Chesapeake Bay Watershed
In the Chesapeake Bay Watershed we are partnering with school districts and education organizations to incorporate authentic civic experiences into STEM education. There are three elements to our programming in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed:
School & Educators
Earth Force is working with a series of school districts, schools and educators in Maryland, DC and Virginia to provide educator professional development, capacity building, and implementation planning as schools incorporate STEM-based civic projects into their STEM education curriculum.
Environmental Education Organizations
There are thousands of organizations using some form of environmental education in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Those organizations are reaching millions of young people each year. Earth Force is currently working with 8 organizations from Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York to adapt our model to fulfill their programmatic needs.
Promote Youth-Led Solutions
To promote the achievements of young people Earth Force partners with Nutrien to host the Chesapeake Bay Caring for our Watersheds contest. Students from across the watershed are invited (through their schools) to research the watershed and devise a proposal to address the issues they identify. Students then submit a proposal which is judged by a panel of experts. Those experts select the top 10 student groups who are invited to present their projects at the annual Student Environmental Action Showcase.
Rocky Mountains
Based in the Denver Metro Area our work in the Rocky Mountains is expanding to include efforts throughout the state of Colorado. There are two elements to our programming in the Rocky Mountains:
School & Educators
Earth Force is working with school districts, schools, and educators along the Front Range to provide educator professional development, capacity building, and implementation planning as schools incorporate STEM-based civic projects into their curriculum.
Promote Youth-Led Solutions
To promote the achievements of young people, Earth Force partners with FEMA to host the RISE Challenge. Students from Northern Colorado are invited (through their schools) to research community natural hazard risks (floods, fires, erosion) and devise a proposal to address the issues they identify. Students then submit a proposal which is judged by a panel of experts. Those experts select the top 10 student groups who are invited to present their projects at the annual RISE Challenge Summit.
Partners
Earth Force is working with partners from across the U.S. and Canada to integrate civic action into their environmental education programs. Those program represent a cross section of organizations interested in deepening youth engagement and have each made a substantial commitment to bringing the idea of environmental citizenship to scale.
For more information about how you can join this group of organizations please contact us earthforce@earthforce.org.