In 2024, the Consortium was awarded funds from the NOAA National Sea Grant Office to support the two-year proposal “Kids Teaching Flood Resilience: Step Up! Get Ready! Respond!” The funding allowed for the expansion of curricula in five themes: Weather Smart, Place Wise, Storm Surge Smart, Prep-Ready, and Water Safe.
Kids Teaching Flood Resilience (KTFR) is an initiative founded in 2016 by Merrie Koester, Ph.D., a science-literacy and communications specialist, artist, and author. Koester currently is the director of STEAM, Project Draw for Science, and KTFR at the University of South Carolina Center for Science Education.
KTFR uses a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) approach to prepare students to become “Weather Ready Ambassadors” who can confidently communicate what to do before, during, and after an extreme weather event to make their communities safer and more resilient. The middle school and high school curricula were developed by a multidisciplinary team, including teachers, scientists, engineers, emergency management specialists, higher education scholars, and artists, and then “field-tested” in the classroom by teachers and evaluated externally. Both curricula are aligned with S.C. Department of Education’s South Carolina College- and Career-Ready Science Standards, including Earth’s Systems, Earth and Human Activity, and Engineering, Technology, Science, and Society.
Collaborators on KTFR are the Consortium, NOAA’s Disaster Preparedness Program, and The Citadel’s James B. Near Center for Climate Studies and STEM Center. Contact Merrie Koester for more information about the KTFR initiative.