NCSCE Awards Grants to Initiate Great Lakes Clusters
The Great Lakes Innovative Stewardship through Education Network (GLISTEN), recently funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service's Learn and Serve Program, has made its first awards to support Cluster activity in Great Lakes states. GLISTEN is a three-year initiative of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement that will harness the expertise and innovation of college faculty and undergraduate students to promote stewardship of the Great Lakes, an ecosystem containing 20% of the world's fresh water.
GLISTEN will focus its work through grant-supported clusters specific to Great Lakes areas. Each of these five clusters consists of at least one 4-year and one 2-year undergraduate institution where Great-Lakes-stewardship-focused courses will be developed and offered. GLISTEN Clusters will include community-based organizations, local governments and others as collaborators working to achieve goals for water quality, clean air, conservation, and other environmental improvement. Each cluster will also include representatives from at least one informal science education venue, such as a science museum, nature center or state or national park. Stewardship Liaisons will be students from GLISTEN courses who will work with community partners to implement Cluster goals.
The initial awards designated by NCSCE and GLISTEN staff are to five robust clusters representing Cleveland and Akron (OH), Chicago (IL), Duluth/Superior (MN), Gary (IN), and Toledo (OH). We invite you to read the summaries below to learn about each cluster's plan to address challenges in their region.
Cleveland/Akron (Ohio - Lake Erie)
Led by the Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Akron, this cluster will include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty from Baldwin-Wallace College, Case Western Reserve University, Cuyahoga Community College, Hiram College, and Oberlin College. STEM coursework developed in this cluster will focus on understanding the linkage between watershed processes and the health of the Great Lakes. Undergraduate students will work with Lake Erie watershed stewardship projects sponsored by community partners such as the Cleveland Metroparks, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and the Western Reserve Resource Conservation and Development Council. Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center will serve as a venue for informal science education activities and public communication of the cluster's work.
Chicago (Illinois - Lake Michigan)
Harold Washington College will lead the Chicago Great Lakes Collaborative, a cluster including faculty from Harper College and Northeastern Illinois University that will develop undergraduate curricula incorporating assistance to community partners including the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the Friends of the Chicago River. Activities such as riverbank restoration and beach water quality monitoring will be incorporated into undergraduate STEM coursework.
Duluth/Superior (Minnesota/Wisconsin - Lake Superior)
This two-state cluster led by the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth will include faculty from Lake Superior College, Northland College, and the University of Wisconsin/Superior. Courses will address stewardship of the St. Louis and Bad River watersheds, including habitat restoration and water quality monitoring, in collaboration with community-based partners such as the St. Louis River Alliance, Trout Unlimited, and the Laurentian Resource Conservation and Development Council. Duluth's Great Lakes Aquarium will serve as a venue for informal science education activities and public communication of the cluster's work.
Gary (Indiana - Lake Michigan)
Headed by Indiana University Northwest, this Cluster will include faculty from Valparaiso University and Ivy Tech Community College Northwest. In collaboration with a diverse group of non-profit and publicly-funded organizations in northwest Indiana, STEM faculty will develop curricula incorporating water quality monitoring focused on Indiana's Lake Michigan shoreline and tributaries. Community-based partners will include the Save The Dunes Conservation Fund, the Shirley Heinze Land Trust, the Northwest Indiana Planning Commission, the Coffee Creek Watershed Conservancy, and the Northwest Indiana Consortium for the Environment. The Dunes Learning Center at the Indiana Dunes National Park will serve as a venue for informal science education activities and public communication of the Cluster's work. A unique aspect of this cluster will be the mentoring of students by private environmental consultants.
Toledo (Ohio - Lake Erie)
This cluster, which aims to incorporate partners from southern Michigan and Ontario, is composed of STEM faculty from Lourdes College, the lead institution, as well as Defiance College and Owens Community College. STEM curricular activities at these institutions will focus on monitoring water quality in the Maumee River Watershed, the largest in the Great Lakes ecosystem and a major contributor of non-point sources of pollution that generate toxic algal blooms. The Toledo cluster's community-based partners include the Western Lake Erie Waterkeeper's Association, the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, and the Maumee Valley Resource Conservation and Development Council. Toledo's Imagination Station will serve as a venue for informal science education activities and public communication of the cluster's work.
GLISTEN clusters will be represented at the 2010 SENCER Summer Institute, where they will share information on the initial stages of work and new additions to their plans. For more information on GLISTEN, please contact project director Glenn Odenbrett (glenn.odenbrett@ncsce.net) or program assistant Amanda Moodie (amanda.moodie@ncsce.net).
