Great Lakes Water Data Sets for Teachers
Eastern Michigan University and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory are working together with funding from the NOAA Environmental Literacy Program to make NOAA Great Lakes data more accessible for classroom teachers.
We have a new website available with our first application -- virtual vee map -- and first two datasets -- Dissolved Oxygen & Temperature and Water Levels & Atmospheric Disturbances – at www.glerl.noaa.gov/pr/edu/education.html [Navigate down the page to Education Links, and enjoy other side trips at the site!] These are real data extracted from on-going and historic GLERL research projects. Each data set has been 'downscaled' (fewer decimal points, fewer data points, fewer parameters) to facilitate use in the classroom. Students and teachers can use the datasets to conduct their own inquiries, support guided inquiries, demonstrate limnological concepts or just to practice graphing, mapping and mathematics.
The virtual vee map is a guide for students learning to do inquiry. Sandra Rutherford at EMU, director of the Environmental Literacy project, offers this diagram to show how a vee map works:
The GLERL water data site is a pilot site being classroom tested at EMU in a ‘science for elementary teachers’ course this semester, but we welcome use by and feedback from teachers looking for real data to supplement their classroom activities. Please send feedback to Rochelle.Sturtevant@noaa.gov.
For more information, please visit http://people.emich.edu/srutherf/NOAA/.
Volume 2, Issue 4
Volume 1, Issue 2
