Sheboygan educators chart course for Great Lakes curricula
Two Sheboygan-area teachers joined 13 others from around the Great Lakes region as part of an educational workshop cruising Lake Michigan aboard the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) research vessel, R/V Lake Guardian.
The group conducted research alongside scientists while learning about ecological processes and lake systems. Their goal was to integrate current Great Lakes research into their curricula and programs.
“Understanding Great Lakes and ocean sciences is key to making informed decisions on coastal and ocean management and personal stewardship issues,” said James Lubner, education coordinator for the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, who co-led the workshop. “COSEE Great Lakes is engaging educators, both formal and informal, in ways that will enable them to more effectively give their students a deeper understanding of our inland sea – the Great Lakes –and their influence on our quality of life and our national prosperity.”
Philip Knier, a teacher at Riverview Academy in Sheboygan, and Mary Kultgen, who teaches at Lakeshore Technical College in Sheboygan, are the two Wisconsin educators participating in the workshop. Stephanie Crook, a high school teacher from Portage, Ind., is keeping a blog of daily activities aboard the 180-foot-long research vessel. The vessel is the only self-contained, nonpolluting vessel on the Great Lakes. Find Crook’s blog at http://coseegreatlakes.net/weblog/category/shipboard-and-shoreline-scien....
Highlights of the week included firsthand experiences with Lakes Michigan's ecology, geology, geography, weather and biogeochemical processes. Educators from the Wisconsin, Illinois-Indiana and New York Sea Grant programs, along with EPA staff from Chicago and a Purdue University scientist and student, facilitated the expedition. Together, they assisted participants in gathering research data on aquatic organisms and water quality, and helped translate the onboard experience into meaningful classroom lessons with an emphasis on human impacts and parallels between Great Lakes and ocean systems.
The expedition was one of several COSEE Great Lakes Shipboard and Shoreline Science Workshops supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This workshop was conducted in partnership with EPA, Great Lakes National Program Office.
