2023 Lake Ontario Shipboard Science Workshop participants; Credit: NYSG, NYSG/N. Drag, C. Pratt

Contact: 

Nate Drag, NYSG Great Lakes Literacy Specialist, E: nwd4@cornell.edu, P: (716) 270-2408

15 teachers participated in NYSG’s weeklong professional development workshop on Lake Ontario aboard the U.S. EPA R/V Lake Guardian

Buffalo, NY, March 25, 2024 - To create a community of Great Lakes-literate educators, students, scientists, environmental professionals, and community members, it is essential to increase educators’ content knowledge, access to teaching resources, and competency to incorporate Great Lakes literacy into their teaching. The Shipboard Science Workshop, a program facilitated by the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network through a partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), rotates to a different Great Lake every year and is designed to promote Great Lakes sciences while building relationships between researchers and educators.

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) facilitated the 2023 Lake Ontario Shipboard Science Workshop that placed 15 educators aboard the U.S. EPA R/V Lake Guardian for a week to work with academic and government scientists on three research projects on the lower food web of Lake Ontario. Participants collected environmental samples from Lake Ontario, processed the samples in the onboard labs, and worked with researchers to interpret the data. The group also visited a number of land-based environmental resource sites. After the trip, participants brought the data they collected, a series of related lessons and activities, and their personal experience on the ship back to their classrooms and programs. NYSG educators will meet with each teacher twice throughout the school year to support the integration of this experience into their classrooms and nature center, museum and community programs.

Participants came from five Great Lakes states, including seven from New York; collectively, they work with more than 1,600 students annually. In pre- and post-workshop surveys, the participants reported gains in knowledge on the Great Lakes, Lake Ontario, and the workshop’s research topics as well as increased confidence for explaining this knowledge to learners, using equipment, e.g., microscopes, and interacting with scientists.

See a Story Map of the 2023 Lake Guardian experience at arcg.is/OGbSq.


Collecting samples; Credit: NYSG, NYSG/N. Drag, C. Pratt

Project Partners:

• Center for Great Lakes Literacy
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Research Vessel Lake Guardian

Funding: 

• U.S. EPA under the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative


Analyzing samples; Credit: NYSG, NYSG/N. Drag, C. Pratt


More Info: New York Sea Grant

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York (SUNY), is one of 34 university-based programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Sea Grant College Program.

Since 1971, NYSG has represented a statewide network of integrated research, education and extension services promoting coastal community economic vitality, environmental sustainability and citizen awareness and understanding about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources.

Through NYSG’s efforts, the combined talents of university scientists and extension specialists help develop and transfer science-based information to many coastal user groups—businesses and industries, federal, state and local government decision-makers and agency managers, educators, the media and the interested public.

The program maintains Great Lakes offices at Cornell University, SUNY Buffalo, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUNY Oswego, the Wayne County Cooperative Extension office in Newark, and in Watertown. In the State's marine waters, NYSG has offices at Stony Brook University and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Nassau County on Long Island, in Queens, at Brooklyn College, with Cornell Cooperative Extension in NYC, in Bronx, with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County in Kingston, and with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Westchester County in Elmsford.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, and YouTube links. NYSG offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/nycoastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published quarterly.