The Center for Great Lakes Literacy and Great Lakes Sea Grant Network invite teachers (working with students in grades 5-12) and informal educators with a Great Lakes focus to apply for a spot on this unique, expenses-paid, educators’ cruise. Applicants must reside in a Great Lakes state. Applications are due February 28, 2020.
Join us for a week-long professional learning opportunity, working side-by-side with scientists on the 180-foot research vessel Lake Guardian. Participants board the ship on July 6, 2020 in Milwaukee, WI and return to Milwaukee on July 12, 2020.
Work alongside top scientists as we explore the ecology, geology, geography, biogeochemistry, weather, and current issues affecting Lake Michigan.
Learn to collect data and use scientific equipment to study water quality, food web dynamics, microbes, zooplankton, and larval fish.
Experience high-quality curricula and resources focusing on Great Lakes literacy.
Share this shipboard experience of a lifetime with like-minded educators dedicated to bringing environmental issues that affect the Great Lakes to the forefront of science education.
Earn a stipend and 60 contact hours (if interested, two graduate semester hours from Ashland University [$360 tuition] can be purchased by the participant).
The American Citizen Planner – Indiana (ACP-IN) program, which provides training in core competencies for public planning officials, is now being offered twice per year. The online training program is designed to help those serving on plan commissions and other volunteers interested in community planning understand the roles and responsibilities of public officials, community residents and developers in the planning process. It also helps participants understand how planners implement comprehensive plans.
Participants build knowledge of theories, tools and legal aspects related to planning and working with the public, and then they help shape plans to guide the future of their communities. Through two in-person learning events, participants will discuss decision-making processes, apply concepts from the online course with peers from their region, and hear from experts on planning and land use issues affecting their community.
The ACP-IN program is offered twice per year, in two sessions. The program features two courses of ACP-IN 101 and ACP-IN 201 with 28 units (up to one hour each) of online content and two in-person workshops of two hours each. Participants who complete ACP-IN 101, ACP-IN 201, attend both workshops and pass the comprehensive exam will earn the Master Citizen Planner credential.
Registration for the 2020 program is open February 3 to March 13 for the first session and participants can register July 13 to August 21 for the second session. The course fee is $200, which includes ACP-IN 101 and ACP-IN 201 course access, two in-person workshop events and the final exam.
Community planners need a tool to help them incorporate local water quality into development plans and land use decisions. This is exactly why Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s sustainable community planning team developed the Tipping Point Planner with Purdue University and partners. ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) has highlighted the program with an article in their latest issue of ArcNews: With GIS, Communities See How Land-Use Changes May Affect Local Water Quality. Below is an excerpt:
Nutrient reduction in bodies of water is a critical goal for communities in the United States, particularly in northern states that border the Great Lakes, where nutrient loads—high concentrations of pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus—threaten the health of rivers, tributaries, inland lakes, and bays. Communities often need to know the quality status of their watersheds and how development plans might affect that. Many questions arise during the planning process, such as the following:
Are current nutrient loads impairing surface water quality?
If we develop a particular site, would our streams or other bodies of surface water cross a critical threshold where they change from a healthy state to impaired?
What mitigation management strategies are the most cost-effective?
To answer these questions, communities need science-based tools that link planning decisions to water quality. These tools need to be established within a framework that involves community organizations, natural resource experts, scientists, extension specialists from land- and sea-grant universities, and concerned citizens.
As part of its mission to serve the communities of southern Lake Michigan and beyond, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) funds innovative research. Starting next month, five researchers will lead new projects to learn more about green infrastructure, aquatic invasions, aquaculture, contaminants in fish, and shoreline erosion.
Green Infrastructure
Cities with heavy snowfall implement ways to make roads less slick, but this may come at a cost to water quality. Kimberly Van Meter of the University of Illinois at Chicago will study whether applying road salt near green infrastructure installations alters chloride levels in nearby surface and ground waters. She will conduct her research in different locations around the Chicago metropolitan area.
