The NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program has published An Educator’s Guide to the Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE). The guide explains why the MWEE is a powerful educational framework, describes the essential elements and supporting practices, and offers resources to help educators lead MWEEs with their students.
Access the complete MWEE Guide, which includes planning tools and student worksheets.
MWEEs are compelling hands-on opportunities for students to explore local environmental issues through sustained, teacher-supported programming. Well designed MWEEs increase student interest and engagement in learning, support academic achievement, advance 21st century skills, advance environmental stewardship and civic responsibility, and promote equity and environmental justice. MWEEs also contribute to NOAA’s mission by helping to foster an environmentally literate public who make informed environmental decisions.
The MWEE Guide is a manual designed for people who are new to the MWEE framework as well as experienced MWEE practitioners. The tools and information in this guide help educators ensure that MWEEs are done thoroughly and thoughtfully to increase student environmental literacy.
The NOAA B-WET program promotes MWEEs across the country to assist with the development of effective projects founded in best practices determined through environmental education evaluation and research.
This version of the MWEE Guide builds off of a previous version published by the Chesapeake Bay Program in 2017 and revised in 2019. After supporting MWEEs around the country for 20 years, B-WET recognized the need for a MWEE Guide that was designed for a national audience. This guide is appropriate for any educator interested in implementing environmental education activities about watersheds and/or other environmental issues, no matter where they are located and regardless of whether or not they have received NOAA B-WET grant funding.
