Up to $60,000 being offered to Florida teachers to educate students on water resources

PALATKA, Fla., Aug. 2, 2023 — Now entering the eighth year of its Blue School Grant program, the St. Johns River Water Management District, with full support of its Governing Board, is offering up to $60,000 in grants for education projects that enrich student knowledge of Florida’s water resources through hands-on learning. The application period runs Aug. 1–Sept. 15 and is available to K–12 teachers within the District’s 18-county area.

These high school students participated in water quality sampling and monitoring through the District’s Blue School Grant Program.

“This is such a meaningful program, and I’m honored to play a small role in teaching kids how to be good stewards of the environment,” said St. Johns River Water Management District Education and Outreach Coordinator Laura La Beur. “We’ve made some exciting changes to the Blue School Grant program this year, including increasing the funding by $40,000. Last year we were able to help over a dozen teachers educate students on the importance of water conservation, and with this increased funding, we will be able to reach even more students across our 18-county service area.”

To date, the District has funded 89 water resource education projects with a total of over $125,000 awarded to local schools.

Through the District’s Blue School Grant program, up to $3,000 per school may be awarded to educators working with grades K–12 to enhance student knowledge of Florida’s water resources. The application is intentionally created to be quick and easy, keeping in mind the challenging workload we know all teachers face. The District aims to support teachers by enhancing current lesson plans to create a bigger impact for students studying water resources in any subject area. Public and charter teachers within the District’s boundaries are eligible to apply.

Examples of previous successful grant applications include:

• Service-learning projects where middle and high school students partnered to study water quality
• Water quality comparison of stormwater ponds on campus
• Conversion of traditional irrigation to micro-irrigation in school landscape
• Water conservation awareness posters and videos

Teachers receiving grants will be notified in late October.

Information about criteria and deadlines, and the online application can be found at www.sjrwmd.com/education/blue-school or contact Laura La Beur at LLaBeur@sjrwmd.com or 321-473-1339.