Okefenokee—Understanding Real-world Relevance through Suwannee Watershed Assessment and Monitoring Project (OUR2 SWAMP)
Implementing Organization
Georgia Southern University
Overview
DWH Project Funding
$763,897
Known Leveraged Funding
$0
Funding Organization
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine – Gulf Research Program (NASEM - GRP)
Funding Program
NASEM Gulf Research Program Grants
Details
Project Category
Human and Social
Project Actions
Education and Outreach
Targeted Resources
Human and/or Institutional Capacity
Project Description
While local watersheds and the larger water bodies they ultimately flow into can seem geographically distant and disconnected from one another, activities occurring in the local watersheds and the overall ecosystem health of these watersheds have significant downstream impacts on the ecological health of the larger water bodies. This is particularly true of the Gulf of Mexico, which receives water from rivers draining from 31 states. This project aims to increase 6th-12th grade students’ understanding of these causal relationships and is focused around the Okefenokee Swamp in southeastern Georgia and its impact on the Gulf of Mexico. The project will train and provide ongoing support for teachers to integrate local ecosystem monitoring—through Adopt-A-Stream and other citizen science projects—with problem-based learning and fieldwork to provide first-hand demonstrations for students of the connection between their local watershed and the Gulf of Mexico. Community demographics in the region will also result in increased participation of underrepresented and underserved populations in citizen science.
Contact
Lacey HufflingNone
lhuffling@georgiasouthern.edu
Project Website
None
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