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We all know buoys are critical for water safety on the Great Lakes, but did you know data is collected from an entire network of technology for scientists to analyze regional trends, natural resource managers to improve their work and policy makers to make informed decisions?

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In Episode 10 of Teach Me About the Great Lakes, titled “A Lot of Different Kinds of Data,” Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Stuart Carlton and Hope Charters talk with Kelli Paige, chief executive officer of the Great Lakes Observing System (GLOS), about how GLOS works with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and other partners across the Great Lakes to collect and visualize important and useful data. We also discuss how data use has changed as technology has changed and about GLOS’ Smart Great Lakes Initiative.

Teach Me About the Great Lakes is a monthly podcast in which Carlton—a social scientist who grew up in the South near the Gulf of Mexico—asks people to explain the biology, ecology and natural history of the Great Lakes. A new episode will be released on the first Monday of each month. The latest episode is embedded below.

If this isn’t enough buoy content for you, check out our How Buoys Help page and Two Yellow Buoys on Twitter. 

Love this episode and want to hear more in the future? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or use the RSS feed in your favorite podcast player.

If you have questions you want answered about the Great Lakes, reach out to @TeachGreatLakes on Twitter or email Stuart Carlton at jsc@purdue.edu.


Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.

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Join the Invasive Crayfish Collaborative for an exciting webinar featuring Purdue University master's student Izzy Paulsen. Izzy will share her mixed method study exploring how and why teachers use live crayfish and their interest in outreach. Her study draws from interview and survey data conducted in Great Lakes states. Register at the link in bio.
Deadline extended! The IISG program, in cooperation with the @nationalparkservice at @indianadunesnps and @UrbanRivers in Chicago, is offering two internship opportunities to support conservation policy efforts. Sea Grant’s national Community Engaged Internship (CEI) program aims to broaden participation in coastal, ocean, Great Lakes, and marine sciences providing training and mentorship to the next generation of scientists, decision-makers, and citizens. The program will do so by recruiting, retaining and engaging students in place-based research, extension, education, and/or communication that respects and integrates local ways of knowing.Applications due April 21.Learn more at the link in bio.
Join us this Thursday for a seminar on the latest fish biology, ecology, and fisheries science happening in Lake Michigan. Speaker will include: -Anna Hill (Purdue) with an update on alewife diet and growth rates in Lake Michigan-Charlie Roswell (INHS) with an update on Lake Michigan and Calumet River smallmouth bass movement-Dan Makauska (IL DNR) with an update from the Illinois Department of Natural ResourcesLearn more and register at the link in bio.
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