FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 2006
Teachers to Take Week-Long Lake
Erie Course
on US
EPA Research Vessel
Teachers from around the Great Lakes
Basin will set sail on Lake Erie this Sunday as participants of the first annual
Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (COSEE) Great Lakes Shipboard
and Shoreline Science workshop. Beginning on June 18 at Cleveland,
Ohio, sixteen teachers representing grades 4
through 10 will board the U.S. EPA’s 180-foot research vessel, where they
will travel to ports throughout Ohio’s Lake Erie coastline.
“This workshop will be a great opportunity for teachers and
researchers to work together and learn from each other,” says Dr. Rosanne
Fortner, Ohio Sea Grant Educator and COSEE Director. “The week-long cruise
on Lake Erie is designed to promote Great Lakes
and ocean sciences in formal and informal education and to forge lasting
relationships between science researchers and educators.”
Also offered as an Ohio State University Stone Laboratory course, the
workshop gives the teachers from four Great
Lake states a chance to work with
scientists to collect and analyze data about water quality and organisms in Lake Erie as they travel from the shallowest to the
deepest parts of the lake. In addition to being surrounded by lake science,
both scientists and educators will learn about navigation and shipping on the
lakes, music and literature of the inland seas, curricula for teaching, and
shoreline activities that affect lake conditions. Lake
Erie learning will be at its best, using high technology and
traditional methods, on shore and on board, and emphasizing the value of
science in collaboration with teachers. In keeping with the COSEE mission, the
group will continually compare the Great Lakes
with the "salty seas."
Days will be spent on the water cruising between sampling stations, while
evenings will be spent at anchor in Ohio and Pennsylvania ports along the U.S. shore, with chances to visit
special habitats and informal learning sites. The cruise will begin and end at Cleveland, with stops in Put-in-Bay, Port
of Toledo, Huron
Harbor, and Erie.
COSEE Great Lakes, formed by a grant
from the National Science Foundation and NOAA-National Sea Grant, is the tenth
center in a nationwide network. The $2.5 million in grant funds will be divided
among seven programs that make up the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network: Illinois-Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, New York,
Ohio, Pennsylvania
and Wisconsin.
COSEE Great Lakes is expected to create dynamic connections between Great Lakes and ocean research and education with the
goal of enhancing scientific literacy and environmental stewardship.
The U. S. EPA’s R/V Lake
Guardian is operated by the Great Lakes National Program Office.
For more information about COSEE Great Lakes,
contact Dr. Fortner at fortner.2@osu.edu
or 614.581.7684.