It was a day filled with new information, new resources, and new experiences! Day 4 began with Howard Walters providing the next layer of the concept mapping process, as participants worked to find relationships that link concepts they have learned so far in the Lake Michigan Exploration. This was followed by a quick look at some great websites for retrieving water related data. COSEE team members, Rochelle Sturtevant, Ann Marshall, and Cindy Hagley, demonstrated features of some of the sites and provided a master list for educators to use with their lesson planning. The morning continued with a presentation by Todd Nettesheim from the U.S. EPA Great Lakes National Program Office. He shared current research on contaminants in Great Lakes fish, air, and water. Todd’s presentation was followed by Marisol Sepulvida from Purdue University, who explained the effects of these contaminants on aquatic organisms in her lecture on endocrine disruption in fish and wildlife.

Educators were then able to participate in small group discussions with the presenters to ask questions and process topics in more detail.

It was a great opportunity for teachers to identify ways to link research to classroom lessons. The morning wrapped up with a lunch presentation given by Stephanie Smith from the Great Lakes Alliance who provided classroom resources and an explanation of the “Adopt A Beach” program available for teachers.

Following lunch, participants quickly boarded a bus to travel to the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant for a presentation on waste water removal and a tour of the facility. While the field trip provided the backdrop for a few jokes and laughs, everyone learned a lot. It was then time to return to the Nature Museum for a brief look at additional COSEE resources and some sharing and discussion. This was followed by a special opportunity to attend the “Women Writing on the Great Lakes” event hosted at the museum. The program featured guest authors, who shared readings of their work on nature and the Great Lakes. Dinner at R J Grunts and journaling wrapped up the day. It was stimulating day for all five senses!

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

Jen and Anne-Marie will always remember reading the following email from Jeff while blogging late into the night. Comic relief is a very good thing! Thanks Jeff!

Hi Jen,

I had an idea for a great interactive exhibit they could build at the new Chicago Children’s Museum in Grant Park. The exhibit could be called “The life of a turd”. Kids could slip into a brown wet suit and swirl around a large bowl until they slide down a pipe to a treatment plant, navigate through a bar screen, float in a settling pond, then through a bubbling pond and finally released into the Chicago River.

If kids like water parks and Great America, I think they would love this :-)

Thanks,

Jeff

Cindy Hagley’s response to issues with advancing PowerPoint slides for Marisol Sepulveda during her presentation, “Oh, I know what’s happening. It’s a Mac.”

Discussion during the Water Reclamation presentation:
COSEE Participant (in reference to street sweeping): “They’re trying to pick out solids there.”
Water Reclamation guide: “That’s nice of them.”

Richard Tripp’s phrase for encouraging students to use more appropriate language in class:
“It begins with ‘S.’
It ends with ‘T.’
You do it, and so do we,
but because of where we are at,
we’ll just call it ’scat.’”

WHAT WE’VE LEARNED

While on today’s tour, Susan and Wendy got a little history on a vocabulary word commonly associated with the Water Reclamation Plant. The term “shit” actually is based in an important concept relating to transporting waste. It comes from the phrase “Ship higher in transit.” This refers to the levels of waste placement while shipping. If waste is in the lower levels of the ship in a small contained environment it will combust, therefore it is important to place it at higher levels for shipping. And we thought it was just a bad word!