Year: 2023
Relevance
Place-based experiential education experiences engage and educate K-12 students increasing their environmental and STEM literacy through direct experiences in coastal environments and discussion of coastal issues. These out-of-school activities increase student understanding of the relevance of coastal and ocean systems to their lives.
Response
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant-supported environmental education centers offered a variety of field-based and STEM education programs for K-12 students, their teachers and chaperones in Mississippi and Alabama. Onsite classes and activities were offered year-round and included educational standards-focused school-year classes, summer camps and drop-in programs. Programs focused on coastal natural history and ecology and ocean STEM activities and integrated Sea Grant focus areas and current issues, such as marine debris, climate change, coastal resilience and fisheries.
Results
MASGC-supported environmental education programs resulted in approximately 186,230 K-12 students actively engaged in learning about healthy coastal ecosystems, coastal resilience and fisheries through active field programs, classroom experiences and summer activities. Assessment data for onsite programs indicated statistically significant gains in student content knowledge for classes where pre/post testing was conducted.
Recap
Participation in Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium-supported environmental education programs at Discovery Hall Programs (Dauphin Island Sea Lab), the Environmental Studies Center (Mobile County Public School System) and the Marine Education Center (The University of Southern Mississippi) increased more than 186,000 K-12 students' STEM skills and understanding of healthy coastal ecosystems, fisheries, and resilience. (2023)