Contacts:

Helen Domske, NY Sea Grant, 716-645-3610, hmd4@cornell.edu

Publicist Kara Lynn Dunn, 315-465-7578, karalynn@gisco.net


FREE! Great Lakes-Lake Oneida Shoreline Field Experience Workshop Set for July 22-25 for Watershed Teachers and Youth Educators

Buffalo, NY, May 6, 2013 - Watershed teachers in grades 5-12 and non-formal educators in New York are invited to register by May 17 for the July 22-25, 2013 Great Lakes Lake Ontario-Oneida Lake Field Experiences Workshop.

New York Sea Grant (NYSG) Coastal Education Specialist Helen Domske leads the four-day workshop that offers educators an agenda designed to provide them with new ways of inspiring their students through meaningful watershed educational experiences.

Workshop instructors include Cornell University researchers, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) biologists, and other New York Sea Grant specialists.

Learning modules incorporate the five key criteria developed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Activities focus on how to create excitement, develop learning exploration interest, explain diverse waterfront science topics, elaborate on those topics, and evaluate the success of the teaching process using the STEM: science, technology, engineering and mathematics method.

“The goal of this workshop is to help educators develop Great Lakes literacy for their own specific teaching areas with the long view of develop citizens engaged in sustainable habitat practices,” says Domske.

Participating teachers will receive a $400 stipend to help them develop a locally-relevant Community Stewardship Project with their students. One workshop participant whose students complete an exemplary project will be selected to co-present that project at the Science Teachers Association of New York State annual conference.

Workshop venues include SUNY Oswego, H. Lee White Marine Museum and the US Geological Survey Lake Ontario Biological Station in Oswego, NY; the Cornell University Biological Field Station on Oneida Lake in Bridgeport, NY; the NYSDEC Salmon River Fish Hatchery in Altmar, NY, and the Eastern Lake Ontario Dunes and Wetlands Area along the shoreline in Jefferson and Oswego counties.

Workshop details and a registration application are online here, at www.nyseagrant.org/lakeontarioworkshop, or via Domske at the NYSG office at the University of Buffalo, 716-645-3610, hmd4@cornell.edu.

More Info:

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources since 1971.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for NY Coastlines, its flagship publication, and Currents, its e-newsletter supplement, each distributed 3-4 times a year.