The LEEF Mini-grant Program was established to promote environmental education and conservation through projects of formal and non-formal educators and organizations. This special round of 2024 LEEF Mini Grants is supported by Clay Electric Utility's Operation Round Up program.

We received many excellent applications , with $4,000 of funding to allocate.  Congratulations to the following winners:

Fishing For Success, UF School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatic Sciences received $2,000 to expand their Aquatic Education program, providing free Family Fishing Days and outdoor learning classroom activities.  

FFS is a multifaceted environmental education program at the UF School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences. Community members gather monthly for free Family Fishing Day events. Schools, camps, and other youth organizations attend field trips to the outdoor classroom. Hands-on activities stimulate their passion for the natural world as future stewards of our planet. The interactive booth engages the public in aquatic ecology and wetland conservation at large community festivals and expositions. Support of their programs has an exponential impact.

Live invertebrates attract curious crowds to our aquatic ecology booth. Portable aerators will allow them to add fish to our traveling aquarium and safely transport and house aquatic organisms for display at events.

Most biodiversity occurs at the microscopic level. Many people have not had the opportunity to discover the intriguing world inside each drop of pond water. A light microscope and viewing screen will not only allow their participants to observe living microorganisms, but also distinguish characteristics when teaching youth to identify aquatic invertebrates, fish, and plants. They support student success on Florida’s state testing, which includes standards on microscopes, Kingdom Protista, taxonomy, and dichotomous keys.

Thousands of visitors pass the large kiosk located between the parking lot and the ponds each year. It currently contains posters that are too faded to read. With funding, they will create a new poster that uses this space to inform the public about the significance of Florida’s wetlands and their inhabitants, while also thanking LEEF and Clay Electric for their generous support of the program.

East Marion Elementary, in partnership with Sliver River Museum, will receive $2,000 to support the revitalization of their partnership with the East Marion Silver River-lution program.  

Being just a few short miles away, this grant will assist in transportation to and from the Silver River, supply students with materials needed for hands-on lab experiences, and will enlighten our small school community of the science behind our river's environment. EME (East Marion Elementary) staff and Silver River experts will meet and collaborate to supply students with standard-based Science education and exploration. This partnership will greatly benefit the community around us and bridge the gap between education, the real world, and the future scientists on our campus.  This partnership seeks to enhance the engagement of our community as a whole in environmental education. When students are given the opportunity learn hands on and build connections with the world around us, student achievement will increase. East Marion Elementary has historically had such a program on campus, but funding and the COVID-19 Pandemic have halted the partnership. This grant would facilitate a revitalization which will engage families and their learners.

Please email leef.florida(at)gmail.com for a link to attend.

Thanks to a grant from Clay County Utilities' Operation Round Up program, LEEF is able to offer $4,000 in mini-grants to educators in Alachua, Marion, Lake, Clay, Suwanee, Putnam and Volusia Counties for: 

• Field trips to outdoor education experiences
• School vegetable and pollinator gardens
• Earth Day events
• 4H projects - including Civic projects
• Student-led school improvement projects
• Hands-on classroom lessons, and more...

 Do you know of a stellar teacher, environmental education program, or student group who would benefit from this funding?

Here is the short application form, due by 2/1.  LEEF will award several mini-grants, up to $2,000 each.  Projects are to be completed by the end of May 2024 and funding will go directly to the school or organization with proof of Administrator support.

Reach out to Trina Hofreiter, Operations and Outreach Manager, at trina(at)Leef-florida.org with additional questions.  

Some people say the economy is more important than the environment.  The Lake County Conservation Council has lined up a speaker who will address the economic benefits of conservation.

Courtney Stokes is a high school science teacher, who used to serve on the Lake County Water Authority.  To hear her speak on this important topic, please tune into LCCC's online forum on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 6:30 p.m.  You are welcome to stay online for LCCC's General Membership Meeting immediately following the forum. The link is below.  

Topic: LCCC's Online Forum and General Membership Meeting
Time: Jan 17, 2024 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89008079228

Meeting ID: 890 0807 9228

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LEEF Member Spotlight:  Founding Member DaveLaHart

Important Accomplishments

I’d like to thank LEEF for their recognition of my work in Environmental Education over the last three decades. I got involved in EE as an undergraduate at Cornell University, the first time I heard the term “Environmental Education.” I spent 2 more years at the University of Florida before moving to Florida State University. I have worked with a lot of programs and a lot of wonderful people and am very proud of all that has been accomplished by the EE community. I worked primarily with secondary teachers and have been rewarded numerous times. Some of those awards include Florida’s Outstanding Science Educator (1989), Florida Marine Science Educator of the year (1999) and received the Golden LEEF Award (2003).