Aquatic Invasions
Many studies have looked at whether electricity or carbon dioxide can stop the spread of invasive Asian carp by creating barriers for the fish, but Reuben Keller of Loyola University Chicago will use funding to learn whether other species can be held back, too. He will focus on non-native invertebrates that make up the lower portions of the food web and have the potential to compete with native species or otherwise alter Great Lakes ecosystems. Learn more about aquatic invasive species.
Aquaculture
Sea Grant programs across the nation are funding aquaculture research with a goal of helping communities develop and maintain a safe and sustainable local seafood supply. Karolina Kwasek of Southern Illinois University Carbondale will develop protocols to improve growth of very young largemouth bass in aquaculture facilities, with a goal of making it easier to raise these and related fish.
Contaminants in Fish
Gary Lamberti of the University of Notre Dame will use funding to test wild caught fish collected from Lake Michigan and its tributaries for PFAS, a contaminant of emerging concern. He and his team will also refine a method for assessing which fish may be most likely to have high concentrations of PFAS in their tissues.
Shoreline Erosion
Finally, Cary Troy of Purdue University will be part of a multi-state, multi-Sea Grant program effort to study physical, hydrodynamic and social issues related to coastal erosion along Lake Michigan shorelines. The full research team will try to address a number of questions related to this timely issue, and will be supported by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, Wisconsin Sea Grant and Michigan Sea Grant.
To learn more about work that IISG funds, explore the research project database. If you are a potential principal investigator based in Illinois or Indiana, learn more about IISG funding opportunities. For more information, contact IISG Research Coordinator Carolyn Foley at cfoley@purdue.edu.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
No matter where you live, you live in a watershed—an area of land that drains to a waterbody such as a stream, river or lake. Through a structured training program beginning March 17, the Indiana Master Watershed Steward Program (IMWSP) will provide community members with knowledge about their surrounding water bodies and how to keep them healthy. The program highlights the Lake Michigan region but is open to all Indiana residents.
The IMWSP will give participants the opportunity to interact with area experts on subjects pertaining to their local watershed. From these natural resource professionals, participants will learn the fundamentals of watershed hydrology, water quality, soil and geology, flooding and stormwater, green infrastructure, watershed wildlife, how people affect watersheds and water quality, and more. The pilot program last year proved to be successful, and participants walked away as Master Watershed Stewards with a deep understanding of local watersheds and how to care for them.
The program will engage participants with local environmental agencies and community groups to promote community participation in local water quality and fish and wildlife enhancement through volunteering efforts. Each program participant will apply knowledge gained from the IMWSP to complete a local watershed stewardship project, such as assisting with streambank restoration, riverside cleanups and promoting safe boating.
Application
IMWSP applications are due February 27, 2020. The registration fee is $95. For registration materials, email Leslie Dorworth at ldorwort@pnw.edu or call (219)989-2726.
Class Schedule
Participants will complete 11 weeks of training. Classes begin March 17 and end May 26, 2020. They will be held every Tuesday from 5:30-8:00 p.m. CT at The Residences at Coffee Creek, 2300 Village Point in Chesterton, Indiana.
Continuing Education Units
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are available for educators who complete the IMWSP.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater system in the world with 20% of Earth’s freshwater residing in the five lakes. But how did they form?
The second episode of Teach Me About the Great Lakes, titled “Limnologists Make Up Lots of Words”, is now available to help answer that question. In this episode, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Dr. Stuart Carlton and Carolyn Foley talk with Dr. Michael Twiss, a limnologist and professor of biology at Clarkson University, about how and when the Great Lakes were formed in a discussion that covers billions of years in dozens of minutes.
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.
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.
Many homeowners are unaware that common lawn care practices can cause harm to their watersheds. For instance, when lawn caretakers use excessive fertilizers or apply them at inappropriate times (such as before a heavy rain), nutrients can run off and contaminate local bodies of water. However, keeping a beautiful and healthy lawn doesn’t have to have negative impacts on water quality. Illinois residents are invited to a join in a conversation about how they care for their lawns, what environmentally-friendly practices they use, and how to maintain healthy lawns while also protecting local watersheds.
