Seven teachers from New York are spending a week on Lake Ontario conducting research and developing new lesson plans for their students.
As part of the Lake Ontario Shipboard Science Program hosted by New York Sea Grant, the teachers are collecting data alongside research scientists, learning more about the scientific process and Great Lakes ecology.
For Barbra Bibbins, who teaches science in the Belleville-Henderson Central School District, the program gives her the opportunity to talk about local areas with her students.
“We are always talking about somewhere else,” Bibbins said. “And if I can get [students] to focus locally first, it enables them to have a touchstone to go back and understand the world around them.”
Greg Boyer, SUNY ESF biochemistry professor emeritus, and research scientist aboard the Lake Guardian research vessel, said the teachers are actively participating in data collection that assists the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“For the five research scientists on board, this is data that goes right, directly into our research,” Boyer said.
In addition to data collection, the educators onboard are working with New York Sea Grant literacy specialists to develop lesson plans and curricula to take back to their classrooms. Boyer, who has been on eight of these expeditions, said it is always a fun experience figuring out ways to help teachers both in the classroom and on the research team.
“We try to give them practical experiments and things that they can take back, but at the same time we try to give them the experience of what it’s like to work on a research vessel,” Boyer said.
Bibbins said being able to work with so many other teachers has been a rewarding experience.
“It ends up being just this big share session,” Bibbins said. “And sometimes even when we are just waiting for a net to come up, we are talking about how we would use this in our classroom. I learned so much from other teachers that those opportunities are a really big deal.”
Data collection on the Lake Guardian covered everything from invasive species to chemical contaminants.
