Every summer, LDWF hosts the Wetland Education Teacher Workshop, or WETshop, a week-long, coastal awareness workshop for teachers. Through WETshop, teachers work with scientists to learn about Louisiana coastal wetlands, issues, and history. WETshop focuses on making teachers into wetland stewards so they can educate their coworkers and students in their home parishes about coastal land loss and restoration. Workshop experiences provide teachers ideas to incorporate Louisiana phenomena-based science into the classroom at all grade levels. After teachers complete the workshop, we encourage them to implement a 6-hour wetland stewardship project in their parish with their students and community.

During WETshop, teachers will learn about and experience:

• Fisheries management
• Research trawling and seining
• Barrier islands and their role in coastal health
• Coastal botany and ornithology, including a visit to a brown pelican rookery
• Water quality testing along fresh to saltwater gradient
• Visits to transitional coastal ecosystems
• A tour of one of the largest oil ports in the United States
• Visits to coastal restoration and oil spill impact sites
• The role of invasive species in coastal land loss.

Participating teachers will receive a Wonders of Wetlands teacher guidebook and numerous classroom resources and have the opportunity to network with wetland scientists. They will also earn 55 professional contact hours after completing this workshop. There is a stipend available for participating teachers for both the summer workshop and implementation of the stewardship project during the following academic year.