Participants from a 2011 LIS Mentor Teacher Program event draw water from Mount Siani Harbor to test its quality.

Stony Brook, NY, February 14, 2014 - New York Sea Grant (NYSG) is currently accepting applications for four Mentor Teachers for this year’s Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program in New York.
 
The Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program, now in its fourth year in New York, is sponsored by New York Sea Grant and funded by the EPA Long Island Sound Study.  The program goals are to promote the use of Long Island Sound educational resources, and to promote the interdisciplinary use of the Long Island Sound watershed and its resources in K-12 classrooms.

To date, this mentor teacher initiative has conducted 37 workshops in Connecticut and New York with more than 350 formal and informal K-12 educators and has reached through those educators, more than 25,000 students.

Pairs of teachers from each of the following grade level subsets are encouraged to apply: K-8 and 9-12. Each grade level specific pair will work together to plan and execute a professional development session for their peers that will be conducted in New York. There is funding for each pair to provide an outdoor component as part of the session.  Each teacher will receive a stipend ($25.00/hour for 40 hours = $1,000 stipend per teacher) and Long Island Sound resources for you and your classroom.

To apply, complete the application form on www.tinyurl.com/nylismtapplication by Monday, March 3, 2014.
 
For more information on the program, contact Amy Mandelbaum, NYSG's Long Island Sound Study (LISS) Outreach Coordinator, at acb328@cornell.edu or 631-632-9216. You can also visit the mentor teacher program's Web page on LISS's site.


More Info:

Long Island Sound is one of the 28 nationally-designated estuaries under the NEP, which was established by Congress in 1987 to improve the quality of Long Island Sound and other places where rivers meet the sea.

The Long Island Sound Study, conducted under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Estuary Program (NEP), is a cooperative effort between the EPA and the states of Connecticut and New York to restore and protect the Sound and its ecosystems.

For more on what you can do to make a difference, click over to the "Get Involved" or "Stewardship" sections of the Long Island Sound Study's Web site. News on the Long Island Sound Study can also be found in New York Sea Grant's related archives.

If you would like to receive Long Island Sound Study's newsletter, please visit their site's homepage and sign up for the "e-news/print newsletter" under the "Stay Connected" box.

For daily updates and tips on how you can help protect and restore Long Island Sound, please join LISS on Facebook or, sign up for their RSS feeds.

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources since 1971.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for NY Coastlines, its flagship publication, which merges with our e-newsletter, Currents, in 2014 - is published several times a year.