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Steve Stewart COSEE Workshop Immerses Educators in Great Lakes Science As the new school year begins, Haslett educator Margaret Holtschlag is eager to tell her students what she did over summer vacation. Studying Lake Erie aboard a 180-foot research vessel ranks high on the list. Holtschlag was one of 16 educators, three from Michigan, who set sail on Lake Erie in June for the first annual Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Great Lakes shipboard and shoreline science workshop, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their ship was the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office research vessel, the R/V Lake Guardian, contributed for the workshop and staffed by EPA scientists. The weeklong workshop allowed educators from around the Great Lakes Basin to work shoulder to shoulder with scientists and Sea Grant educators, picking up great teaching ideas along the way. “I’m excited to see what my students will make of it,” says Holtschlag, who teaches technology to students in grades 2 through 5. “Every time I bring something new back, they find layers of interest and enthusiasm that I haven’t thought of. I’m excited to see where it takes them.” The shipboard and shoreline science workshop began in Cleveland, with stops at ports throughout Ohio’s Lake Erie coastline. The voyage took its eager crew of learners through critical science areas of Lake Erie. Wearing hard hats, work vests and steel-toed boots, the educators collected information about the water quality, physical conditions of the lake, and living things in and below the water. When the samples came on board, the work gear was traded for lab coats as the educators learned how to interpret new information and identify lake plankton and benthic invertebrates. Their data will be contributed to the EPA’s log of the changing Lake Erie system. Shoreline activities included stops at Stone Laboratory in Put-in-Bay, a visit in Toledo from representatives of the Maumee River Remedial Action Plan Committee, exploration of Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve in Huron, Ohio, and a tour of the Tom Ridge Environmental Research Center in Erie, Pennsylvania. The combination of activities was unforgettable, says Michigan educator Mary Lindow of Battle Creek. “The COSEE Lake Guardian workshop on Lake Erie was by far the best professional development experience that I’ve ever been involved in. I would highly recommend that any Michigan teacher interested in a hands-on/minds-on approach to learning more about the Great Lakes apply for this program as it moves to the other Great Lakes.” The cruise was one of the first major events of COSEE Great Lakes, a consortium of educators and scientists assembled to promote science literacy through the study of the Great Lakes, America’s inland seas, and the ocean. COSEE Great Lakes, supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and NOAA-National Sea Grant, is the tenth center in a nationwide network. To read more about participants’ experiences on Lake Erie, see:
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