Abstract
The Marine Education Center (MEC), part of the University of Southern Mississippi, recently expanded a multi-year Meaningful Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) program to reach students from across the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast. The program focuses on coastal hazard resilience and aligns with the Community Resilience Index (CRI), a MS-AL SeaGrant publication, to introduce community planning and mitigation in the classroom. The program is multi-faceted and involves teacher development, student learning experiences, and a stewardship project. This past year over 600 students participated from 8 different schools. Partner teachers received support and attended a professional development workshop at the MEC exploring community resilience topics. Teachers then introduced students to resilience topics and how rising sea levels and coastal hazards may directly affect their communities. Students became with familiar with advanced mapping applications, i.e. the NOAA Sea Level Rise Viewer which highlights these direct affects in the community. Students next went outside the classroom on a trip to the MEC where they took a boat ride and collected samples in Davis Bayou. Back in the classroom, teachers then introduced the problem-based-learning projects with challenge scenarios assigned to student teams. The students worked together to explore historical flooding in their neighborhoods and propose solutions to the coastal community challenges. The groups then presented their solutions and the top presentations were selected to attend and present their ideas at the MEC’s Stewardship Summit. This project has been successful with the MEC and participating teachers continue to return to have their students be part of this meaningful learning experience in community resilience.