In conjunction with University of Illinois Extension, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) is conducting a series of focus group discussions with lawn caretakers across Illinois in January of 2020. Focus groups will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on January 9 in Effingham, January 16 in Rock Island and in Grayslake on January 23. All of these events will be held at the local county Extension Office, and refreshments will be provided.
“We’re excited to get out and talk with people about natural lawn care,” said Sarah Zack, IISG pollution prevention specialist. “We learned a lot from last summer’s statewide survey about what actions people are taking to keep their lawns healthy and what they’d like to learn more about. These focus groups will give us a chance to sit down with people and talk about the results and hear their feedback. It’s important that the public gets to weigh in on our efforts because that ensures that we’re reaching out in a way that’s most helpful to them.”
The results of the focus group discussions will be instrumental in designing future campaigns that are effective for the people of Illinois.
A $30 Amazon e-gift card will be provided as a thank you for participating. The specific meeting address will be provided upon registration. For more information or to register for a focus group, contact Sarah Zack at szack@illinois.edu or 217-300-4076.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant is a part of University of Illinois Extension and Purdue Extension.
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) is accepting applications for its second cohort of Sea Grant Scholars, our innovative professional networking and development program for college and university faculty in Illinois and Indiana. The purpose of the Sea Grant Scholars program is to help develop a community of researchers working on critical issues related to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes region.
This is a great opportunity for both new faculty and faculty who want to increase their research focus on the Great Lakes. Here’s what Sea Grant Scholars receive as part of the program:
Up to $12,000 (50% non-federal match required), which can be used to fund summer salary, travel, or other relevant costs.
The opportunity to meet and interact with IISG staff and stakeholders to help further the scholars’ understanding of Great Lakes issues and how the scholars’ research might help to address those issues.
In exchange, we ask scholars:
To attend two networking events in which you’ll get to meet with IISG staff and stakeholders.
To develop a preliminary product on an IISG-relevant topic. This could be a literature review, pilot data set, or something else that can inform a future proposal.
To write a proposal for submission to an external funding agency that incorporates the preliminary product and/or information from the networking activities that scholars do during the scholars program.
In short, this is a good chance to get summer salary in exchange for attending a couple of networking events and developing an IISG-relevant proposal. It’s a pretty good deal!
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Dr. Stuart Carlton has started a new monthly podcast called “Teach Me About the Great Lakes.” The purpose of the podcast is to help Carlton—a social scientist who grew up in the South near the Gulf of Mexico—learn about the biology, ecology and natural history of the Great Lakes.
“In my two years at Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, I’ve learned a lot about what makes the Great Lakes special, but there’s so much to know,” said Carlton. “This podcast gives me a chance to harness the knowledge of IISG specialists and the many scientists and other fascinating people in the region to help me better understand this amazing resource.”
A new episode of Teach Me About the Great Lakes will be released on the first Monday of each month. The first episode, “They’re Also Called Nurdles,” is embedded below. Carlton and co-host Hope Charters talk with special guests Carolyn Foley and Sarah Zack about microplastics. What are they? How do they affect fish and people? What can we do to help prevent adding more microplastics to our waters? Find out what researchers know so far about this contaminant.
Love this episode and want to hear more in the future? Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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.
IISG is hiring an experienced communication coordinator to oversee communication and lead efforts to develop and maintain programs and products that promote science-based knowledge and highlight IISG’s research, outreach and education efforts. Learn more at the #linkinbio.
Participants build knowledge of theories, tools and legal aspects related to planning and working with the public, and then they help shape plans to guide the future of their communities. Through two in-person learning events, participants will discuss decision-making processes, apply concepts from the online course with peers from their region, and hear from experts on planning and land use issues affecting their community.
;
