“We had a fun and energetic workshop with teachers and principals in the Blue Island School District. The workshop focused on water quality and drew on three major initiatives within Sea Grant: Lawn to Lake, the Great Lakes Field Experiences for Watershed Educators (B-WET), and Increasing Citizen Involvement and Great Lakes Literacy (Center for Great Lakes Literacy).

We began with the basic definition and ecology of watersheds, then moved to an exploration of watershed and water quality issues brought on by urbanization, landscaping practices, and waste disposal. Teachers learned basic ecology that they can teach in their classrooms. We identified point- and non-point sources of pollution and talked about available solutions for individuals and communities to adopt. 

 

 

The watershed model was a big hit. We used a three-dimensional model of a watershed, with rivers and lakes, houses, farms, factories, water treatment facilities and other developments, to see how water and pollutants move through the community. Teachers will be able to borrow this model for use in their classes, helping students understand the connection between people, land use, and water. But we didn’t just look at problems. The model also let us see how natural lawn care, rain gardens, rain barrels, permeable pavement, and other practices can help prevent pollution and reduce runoff.

 

We showcased many of the program’s Great Lakes curricula – Fresh and Salt, Greatest of the Great Lakes, and Sensible Disposal of Unwanted Medicines. Teachers broke into groups to experience some of these classroom activities and share how they might incorporate them in their lessons. They also learned how the Great Lakes Literacy Principles will be a great way to introduce current Great Lakes issues to their students.

 

Most of the teachers told us that they haven’t yet integrated Great Lakes information in their educational activities, but that they plan to do so now after learning more about water quality and educational resources at the workshop. 

 

 

In addition to Susan, the workshop was also led by IISG’s Robin Goettel and Terri Hallesy. If you are interested in educational materials and opportunities for yourself or teachers in your school/district, contact Robin or Terri at the links above or visit us online to learn more.

 

Thousands of residents in Illinois and Indiana came out last Saturday with the goal of ridding their homes of unwanted pharmaceuticals as part of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) 5^th annual National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. police officers and volunteers in more than 200 locations in Illinois and 70 in Indiana collected bottles, boxes, and sometimes even garbage bags full of prescription and over-the-counter human and veterinary medications. Everything collected will be properly incinerated by the DEA.
  

Single-day collection events like this are an important way to limit negative impacts to wildlife and local waterways from prescriptions and medications that are improperly disposed of. A wide-range of pharmaceutical chemicals has been found in rivers, groundwater, and drinking water throughout the country due to medications being flushed down the toilet or thrown in the trash. The impact of these chemicals on long-term human health is still unknown, but a connection between pharmaceutical-contaminated waters and impaired development, behavior, and reproduction has been found in many species of fish and other aquatic wildlife.

 

 

 

 

IISG staff members and interns traveled to the Indiana shoreline earlier this week to help launch an environmental sensing buoy four miles off the coast of Michigan City, Indiana. They were joined by researchers from the Purdue University School of Civil Engineering, who partnered with IISG to develop the buoy, and staff at the Indiana DNR.

 

“If I had to describe the launch process in one word, it would be ‘meticulous.’ The approximately 6-hour process was carefully divided into a series of steps: Steps for the final calibration of the real-time data sensors, steps for placing the 2,000 lb anchor on the lake bottom, steps for rigging the buoy up to be dragged behind the DNR boat to its final destination in 62-foot water, and still more steps for attaching it to the anchor’s line. To a passer-by the process must have looked a little hectic, with people running around securing lines and popping back-and-forth from the building to test light-sensitive sensors. And maybe things were a little chaotic at times, but a chaos complete with checklists.

This is not to say that the day played out without any hiccups. In fact, the whole thing almost had to be scrapped for another day because of a malfunctioning light needed to announce the buoy’s existence to nearby boaters. Cary Troy, the lead researcher on the project, had brought four of these lights from Purdue just in case one didn’t work. Four proved to be too few, though, when the time came to install it atop the buoy. We knew going in that the buoy might not be able to go out that day. There was always the chance that the weather would not be on our side that morning and we would need to wait for another, better day. But with the weather the best it had been for several days, the anchor sitting on a barge at the Port Authority ready to be carried out into the lake, and the buoy all working as planned, a small but important light stood in the way.

To keep the day moving, the team decided to divide and conquer. Cary Troy and graduate student Jun Choi rode the four miles out into the lake on a flat barge carrying the buoy’s anchor, hoping to at least get that in place on the scheduled day. A temporary buoy was attached to the anchor to mark the location and hold the line that secures to buoy in place until the real thing was ready.

Meanwhile, IISG’s Naoki Wada set about trying to repair the light. As a summer intern, Naoki was a key player in the buoy development and continued to lead the way during much of the launch. Step one in the repair process was to hook the light up to a car battery to charge. Once out on the lake, the light is designed to charge during the day using a series of solar panels and flash in 15-second intervals at night or when overcast. That afternoon, though, the sun was replaced with the faster-acting car battery. Step two involved making a series of alterations to the light to test why the now-charged light was not consistently functional. In the end, the launch date was saved when Naoki discovered that removing an internal screw was enough to keep the light working as designed.

With the light finally mounted in place, IISG and crew from the Indiana DNR set about rigging the buoy to safely lower it into the water. The weight and the sensitivity of its sensors meant that the crew needed to be in constant control of the buoy’s movement from the minute it entered the water—something much easier said than done with a machine designed to float. The rigging and lowering process was perhaps the most meticulous part of the day, with as many as eight people at one point tying rope, connecting chains, checking the balance of weight, supporting the buoy into the water, and preventing it from floating under the boat as it drove away from the dock.

