Education, Communication and Outreach
Long Island Sound Story Map
Created in partnership with UConn CLEAR and the Long Island Sound Study, the “Connections to Long Island Sound” Story Map was launched in early 2025 to explore the many lands and peoples of the Long Island Sound Watershed, from the Canadian border to the shores of Long Island Sound. The Story Map features various layers of data highlighting the land uses, demography and personal stories related to the Sound throughout the entirety of the watershed. This tool is envisioned to be a resource for partners throughout the region, including land trusts, educators, community organizations, governmental organizations and the general public for grant funding purposes, data analysis, general appreciation and more.
Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher program
Since its inception in 2002, the Long Island Sound Mentor Teacher (LISMT) program has consistently recruited high quality, creative and respected teachers to assist their peers in incorporating LIS content into curricula within the scope of the newly adopted Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). More than forty LISMT and NGSS workshops in Connecticut have utilized more than 30 LIS mentor teachers to reach hundreds of formal and informal K-12 educators, and through them, over 35,000 students in more than 100 Connecticut cities, towns and regional school districts. The LISMT program was selected as a Best Practice by the 2019 Connecticut Sea Grant site review team, one of five Best Practices identified for the review period February 1, 2014 through January 31, 2018. Find out more about the program and upcoming LISMT workshops here.
Resilience
UConn Climate Corps
Led by CT Sea Grant and CLEAR, this course teaches undergraduates about national and local impacts of natural disasters, sea level rise and other impacts of changing environmental conditions in the first semester. In the second semester they apply what they’ve learned in community-based independent studies on adaptation projects. “The UConn Climate Corps advances both climate resilience in Connecticut communities as well as workforce development through undergraduate study and project application with community partners,” said Juliana Barrett, CT Sea Grant extension educator emerita. “It is exciting and heartening to see more and more graduates of the program entering the climate resilience workforce in Connecticut and beyond.” More than 200 students have taken the course since it started in 2017, while almost 100 have completed the independent study portion with 35 community partners. Read more about the Climate Corps in the March 2024 issue of Oceanography.
Sustainable and Resilient Communities initiative
Deborah Visco Abibou and Sarah Schechter are the Connecticut Sea Grant contingent of a six-person team with New York Sea Grant focused on building resilience and sustainability on both sides of Long Island Sound. Established in 2021 with the EPA’s Long Island Sound Study, the team works alongside local partners to address problems such as flooding and increasing storm intensity with sustainable solutions including providing help accessing project funding and expertise. The team also created an online library of resilience tools, organizes tours of model resilience projects and brings together groups with similar goals. “There are all sorts of projects we can do, but having help finding the best potential funders is really helpful,” said Chris Sullivan, who heads an organization that serves Fairfield and New Haven counties. Read more about CTSG’s sustainable and resilience work in the Spring-Summer 2025 issue of Wrack Lines magazine.
