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Educators part of work on Lake Erie vessel

Photo courtesy of Michael Milligan EPA RV Lake Guardian is pictured.

BUFFALO — New York Sea Grant has announced that two teachers from Western New York are among 15 teachers selected to join Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL) staff and Great Lakes scientists for the 2024 Shipboard Science Workshop aboard the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Research Vessel (R/V) Lake Guardian on Lake Erie this summer.

The workshop is this week and will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Pamela Patterson, who teaches in the Holland Central School District, Holland, and at the State University of New York (SUNY) Erie; and Jessica Kauffman, a Science Professional Development Coordinator working with K-12 teachers in the 20 school districts in Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES).

Through a partnership with the EPA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the teachers will spend a full week aboard the R/V Lake Guardian. Hosts for the Lake Erie Shipboard Science Workshop are CGLL partners Ohio Sea Grant and Pennsylvania Sea Grant.

Patterson and Kauffman were selected from among 115 applicants for the unique professional development experience to learn side-by-side with respected Great Lakes scientists. They will convert their shipboard experiences into classroom and fieldwork lessons for their students and colleagues.

The teachers will work alongside Sherri Mason, Ph.D., a pioneer in freshwater plastics research; Dominique Derminio, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology at Keuka College, Keuka Park, NY, leading phytoplankton research aboard the Lake Guardian; and Megan O’Brien, a scientist with the EPA Great Lakes National Program Office, Chicago, IL, studying benthic (bottom-dwelling) organisms.

Other research taking place on the Lake Guardian in 2024 includes water quality monitoring and surveying associated with dissolved oxygen, sediment, and contaminants in the lower food web.

New York Sea Grant Great Lakes Literacy Specialist Nate Drag, who led the Shipboard Science Workshop on Lake Ontario in 2023, comments on the far-reaching value of the Shipboard Science Workshop as it builds on teachers’ interest in the Great Lakes environment and provides hands-on experiences, knowledge gain, and skill development for integration into classroom and fieldwork lessons.

“The value of this unique experience extends from the participants’ enhanced science-based understanding of the Great Lakes to the information they share with students and colleagues to encourage environmental stewardship of the Great Lakes and its watershed communities by the next generations of environmental scientists, teachers, and conservationists,” said Drag.

Drag provides Great Lakes-focused professional development opportunities to teachers throughout New York State. He will be offering land-based workshops for teachers in July and August 2024; learn more at https://nyseagrant.info/2024GLEEESummerWorkshops.

The Shipboard Science Workshop cycles through the Great Lakes on a five-year rotation and is designed to promote Great Lakes science while forging lasting relationships between Great Lakes researchers and educators. The Shipboard Science Workshop will return to New York’s Lake Ontario in 2028, to Lake Erie in 2029. Learn more at cgll.org/education/professional-learning/r-v-lake-guardian.

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