Educators invited to apply for STEAM-Enhancement Program

        Educators in Northwest Ohio are invited to apply through May 10 for year three of the Earth Heart Farms (EHF) outdoor STEAM-enhancement program in Ottawa County.
        There are openings in the 2024-2025 school year for 15 teachers in Northwest Ohio. Fifteen hours of Summer Professional Development (PD) are scheduled at EHF on June 10-12 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
        During the PD, teachers do everything onsite that their students can do during Fall Field Days. There is no fee to apply. Once accepted, there is a $100 registration fee to cover lunches and supplies.
        Educators then have the opportunity to receive a $1,000 stipend by contributing to the project’s research.
        EHF is comprised of 80-acres in Ottawa County on the Little Portage River in the Lake Erie Basin. The land was taken out of production 30 years ago and restored to a native grassland through the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
        The next phase of restoration utilizes the Lake Erie Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) and H2Ohio to protect environmentally sensitive lands. It includes additional wetland areas and a riparian buffer, involves management of invasive plants and reseeding the existing grassland.         Private lands access will continue through community engagement in STEAM-education, university research, conservation and cultural use programs.
        Fall Field Days at EHF provide hands-on outdoor lab experience where K-12 students and teachers can study biodiversity, ecosystems, extreme weather, air-soil-water health, upstream effect on harmful algal blooms (HABs) in Lake Erie, and environmental science careers.
        Stewardship projects relevant to the ecosystem at EHF, and how our habits affect biodiversity, resource quality and their health can help students learn about systems and interconnection.
        More than 400 students and 14 teachers from six local schools have visited EHF since the STEAM program launched in 2022.
        The program is currently funded through NOAA’s B-Wet grants and the University of Toledo’s (UT) GLOBE Mission EARTH (GME). The B-WET program is an environmental education program that promotes place-based experiential learning for K-12 students and related professional development for teachers. B-WET fosters the growth of new, innovative programs and encourages capacity-building and environmental education partnerships.
        GME is a NASA-funded project in collaboration with multiple institutions across the US to increase involvement in the GLOBE Program and to infuse education with NASA assets. Since 2016, GME has trained more than 160 teachers in conducting research investigations through GLOBE and impacted over 5,000 students. GLOBE has developed protocols for over 60 different observation types broken into atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and pedosphere.
        The GLOBE protocols align with the Ohio Science Standards.
        GME specialists work with the teachers and students during the academic year as they implement their research projects. They also team up at EHF with local conservation groups including US Fish and Wildlife Service, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Park District of Ottawa County, Friends of the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Green Creek Marsh Conservancy, Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Ohio Bluebird Society, and Ohio Ornithological Society to explore the habitat, collect data to monitor changes in biodiversity and resource quality over time.
        Educators are encouraged to apply at http://tiny.cc/Summer2024PD. For more information, email sara.mierzwiak@utoledo.edu or visit Earth Heart Farms LLC on Facebook.