Education & Engagement Team

Embrace the Gulf Photo Competition – See the Winning Entries!

GOMA’s Education and Engagement Team focuses on public relations, expanded partnerships, and other actions to involve their members as well as those in the other five Teams.

The Education and Engagement Team has one overarching goal:

Engage and educate people to become stewards who enhance the environmental, ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico

The GOMA Education and Engagement Team is led by the State of Alabama, but has active participation from all five Gulf States and federal agencies working in the region, as well as academia, businesses, and non-profit organizations. Learn more about the focus areas and actions of the Team in Action Plan III.

The GOMA Education and Engagement Team meets every quarter or as needed via conference call. The Team has three working groups that correspond with their Action Plan III focus areas. The Team held a mid-year meeting in January 2020. Contact the Team Coordinator for updates. A Team call is planned for February 13, 2020 at 3:30 CT.

Summer 2017 Photo Competition – Winning Images
Connect to Embrace the Gulf – Learn more about our year 2020 campaign for the Gulf of Mexico.

Gulf Star 2017 Awards

Watershed Monitoring with Underserved High School Students | Mobile Baykeeper
This project provides classroom and hands-on training to teach students at LeFlore High School in Mobile, Alabama about issues impacting water quality, training them in water monitoring, and empowering them to become active environmental stewards.

Video Case Studies | Mississippi State University Television Center and Dauphin Island Sea Lab
Outreach videos highlighting coastal community resilience and marine debris projects, emphasizing success stories and providing inspiration for other coastal communities Gulf wide. View the videos on our YouTube channel.

Gulf Star 2016 Awards

Tracking Trash | Dauphin Island Sea Lab
The goal of this project is to educate middle and high school students and teachers about the marine debris problem in coastal Alabama; show students how technology can be used to study a problem, and develop an engineering/solution-based mindset and instill a sense of stewardship for their local waterway. Shared project with the Marine Debris Cross-Team Initiative.

Marine Debris Education & Prevention | Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program
This project will engage high school and college students in the data collection and monitoring of marine debris and sediment microplastics on a private beach in Louisiana. Students will spend one day per quarter in the field researching, collecting, and analyzing marine debris data and preparing action items to stop it at the source. Shared project with the Marine Debris Cross-Team Initiative.

Marine Debris Dash | Ocean Hour
This project works systematically to clean up specific shores in northwest Florida, collecting debris and tracking the items on the NOAA marine debris tracker. Using the data, this project will work with local businesses and government officials to curb their incidence on the shore. Shared project with the Marine Debris Cross-Team Initiative.

Plastic Free Gulf Coast in Mississippi | Gulf Coast Community Design Studio
This project aims to reduce the use of single-use plastic in the three coastal counties of Mississippi and provide data showing this reduction. Shared project with the Marine Debris Cross-Team Initiative.

Microplastics Citizen Science Project | Mississippi State University
The purpose of this microplastics project is to demonstrate the type and location of degraded microplastics. This grant is a citizen science project where sediment and water samples are collected and processed for microplastics, then integrated into an existing visualization tool. The data collection and visualization tool is already being used by Florida Microplastic Awareness Project and is being expanded to marine debris programs in other Gulf states. Shared project with the Marine Debris Cross-Team Initiative.

Urban Youth Conservation Corps | Limitless Vistas, Inc.
This project increases awareness of the losses and degradation of coastal habitats caused by invasive species. This project also educates and trains students in conservation field techniques that can be used to pursue jobs in the conservation industry and/or generate interest in seeking environmental or conservation college degree.

Team Tools and Publications

Sharing Science to Positively Impact Society
A flow chart to help scientists and resource managers navigate the inclusion of outreach and education in their programming.
Alliance Videos
These short videos showcase Gulf of Mexico Alliance projects in marine debris, coastal resilience, and more.

Environmental Education Listserv - To join the Environmental Education listserv send an email to lyokel@disl.org and put the text "GOMAEEN Listserv" in the subject.
Coastal Training Workshops - A unique regional collaboration designed to deliver relevant information to key stakeholders on issues related to the ecological and economic health of the Gulf of Mexico.
Coastal Ecosystem Learning Centers - A network of learning centers at aquariums and marine educational facilities across the Gulf, sponsored by the Coastal America Foundation.
Smart Yard, Healthy Gulf Campaign - A public education campaign designed to reduce fertilizers entering local waters by helping people make responsible lawn fertilizer decisions.

Team Co-Chairs

Angela Underwood, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Ilka Porter, Mobile Baykeeper

Team Coordinator

Lee Yokel, Dauphin Island Sea Lab

Team Meeting Information

Contact your coordinator for any previous year meeting notes or presentations.