In its third and most expansive year yet, the Mini-Grants for Outdoor Learning Program has helped more than 30,000 students from schools in every county in Maine get outside the classroom and into the natural world.

The Maine Environmental Education Association distributed mini-grants to teachers for up to $1,500 each to spend on items like equipment for outdoor recreation, rain and snow gear, outdoor classroom building supplies, field trips, educator professional development, and garden and science exploration.

Teachers developed new and creative ways to engage students in the outdoors and also built upon ongoing projects from the grant program’s last two annual cycles.

Deborah Conley of Poland Community School said this is just the beginning for the school’s journey into teaching outside. The school has a courtyard that went mostly unused because teachers said it was too sunny, until Conley applied for a mini-grant to purchase a sunshade, two benches and a small storage shed, according to a news release from Emory Harger with the association.

“As a result of our efforts, the area is being used more than ever,” said Conley. The school also created a Get Everyone Outside committee and is doing staff training this fall. “Our baby steps are creating paths for teachers to take students in new and exciting directions that create lifelong scientists and lovers of nature and the outdoors.”

This year, the grant program supported more youth and teachers than ever before. The program began in 2020 as a response to the pandemic to help teachers bring their classrooms safely outdoors. During the 2022-23 cycle, 105 schools in all 16 counties received a total of $153,083 with an upward trend in the number of applications from Aroostook, Lincoln, Oxford and Washington. In just three years, projects have been funded in over 35% of all public schools in Maine, distributing $483,651 to 369 applicants, 308 teachers, and 233 different schools.

A major goal of the mini-grants program is prioritizing our schools that have the greatest need, such as schools with 80-100% free and reduced lunch rates.

“MEEA has funded 46 projects in these schools over the past three years,” said MEEA Co-Director Olivia Griset. One of those schools, Thomas J. McMahon Elementary School in Lewiston, used the mini-grant to purchase grow lights for the STEM class’ hydroponic stand, an indoor structure for growing plants.

The grant also purchased materials for students at Lewiston Regional Technical Center to build a wooden shed for the school’s garden supplies.

MEEA also values funding teachers over multiple grant cycles, like Poland Community School and Thomas J. McMahon Elementary School to build schools’ capacity and sustainability for outdoor learning. First-time applicants in the 2022-23 school year are exemplary of how this program is growing and reaching more schools. Sabattus Primary School teacher Kelli Gilzow applied for the first time to help fund the GRO: Community Garden Project by purchasing four 55-gallon rain barrels and concrete platforms for a water source for the garden. The program was able to host a DIY Rain Water Barrel Collection Workshop in late August to engage the wider community with the garden.

Teachers like Marcus DeVoe of Poland Regional High School have seen firsthand how students’ social, emotional, and academic wellbeing flourish as a result of learning outside. DeVoe used the grant to purchase 16 bikes for the school’s Outdoor Recreation class.

During the 2023-224 academic year, the association plans to target outreach about the program to the schools that have not received funding from us before, along with continued outreach to schools in the Aroostook, Lincoln, Piscataquis and Waldo counties, as they’ve historically been underfunded through this program.

 

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