Greening STEM Grants

Greening STEM Grants

In Spring 2025, the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) will collaborate with PPG Foundation (PPG) to select a cohort of Greening STEM projects from the PPG communities of Cleveland, OH, Greensboro, NC, and Huntsville, AL. The awards will support holistic STEM programs that infuse environmental science and resources into school curricula focused on student-directed investigations of relevant topics of research, local environmental issues, or problems affecting local public lands. The funding will allow formal and nonformal educators to design and deliver STEM programming that engages youth in place-based learning and environmental monitoring.
Through these PPG Foundation Greening STEM grants, PPG and NEEF seek to advance mutual STEM education goals by providing program participants with access to authentic STEM learning experiences that use the environment as a context for engagement.
Programming funded by these grants will utilize STEM-focused content, instructional strategies, training approaches, and collaboration and dissemination technologies to assist school educators and staff in implementing and enhancing learning in and outside of the classroom. Following project completion, all resources and related content developed under these grants will be made available via NEEF’s Greening STEM Hub.

Grant Program Priorities

NEEF and PPG aim to increase grantee teams’ understanding of how to use STEM learning activities to address environmental challenges, engender stewardship, and forge lasting collaborations by:

• bringing Greening STEM programming that includes citizen science or environmental monitoring activities to middle to high school students;
• building the capacity of BLM and formal and informal educators to offer high quality STEM programming that aligns with state education standards;
• helping schools build a culture that values using the environment as a context for improving student learning and achievement;
• facilitating a collaborative development and planning process for engaging youth in environmental monitoring activities—identifying a topic relevant to the community and collecting environmental data (e.g., air, soil, water quality) while practicing Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs), acquiring Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs), and applying Crosscutting Concepts (CCC)
• stimulating educational partnerships between schools, and community-based organizations that facilitate meaningful place-based learning experiences for students;
• engendering environmental stewardship through a learner-centered approach that encourages authentic problem-solving, collaboration, and leadership in planning and leading a learning expedition in public lands;
• increasing student interest in STEM content and careers.

Greening STEM Project Design Principles

The Greening STEM Model is an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to teaching STEM subjects that uses the natural environment and real-world challenges to engage learners and deliver high-quality STEM education. The student’s experiences and interests are at the center of learning as they explore STEM content and develop a 21st century skills set. Throughout the experience, students can be tasked with different levels of responsibility from working as a team on a project to planning and leading a learning expedition. By having autonomy to design and explore a question of interest related to local landscapes, students are offered opportunities for authentic problem-solving while making gains in environmental knowledge and fostering a stewardship ethic.

All PPG Greening STEM projects shall include elements of two or more of the 2025 Greening STEM Project Design Principles. These are: place-based learning, three-dimensional learning, project-based learning, and community-based learning.

Place-based learning elements

Students are encouraged to explore a topic of study, issue, or problem through direct first-hand experience; collaboration between students interested in the same topic of study, issue, or problem is encouraged; facilitators (DE affiliated educator, community partners, nonformal educators) serve as connectors to existing ways to involve learners with the topics of interest.

Three-dimensional learning elements

Exploration of an anchoring phenomenon encourages students to question assumptions and current understanding; STEM practices are used to motivate problem-solving; exploration of the anchoring phenomenon leads to disciplinary core ideas; cross-cutting concepts are used to connect the anchoring phenomenon to real world events.

Project-based learning elements

The learners are intellectually challenged by their project work; the nature of their project engages learners over the course of days, weeks, or even months; real-world authenticity is simulated by the selection of tools, techniques, and technology used to explore the topic of study, issue, or problem; the students have an opportunity to share their work with audiences beyond their classroom.

Community-based learning elements

The topic of inquiry is explored within a local cultural context, encouraging learners to understand the unique makeup of their communities and the factors that shape them. They consider which knowledge systems and traditions are recognized in discussions of the issue and which are overlooked, as well as how this influences current understanding. Students also examine how different solutions impact their communities, ensuring they are practical, respectful of local perspectives, and responsive to the needs of those affected.

Eligibility

_You can learn more about this opportunity by visiting the funder's website._

• Funding Can Be Requested to Support:
  • Staff/personnel costs for partner project team members.
  • Directly related travel costs for partner project team members
  • Transportation costs for students and youth participants
  • Development and printing of training and educational materials (e.g. cost to print field manuals, protocol documents, datasheets, etc.)
  • Project-specific supplies and materials (e.g. measurement equipment, tablets, software, etc.)
  • Data quality measures/evaluations.
  • Costs for professional development for partner staff and educators to learn more about Greening STEM Design Principles (e.g. trainings on place-based learning, three-dimensional learning, project-based learning, and/or community-based learning) and other skill sets germane to execution of the project
  • On-site costs (e.g. transportation, portable restrooms)
  • Postage/shipping (e.g. costs to mail students educational materials and/or supplies)
  • Analysis of samples (e.g. water quality samples sent to a lab)
  • Data analysis
  • Training in program planning, citizen science or environmental monitoring, and Greening STEM Design Principles (no more than 10% of project budget should support training).