July 29 –

No “cooler near Lake Superior” in the breeze today. Seventeen enthusiastic educators arrived at the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus in a heat wave reminiscent of old San Juan to begin a week-long workshop exploring Lake Superior from the watershed to open water and from millions of years ago to the present and beyond. We began our journey at the Duluth Aquarium under the guidance of Dr. Bruce Munson, UM-Duluth, Cindy Hagley, MN Sea Grant, and Sue O’Halloran, University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Following an overview of the course format, expectations and logistics, we followed the travels of “Paddle-to-the-Sea” as the carved canoe and Native American passenger traversed the Great Lakes from the headwaters to the Atlantic. It’s really the same course that we are all starting in this workshop and that will continue over the next four years of the COSEE project. And then it was time for dinner in Duluth’s historic Canal Park area, a quick look at Lake Superior and back to housing at UM-D to prepare for a long day on Sunday.