Posted on March 11, 2021 in Uncategorized
Students in grades 4-8 at schools in Houghton, Keweenaw, Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties are invited to participate in the 9th Annual Lake Superior Water Festival, coordinated by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative — a partnership of the Western UP MiSTEM Network and the Michigan Tech Center for Science & Environmental Outreach.
Classes will have the opportunity to select up to six 45-minute sessions on March 23-25. Sessions will be held at 10 am and 2 pm (Eastern time). All presentations are open to Gr 4-8 unless otherwise noted. Not all sessions are available on all days or times. Link to the registration form (https://forms.gle/sEvCQp8juatuiHPc6). Registration deadline is Thursday, March 18th at 5 pm.
The Water Festival provides an opportunity for students to learn about and celebrate our most precious natural resource – the Great Lakes! A wide variety of topics from science and engineering to land and water stewardship will be presented. Nine different sessions will be offered:
“Become a Sooper Yooper” with Mark Newman. Investigate the challenge of ridding the Great Lakes of invasive species (and other environmental pollution battles) with Mark Newman, author of the “Sooper Yooper: Environmental Defender of Lake Superior”.
“Great Lakes Freshwater Feasts!” with Lauren Jescovich, Extension Educator in Fisheries & Aquaculture from Michigan Sea Grant. Find out why eating local fish is good for you, and how you can get fish from recreational fishing, aquaculture, or commercial fisheries. Learn how to cook your fish!
“US Coast Guard to the Rescue!” – The U.S. Coast Guard will give a tour of their Dollar Bay station and share a few of their search & rescue operations.
“Living on the Edge: Saving Shorelines” with Jill Fisher & Nick Potter from the Keweenaw Land Trust. Lots of exciting things are happening where land & water meet! Explore the importance of shoreline habitats and how shorelines provide corridors for people, animals, and currents.
“How Do Our Food Choices Affect the Earth?” with MTU Sustainability House. When is a hamburger not a hamburger? When you look at its ingredients–find out about the grass, water, petroleum, fertilizers, and more that go into producing our food and how this affects our planet. GRADES 4-5
“Striving for Zero-Waste” with students from the MTU Sustainability House. Learn how to reduce the amount of waste you produce through interactive games. GRADES 6-8.
“Monitoring Water Quality with Dragonflies!” with Park Ranger Zach Gostlin and Education Intern Hailey Burley, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Discover how mercury, a toxic pollutant that can harm humans and wildlife, enters our rivers and lakes, then moves through the food web. How do we know it’s there? What can we do to stop it?
“Trout are Made of Trees” with Shanelle Saunders, Conservation Education Coordinator, Ottawa N.F. Find out why forests are essential to providing the clean water that people and animals need, and what you can do to help protect watersheds.
“We Are Where We Live! Find Out How This Special Place Shapes Us” with Erika Vye, MTU Geosciences Research Scientist, Great Lakes Research Center. What makes our place unique? Explore how geology, Lake Superior, and Indigenous histories are part of our sense of place and who we are.
The 2021 Water Festival is made possible with funding from the Michigan Space Grant Consortium, the Western UP MiSTEM Network, and the Great Lakes Research Center.
The Festival is coordinated by the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative and MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach, with support from MTU Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Copper Country Intermediate School District.
For more information, visit http://lakesuperiorstewardship.org/water_festival.php contact: Joan Chadde (jchadde@mtu.edu) or Lloyd Wescoat at 906- 482-4250 Ext.186.