Bridgeton Board of Education, P. O. Box 657, Bridgeton, NJ 08302
Green Plant Program
The "Green Plant Program" will train elementary and high school teachers to use plant identification and field practices to teach environmental principles. High school students will work with elementary school students in plant identification and conduct field work to study the ability of local plants to concentrate heavy metals.
Cape May County Municipal Utilities Authority $4,480
Bridget M. O'Connor, P. O. Box 610, Cape May Court House, NJ 08210
Shoe Box Teaching Kit
The "Shoe Box Teaching Kit" project will develop classroom-ready, interesting kits, by and for teachers, for use in environmental education in Cape May County. Each kit will include background information for teachers, lesson plans, and the necessary equipment. County personnel will be involved in teacher training and materials evaluation.
Englewood Public Schools $5,000
Richard Segall, 12 Tenafly Road, Englewood, NJ 07631
Outcomes-Based Environmental Curriculum
This "Outcomes-Based Environmental Curriculum" project will result in at least eight interdisciplinary units and a core of teachers prepared to implement them. The units will explore human impact on the environment and develop a strategy to effect change. Summer workshops and follow-up sessions will develop teacher-guided units in elementary, middle, and high schools.
Greater Newark Conservancy $5,000
Deborah Hadley, 303-9 Washington Street, Fifth Floor-Room 2, Newark, NJ 07102
Weatherwatch
The "Weatherwatch" project will involve the students in five schools and their 20 teachers in a study of meteorological phenomena and the impact they have on the local environment. The project will also develop an information network with five other New Jersey schools and partnerships with professional meteorologists. "Weatherwatch" will improve the environmental consciousness of Newark's predominantly African-American and Hispanic youth.
Mercer County Soil Conservation District $2,182
Craig C. Halbower, 508 Hughes Drive, Hamilton Square, NJ 08690
Envirothon
This project will initiate a statewide Envirothon, a national hands-on, environmental competition for high school students. A reference handbook will be devised to guide preparation in the following areas: soil, forestry, aquatics, wildlife ecology, and environmental issues. The target audience will include New Jersey high school environmental clubs and youth organizations.
South Branch Watershed Association $2,750
Winnie Fatton, 45 Emery Avenue, Flemington, NJ 08822
Compiling a Natural Resource Inventory (NRI)
The "Compiling a Natural Resource Inventory (NRI)" and "Student Environmental Exchange (SEE)" projects will complement and expand the elementary science curriculum in this school district. Teachers will be provided with needed assistance in conducting outdoor field studies and maintaining an NRI. The project provides students with an understanding of the watershed and improves communication among schools.
1992 Grants
Cherry Hill Public Schools $4,135
Cherry Hill, NJ 08034
Project Earth
For "Project Earth," two high school environmental clubs will establish environmental programs in district elementary schools to address natural resource conservation, pollution, and recycling issues. The project also will implement a district-wide environmental curriculum in the schools.
Collier Services $3,745
Wickatunk, NJ 07765
Wetlands: Save or Pave
The "Wetlands: Save or Pave" program at the Kateri Center will expose handicapped and at-risk youth to environmental issues concerning ponds, wetlands, and other water systems. The program also will educate the youth on the need for conservation practices in these aquatic settings. Hands-on activities will include field investigations of water chemistry and macro- and microscopic biota.
Montclair Board of Education $5,000
Montclair, NJ 07042
Courtyard Conservation: An Environmental Education Project
This grant funds the "Courtyard Conservation: An Environmental Education Project" which involves developing an outdoor site for educating participants about environmental issues. For this project, participants will learn to design a curriculum that maximizes the educational uses of the facility.
Pinelands Regional School District $5,000
Tuckerton, NJ 08087
Pinelands Environmental Experience
The "Pinelands Environmental Experience" project provides educators in-service training on methods for integrating existing curricula with the Pinelands Environmental Experience residential program. The project will provide an enhanced, hands-on approach for participants.