Hawaiʻi
Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) Program

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The Hawaiʻi B-WET program plays a foundational role as an environmental education program promoting locally relevant, experiential learning, primarily for grades K-12, on regional priorities such as Indigenous knowledge and science with an emphasis on climate. Funded projects provide Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences (MWEEs) in Hawaiʻi’s ahupuaʻa for students and professional development for teachers. The purpose for this grant program is to support communities by developing well-informed members of society who are involved in decision-making that positively impacts coastal, marine, and watershed ecosystems in the Hawaiian Islands.

For more information, please contact Mahealani.Bambico@noaa.gov.

High school students from Hawaiʻi Island stand on a black sand beach facing the ocean in preparation to conduct water quality monitoring and to collect a plankton sample.

Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences

The Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) is a learner-centered framework that focuses on investigations into local environmental issues and leads to informed action.

A couple of people in jeans and hats stand at a wire fence in the mountains looking down across an expansive coastline.

Ahupuaʻa (traditional land division)

The Hawaiian Islands are an excellent resource for environmental education and provide a multitude of “hands-on” laboratories where students can see, touch, hear, feel, and learn about earth processes and the dynamic interactions of different ecosystems within an ahupuaʻa.

A group of youth stand in a wet taro patch.

Learning Science by Connecting to the Hawaiian Culture

Learn more about how traditional Hawaiian knowledge engages students, teachers, and communities through watershed education.

Students face the ahupua`a or watershed in their community with their hands up in offering.

Indigenous Knowledge

The Hawaiʻi B-WET program provides a venue for students and teachers to weave traditional knowledge systems, values, and practices with Western science tools into contemporary ahupuaʻa management practices. Ahupuaʻa throughout the Hawaiian Islands provide a locally relevant opportunity through broader community stewardship initiatives for engaging local students in MWEEs through meaningful science-based learning experiences that advance learning skills and problem-solving abilities through a biocultural lens with the general school curriculum.

Hawaiʻi B-WET 20th Anniversary logo

Hawaiʻi B-WET 20th Anniversary

We are looking forward to bringing our past and present Hawaiʻi B-WET grantees together for an engaging gathering and celebration in late October at Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi in Heʻeia, Oʻahu. During our time together, we will be hosting various educational sessions surrounding B-WET collaboration, Indigenous knowledge, community engagement, climate resilience, and current trends in ocean science.

A student is kneeling down in a tidepool looking at a quadrat to identify the type of limu or seaweed found in the intertidal zone.

Project Spotlight: University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

The UH Mānoa College of Education, Curriculum Research and Development Group has a project called Our Project in Hawaiʻi’s Intertidal or OPIHI. It includes teachers statewide who are trained on the rocky intertidal ecosystem in Hawaiʻi, where they receive the tools and resources they need to lead their students in scientific data collection.

A line of teachers and students walk along a hillside in the Kohala mountains on the Island of Hawaiʻi.

Project Spotlight: The Kohala Center

Hawaiʻi B-WET has had a lasting impact on participants. Explore The Kohala Center’s perspective to learn about their program and how it benefits the educators,students, and local community they serve.

Two hands holding a native plant that is bushy and green.

Definitions

To gain a better understanding of the Hawaiian language and culture, get familiar with the Hawaiian words and other terms that are used throughout the Hawaiʻi B-WET program.

Two high school students examine a sample of ocean water to identify plankton under a microscope.

National B-WET Program

B-WET was established in 2002 in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and currently exists in seven regions: California, Chesapeake, Hawaiʻi, Gulf of Mexico, New England, Pacific Northwest, and Great Lakes.