LSSI News & Events

Initiative News

 

NOAA Grant Awarded to the Western UP Center to expand LSSI activities

The Western UP Center received a $59,630 grant from the NOAA B-WET program to expand the work of the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative (LSSI). LSSI involves 15 school-community teams composed of 85 teachers, 50 community partners, and 2500 students from Houghton, Baraga, and Keweenaw counties in environmental stewardship activities in the Lake Superior watershed.

The major goal of LSSI is to prepare K-12 students to become knowledgeable citizens, concerned about the Great Lakes, and actively engaged in stewardship activities that will contribute to the health, conservation, and future protection of the Great Lakes and their watersheds.

Four over-arching themes guide the implementation of the LSSI: developing a connection to place, responsibility to community, partnerships between teachers, students and community members to address community needs, and active stewardship of the Lake Superior watershed.

Specifically, the new grant will broaden the impact of LSSI by:
• Providing mini-grant funding to 15 school-community teams to communicate the importance of their stewardship work through community outreach events in their school and local community.
• Supporting professional learning communities of teachers within participating school-community teams focused on strategies to engage students in relevant learning experience concerning the Lake Superior watershed.
• Hosting the 10th Biannual Lake Superior Youth Symposium May 16-19, 2013, which will bring together more than 400 students, teachers, and community partners from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario to learn about and celebrate the Lake Superior Watershed.

The funding period for this grant is July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.