About the Project

The Urban Ecology Engagement Initiative (UEEI) is a collaboration between the student residents of the Anacostia Watershed, their public school teachers, local non-profit organizations, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). UEEI began in 2012 as part of the Anacostia Community Museum’s Reclaiming the Edge: Urban Waterways and Civic Engagement exhibition. Through the UEEI program, students engage in activities to help them better understand their local ecosystems and the challenges they face. Since 2014, UEEI students and their teachers have been exploring the urban ecosystems around their schools to document and study environmental changes.