Jabot part of team educating teachers about the Great Lakes in the COVID crisis

Seventeen teachers from five areas around the Great Lakes are participating in Great Lakes Student Research Campaign professional development funded by NOAA’s B-WET Program in a hybrid model of local and virtual training.

With support from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program, the project is engaging teachers and students to study the water quality of Great Lakes as it relates to harmful algal blooms (HABs).

It is a collaborative effort of five  GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) partners: Dr. Michael Jabot from State University of New York at Fredonia on Lake Erie; Dr. Kevin Czajkowski from the University of Toledo (Ohio) located near the downstream part of the Maumee River and Dr. Amanda Gilbert from Defiance College located near the Maumee River in Defiance, Ohio; Dr. Mitchell Klett from Northern Michigan University located near Lake Superior in Marquette, Mich., and David Bydlowski from Wayne RESA located near the River Rouge in Detroit, Mich.

Teachers participating in the Great Lakes Student Research Campaign were trained online using the GLOBE eTraining modules for water quality. During the week of July 20, teachers conducted water quality observations of water temperature, dissolved oxygen, transparency, pH, nitrates, phosphates, macroinvertebrates and entered their respective data on the GLOBE website.

GLOBE is an international program that provides teachers and their students along with the public worldwide a platform to collect data and answer research questions through the scientific process thus contributing to the understanding of the Earth system and global environment. 

The professional development continued in the afternoons virtually online with sessions focused on understanding the data that was collected and comparing ground data with satellite data with a focus on increasing teacher geospatial technology skills and their knowledge of the Great Lakes. Teachers engaged with national and local speakers including John McLaughlin, Matthew Zika and Dr. Carol Stepien from NOAA, Elizabeth Joyner and Angela Rizzi from NASA Langley Research Center and Jennifer Bourgeault from the GLOBE Program.

The goal of NOAA’s B-WET program is to engage students in Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences. Teachers will implement their experiences into their classrooms where they conduct authentic scientific inquiry projects with their students. In the spring, students will be given opportunities to present their research in several symposia. By studying the environmental issues facing their area of the Great Lakes, students will engage in civic engagement through action plans they develop.

SUNY Fredonia received funding from the NOAA-funded B-WET grant called “Great Lakes Student Research Campaign: Engaging Students and Teachers in Authentic Watershed Studies” and a NASA-funded grant, Science Activation grant called “GLOBE Mission EARTH:

Fusing GLOBE with NASA Assets to Build Systemic Innovation in STEM Education.”

NOAA’s B-WET program is a competitive grant program that promotes Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences: activities driven by rigorous academic learning standards that aim to increase participants’ understanding and stewardship of watersheds and related ecosystems. To read more about the NOAA’s B-WET program, visit online.