High School/Lake Association

March 6-7, 2003 Lake/Stream and Lake Association Training Session

RAM Center--Higgins Lake Michigan

Funding Provided by a Grant from the Wege Foundation

Purpose and Accomplishments:

The Ralph A. MacMullan (RAM) Conference Center, located on Higgins Lake, was the site of a training and orientation session for about 25 High School science teachers and lake/stream representatives on March 7-8, 2003.  This session was the first opportunity to get together all members of the collaborative project between local schools and lake & stream associations of Michigan Lake & Stream Association (MLSA).  The conference was made possible by a grant from the Wege Foundation.  Conference sessions included calibration and training techniques using the graphing calculator and CBL, taught by project director Randy Cook, and aquatic plant identification, taught by Howard Wandell.  The keynote speaker on Saturday evening was Kathleen Straus, President, Michigan Board of Education. 

The school/lake project began about two years ago with grants obtained from the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation, the RGK Foundation, the Wege Foundation and the Vernier Software and Technology Company of Beaverton, Oregon.  The goal of the project was to initiate a partnership between schools and MLSA member lake associations to do water testing.  Initially, nine schools and their respective sponsored lake associations received training at kickoff meetings held across the state on the use of the testing equipment that was purchased from Vernier. 

The project has expanded to include a stream portion, coordinated by Jeff Kalember, a Biology teacher at Gaylord High School.  A special training session for performing water tests and identifying freshwater invertebrates in streams/rivers was conducted in September 2002 for schools that joined the stream project.  A training session involving invertebrate identification was included at the Higgins Lake conference and that session was taught by Jeff.

Most schools are doing tests for dissolved carbon dioxide, hardness due to calcium ions, chloride, nitrates, ammonium ions, turbidity, sulfate, dissolved oxygen, pH, temperature, and conductivity.  Flow rate is tested and invertebrates are identified in rivers and streams.  After training at the conference, many schools also plan to begin identification of aquatic plants. 

The genesis of the project was Randy Cook, chemistry/physics teacher at Tri County High School in Howard City, and Pearl Bonnell, MLSA Director of Operations.  Pearl administers the program for MLSA.  Randy authored the teaching manual used in the lake project and was the recipient of the 2001 Milken National Educator Award for outstanding teachers and was recognized with a $25,000 personal grant as part of the award presentation in Los Angeles.  His latest endeavor has been the publication of an elementary water curriculum that is being translated into Spanish to be used in Loma Alta, Ecuador.  Randy has been asked to visit Ecuador this summer to conduct a 10 day training session on water testing techniques for local schools.           

Both Randy and Pearl have high praise for this collaborative project.  It’s a “win-win program” said Randy.  “The schools receive equipment that enables them to conduct ‘hands-on’ school projects.”  “It helps lake associations”, echoed Pearl, “and it helps MLSA to reinforce its preeminent position as the leading non-governmental advocate on water resource management in Michigan.”

Pictures:

 

 The March 6th Training was held at the Ralph A. MacMullen Center (RAM Center) on Higgins Lake. 

Class Sessions were held in the Straits Building at the RAM Center.
Amy Hubbard, President and Chair of the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation, attended the conference.  The Foundation was one of the principle contributors that provided funding to initiate the project.
Jeff Kalember, Stream Coordinator,  started the training on March 6th by teaching macroinvertebrate identification. Randy Cook, Project Director, taught sessions on calibration techniques and showed how to perform turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and sulfate ion testing. Conference participants were given sample invertebrates to identify and they were taught how to fill our a stream survey form to rate the quality of the stream based upon macroinvertebrate population.
Conference participants were taught how to use TI graphing calculators, calculator based laboratories (CBL's) and probes and sensors.  Randy Cook showed participants how to measure turbidity, dissolved oxygen, and sulfate with the calculators, probes, and sensors.
Howard Wandell taught a session on aquatic plant identification on March 7th.
         
Participants learned to identify aquatic plants and to mount the plants on card board sheets to make plant identification cards.
  Pearl Bonnell, MLSA Director of Operations, addresses conference attendees at a session on March 7th.

   
President of the Michigan State Board of Education, Kathleen Straus, shares the importance of experiential learning at a March 7th talk. Michigan Department of Education chief, Pam Wong, with Mrs. Straus, listen in during one of the sessions. Jeff Kalember (Stream Coordinator), Don Winne (MLSA), Amy Hubbard Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation), Pearl Bonnell (MLSA), and Randy Cook (Project Coordinator) MLSA (Director of Operations), Kathleen Straus (Mi. Dept. of Education), and Randy Cook (Project Director)
Administrators from the Tri County Area Schools lend their support at the conference.