I earned a New York Regents which started my academic career. After a stint in the Army I attended the wonders of Cornell where I learned under the auspices of enthusiastic and knowledgeable faculty. I learned a lot about people’s perceptions of the environment. From then on I was interested in working with educators to expand their view of the earth.

While at the University of Florida I was exposed to many new ideas about human and environmental interactions. From U of F I moved to Florida State University as a results of grants and support from the Florida Wildlife Federation and worked with them in the legislature. Legislation we passed directed the DOE to begin an Environmental Education program.

I helped the Florida Department of Education integrate Youth Conservation Corps, solid waste management, Project Wild and Project Learning Tree with direct assistance provided to school-based EE programs. I was proud of the work done by the Wildlife Federation, the Florida Audubon and the many school districts and programs I helped develop.

Mentors

I was fortunate to have many mentors along my career in Environmental Education. I recognize Dr. Richard Fisher in Environmental Education at Cornell. Among the many things Dr. Fisher taught me was how to enjoy the diversity of the outdoors and teach it to others. ISPA, Institute of Science and Public Affairs at FSU, was generous in offering office space and assistants as I throughout my “teaching” career. Jim Phillips was the Educational Contact at IFIS. Jim and I traveled over the state working with school districts, Environmental Centers and Educators. It was an experience which would lead me later to be actively working with Educators in Environmental Centers through the University of Florida. Dick Tillis was with the Director of Department of Education and Director of the Florida Wildlife Federation. Florida Wildlife Federation was instrumental in development of Environmental Education and formation of LEEF.

Mike Mullins was the Project Director at Nature Coast Environmental Education where he worked with EE centers statewide. Legislative Development of mini-grants were incentives to start school-based EE programs. The Florida Wildlife Federation supported LEEF’s legislative agenda. Florida Audubon helped by donating their publication “The Florida Naturalist” and printed 5,000 copies for schools to use. The articles were springboards for lessons in indoor and outdoor classrooms.

LEEF met and exceeded the expectations of Legislators, DOE and school districts through involvement with quality Environmental Education programs. Involving teachers and Supervisors in development and implementation brought successful programs.

Associate Director of Educational Programming - FL Institute of Oceanography 

Marine Education Specialist - Loggerhead Marinelife Center, Juno Beach

Policy and Advocacy Associate - Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation

Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium

Loggerhead Marinelife Center

Project ROAR Americorps Member (4 locations in SFL)

Policy and Advocacy Associate - Sanibel Sea School

REEF Campus Director, Key Largo, FL

NAAEE EE Jobs in Florida

Florida Climate Institute Job List

Learn more and apply

The League of Environmental Educators in Florida (LEEF) is sharing results from a landscape analysis conducted this year by the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA) using collected survey data from over 600 PreK-12 teachers and administrators in the eight SEEA states. 

The analysis is designed to gain an enhanced understanding of environmental education providers and schools in the southeastern U.S. that are working towards similar goals. It provides a comprehensive look at what environmental education is (or is not) happening in schools, a better understanding of the needs and priorities of teachers and administrators, strategies for scaling programs for a broader, more equitable reach and state and regional findings to inform future strategic planning efforts. 

The school survey used to gather data focused on integration of environmental education into the curriculum, professional development needs of administrators and educators, field trips, outdoor learning and outdoor spaces

Some key findings from the analysis include: 

• When asked how likely teachers are to integrate outdoor learning into their instruction, 32% already incorporate outdoor learning into instruction; 61% indicated interest, but need support; and only 6% say they are not likely to incorporate outdoor learning. 

• The top barrier to incorporating outdoor learning in schools is logistics (scheduling, time, distance, staging and clean up). 

• The primary limiting factors for schools' ability to participate in field trips were transportation costs, time, availability of transportation and site fees.

• When asked what type of professional development educators have participated in, 21% of educators indicated they have had no professional development in outdoor education or environmental education.

• A total of 66% of educators are teaching about climate science and of those, 50% are spending less than 10 hours per year on this topic. Most educators do not feel confident teaching this topic.

A full report and a dashboard with detailed findings from the analysis can also be accessed, which allows users to filter the location of the schools, the type of schools, grade level, the level of reported confidence providing EE and more. 

“We are so grateful to the teachers, administrators and environmental education providers across Florida for their participation.  These insights reveal not only the current state of environmental education in K-12 schools but also the barriers and next steps we need to take in Florida, and the region, to ensure that every student has access to nature and quality environmental education," said Trina Hofreiter, Operations and Outreach Manager for LEEF.   

To access detailed findings from the analysis, including the dashboard, visit www.southeastee.org/landscape-schools. 

Nature Preserve Supervisor 2 position closes 10/13/23.  More information can be found here.