The same ropes and chains were then used to transport the buoy four miles into the lake at about 5mph, the manufacturer-recommended speed for dragging a buoy behind a boat. The last step was to remove the drag lines and attach the buoy to the anchor line put in place earlier that day in a process that looked much like the rigging of an hour earlier acted out in reverse. Months of work planning, developing, and launching the buoy were capped off by the whole launch crew snapping photos of the now-operational buoy as the DNR boat sped back to shore.”

 

Last week, Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant had a two-day meeting and retreat at the Indiana Dunes State Park in Chesterton, Indiana. In addition to devoting some time to planning and discussing current and future projects, we were treated to a couple of informative and scenic tours in the area, learning more about the extensive restoration work to protect the dunes, the state park and national lakeshore, and the water quality of Lake Michigan.

 

Staff members were able to join National Park Service workers on-site to learn about and get their hands dirty at the Great Marsh Restoration Site not far from the dunes. Once very large, the remaining Great Marsh area is approximately 12 miles long and harbors a wide range of plants, animals, insects, and other beneficial organisms. Those native species are threatened by invasive species, however, and work is ongoing to plant and establish native species to bolster the wetlands’ resistance to invasive species and restore the natural balance of the area. 

 

Informative, fun, and muddy, the chance to do on-the-ground work in restoring this watershed was a valuable experience for everyone involved, and offered a practical reminder of the importance of restoring and protecting these areas. 

 

There are more terrific photographs of the restoration project and the lake shore on Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant’s Facebook page. Head over and check them out, and be sure to plan a visit to the park for yourself.

 

Changes in weather patterns, such as warmer winters and lower rainfall averages, can have large effects on water availability, lake levels, plant and fish life, and more. Because so many people and industries rely on the Great Lakes, those changes can have a significant impact beyond the obvious, as is the case for the shipping industry. 

 

From CircleOfBlue.org: 

Follow the link above to read the complete article on these potential consequences for the Great Lakes, the shipping and transportation industry, and the communities that rely on these resources.

 

Seventh-grade teacher Kimiko Pettis participated in this year’s Windy City Earth Force project in partnership with Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant and the Calumet Environmental Education Program at The Field Museum, where she learned about the GLRI-funded Stewardship Project Contest (PDF). Ms. Pettis was selected as one of three award-winning teachers, and her students at Thomas Hoyne Elementary in Chicago helped educate their local community about the importance of properly using and disposing of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP). 

 

The class’ first step was to research the subject of PPCPs, how to dispose of them, and what effects they can have if they’re allowed into the water. The class invited IISG staffers and representatives from the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum to provide hands-on activities teaching them about water quality. 

 

Then they put what they had learned into action by making posters and flyers that they posted in local churches, businesses, and shops. They also conducted a school-wide survey about water quality to find out what their fellow students knew about the issues, and wrote letters to legislators and environmental agencies detailing what they had learned about threats to water safety. 

 

At the end, the students produced a great video skit to share with their fellow students at the school, and they participated in the Ford Environmental Leadership Summit at the Field Museum on May 8, 2012, where they were able to display the posters and flyers they had made and engage with the attendees to talk about proper disposal of PPCPs. 

 

Ms. Pettis and two teachers in Pennsylvania will each receive a $100 gift certificate to use for education resources as an award for their excellence in fostering student engagement and stewardship. 

 

The contest, sponsored by Sea Grant Programs in Pennsylvania, Illinois-Indiana, and New York will continue throughout the 2012-13 school year, and complete details are included in the PDF linked above.

 

Bill Hanshumaker of the Hatfield Marine Science Center and Oregon Sea Grant explains aquaculture research being conducted at the facility.

Each year, natural resource students from Purdue University, North Carolina State University, and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences come together to learn about sustainable use of natural resources in some part of the world. In July 2012, the course took place in the Pacific Northwest. Students visited old-growth forests, wildlife refuges, urban areas and more, learning about the political, social and economic concerns that factor into decision-making and development in the region. 

 

Because of the partnership between Purdue University’s Department of Forestry and Natural Resources and Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant, students were able to connect with extension specialists from Oregon Sea Grant to learn about coastal issues. 

 

Oregon Sea Grant agent Jeff Feldner discusses commercial fishing during a “dock walk.”

IISG’s Carolyn Foley shares more about the course: “Amidst glorious sunshine, students learned about the strong fishing trade in Newport, OR, including oyster farming. They asked questions about how these trades are regulated in the Pacific Northwest, and what impacts their activities have on the surrounding community and natural resource use. They were also able to visit the Hatfield Marine Science Center and gain a healthy overview of the major issues affecting coastal resources in Oregon and surrounding states, including the development of technology to harness wave energy, impacts of naturally-occurring low-oxygen conditions, and effects of development on local wildlife populations. Some students even visited a large dock (~66’ x 19’ x 7’) that was ripped from its pilings in Misawa, Japan during the 2011 tsunami which crossed more than 11,000 km of Pacific Ocean and landed near Newport in early June, bringing with it more than 80 non-native, potentially invasive species of algae, snails, clams, and other life forms.”

Students from the course gather in front of the tsunami-generated floating dock that washed ashore in early June 2012. Researchers have identified 92+ species that survived the trans-Pacific voyage.

 

For more about some of IISG’s education initiatives, visit our education website. College and graduate students are also encouraged to contact their departments for information on similar courses and opportunities.

*Photos courtesy of George Hess with North Carolina State University