The workshop is part of a NOAA B-Wet funded project called Wave Of Plastic and was awarded to the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The grantee is working to create a curriculum unit on Plastic Pollution and Reduction for public middle schools in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties in Maryland. In partnership with 10 teachers from those schools and the county science supervisors, the grantee developed the curriculum unit during the first year of the project and now, as they move into the second year, hosted a workshop to train the next cohort of teachers so they can teach the unit in the fourth quarter of the school year.

During the professional development workshop, Christy presented an overview of the Marine Debris Program and highlighted Mid-Atlantic prevention projects that have a strong educational component. Jennifer gave an overview of all the MDP educational resources such as the curricula, videos, and factsheets. In addition to these items, she also overviewed other NOAA and MDP partner educational resources that involve marine debris. The presentations concluded with a preview of a Trash Talk video and a “website walk” where participants viewed the MDP website and learned more on how to best leverage MDP products for the workshop as well as in the classroom.

For more information, contact Christy.Kehoe@noaa.gov or Jennifer.Simms@noaa.gov.

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