Iowa Public Television Receives EPA Environmental Education Grant
In September 2011, Iowa Public Television (IPTV) learned that it would be receiving a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Environmental Education program. The grant is for over $25,000 and will fund scholarships for 85 middle-school teachers in Iowa to participate in the PBS TeacherLine course Global Climate Change Education for Middle School. In addition to teacher scholarships, the grant will fund re-certification credits for teachers and IPTV's efforts to promote the TeacherLine course availability. IPTV staff will be able to travel education conferences within the state, create promotional brochures and grow TeacherLine participation in Iowa.
IPTV is partnering with the Northwest Iowa Area Education Agency for this project and together, they will be able to recruit rural teachers, especially teachers of Native American students, who often do not have as many resources for teaching environmental education in the classroom. IPTV has had a relationship with the Northwest Iowa Area Education Agency for awhile, and they have collaborated on projects and funding applications before. For this project, IPTV took the lead on writing and submitting the application.
When deciding what grant program to pursue, one of IPTV's goals was to increase the number of Iowa teachers using TeacherLine. After researching what the EPA was interested in funding, they decided that offering scholarships for the Global Climate Change Education for Middle School course would best combine IPTV's goals, IPTV's experience with STEM programming and the EPA's priorities.
Terry Rinehart, Director of Educational Services at IPTV, advises other stations that are applying for federal grants to follow the grant guidelines and application instructions carefully and to take advantage of any pre-application webinars or conference calls that the agency convenes.
The EPA requires that recipients of this grant program provide a funding match for part of the project's total cost. IPTV will meet this requirement by using staff time that they will account for and track.
Read the EPA's press release about Iowa Public Television's grant.
