Great Lakes Literacy 101
🦸♂️️🦸♀️️--->PBSE Effort Alert!
📚--->Resource Alert!
🔔 ---> Environmental Justice Connection!
🎧--->Podcast Alert!
Emojis Have Meanings to Guide you >>> 🤔➡️📝🧮️🧭️
📹⬆️Learn from MI Sea Grant and the NEMIGLSI network to see how they explore watersheds.
Great Lakes Literacy Principles
Great Lakes literacy is understanding the Great Lakes’ influences on you AND your influence on the Great Lakes.
Below are the eight Great Lakes Literacy Principles.
Explore More content and lessons about each principle by following the links.
1. The Great Lakes, bodies of fresh water with many features, are connected to each other and to the world ocean. 📚Explore more here.
📚Explore the Water Cycle of the Great Lakes by reviewing this lesson developed by NOAA GLERL.
📚Use the Water Supply Analysis Tool to visualize how precipitation, runoff, and evaporation work together to impact water levels.
📚Paddle to the Sea is a classic book to explore this principle! This book is included in the Great Lakes Maritime Transportation Education Kit.
2. Natural forces formed the Great Lakes; the lakes continue to shape the features of their watershed. 📚Explore more here.
📚Learn more about the formation of the Great Lakes from our WI Sea Grant partners. Pick one lake to read more about.
📚🎧Listen to "Limnologists Make up Lots of Words" from IL-IN Sea Grant's podcast, Teach Me about the Great Lakes!
📚Research Highlight: Larson, G. & Schaetzl, R. (2001). Origin and Evolution of the Great Lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research. 27(4), 518-546.
📚Lake Michigan Dune Ecosystem Presentation by Dr. Alan Arbogast
3. The Great Lakes influence local and regional weather and climate. 📚Explore more here.
📚Learn more about microclimates in the Great Lakes and coastal areas known as "The Fruit Belt" by scanning this MI Sea Grant lesson plan.
4. Water makes Earth habitable; fresh water sustains life on land. 📚Explore more here.
🔔 Environmental justice is an inquiry and philosophy concerned with the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens (GLSI, 2016).
The U.S. EPA (n.d.) defines environmental justice as follows: “Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”
🌟❓How does this principle intersect with environmental justice? ❓🌟
📚Learn more about the history of EJ by watching the video featured in this lesson plan.
📚Explore this principle through the lens of the Flint Water Crisis by watching this Great Lakes Now feature video.
📚PFAS is another issue facing MI communities. Optional reading: How does EJ connect to what happened/is happening in Oscoda and the connected PFAS contamination from the former U.S. Air Force base?
🌎Both Flint and Oscoda are in the Lake Huron Watershed. 💔
5. The Great Lakes support a broad diversity of life and ecosystems. 📚Explore more here.
📚Learn how researchers help share information about biodiversity and native species by reading this MSUE article highlighting the Great Lakes Water Life tool.
📚Research Highlight: Burton, T. & Uzarski, D. (2009). Biodiversity in protected coastal wetlands along the west coast of Lake Huron. Aquatic Ecosystems Health and Management Society. 12(1), 63-76.
6. The Great Lakes and humans in their watersheds are inextricably interconnected. 📚Explore more here.
The Great Lakes are governed with treaties, laws, norms, and more involving federal, Tribal, state, and local partners. One part of this governance strategy is the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
📚 Read this IJC article to learn more about the GLWQA.
📚Great Ships on the Great Lakes: A Maritime History is another resource for exploring this principle.
7. Much remains to be learned about the Great Lakes. 📚Explore more here.
📚In 2001, sinkholes were discovered in northern Lake Huron. Learn more about this research effort in part of this Great Lakes Now episode.
8. The Great Lakes are socially, economically, and environmentally significant to the region, the nation and the planet. 📚Explore more here.
This film was featured in the 2020 TBIFF Student Film Competition, #GreatLakesAre!
Center for Great Lakes Literacy
The CGLL is a collaborative effort led by Sea Grant educators throughout the Great Lakes watershed. The Center fosters informed and responsible decisions that advance basin-wide stewardship by providing hands-on experiences, educational resources, and networking opportunities that promote Great Lakes literacy among an engaged community of educators, scientists, and citizens.
📚Explore curricular resources and education kits available through the CGLL network at www.cgll.org.
<---📚Watch this video to learn more about a CGLL's shipboard science program.
Did you know? The CGLL supports the Lake Huron Watershed PBSE Summer Teacher Institute by providing participant stipends and more!
Teaching Great Lakes Science
📚Here is a great source to connect the Great Lakes and STEM learning. This website features a suite of lessons, activities, and data sets focused on the Great Lakes for both formal and informal education. All the lessons, activities, teacher tools, and data sets are free and targeted for 4-12th grades. 📚
📚Here are some data visualization tools! How might you use it in a classroom setting? 🤔
Explore flood exposure, wetland benefits, and Great Lakes jobs (listed as Ocean) by county.
Visualize changing Great Lakes water levels and what this might mean for flood exposure.
Learn more about our Great Lakes fisheries and ways to explore fisheries-related places!
Haven't gotten enough Great Lakes content?!?
Click to check out these 📚supplementary resources📚!
Great Lakes Now provides a 30 minute monthly program to highlight important issues impacting the Great Lakes.
📚Explore episodes and content to bolster PBSE efforts here.
Here is the latest episode! --->
Learn more about the Great Lakes in this 17 lesson collection focused on Great Lakes science and geography.
Become a Great Lakes Junior Scientist and complete challenges as part of this family-friendly series.
Explore the Great Lakes in this online series featuring eight lessons geared for grades K-8.
💧🎧PODCAST ALERT🎧💧
A podcast from IL-IN Sea Grant, where Stuart Carlton (a native New Orleanian) asks smart people to teach him about the Great Lakes.
Living Downstream explores environmental justice in CA and across the world. This podcast is produced by Northern CA Public Media in association with the NPR One mobile app.
Poetry is another fun way to explore the Great Lakes. Here is a book recommended from a CGLL partner.
Check out this list of GREAT READS connected to the Great Lakes curated by WI Sea Grant.
Launched in 1986, this book series features Michigan and regional history, the Upper Peninsula, military history, the Great Lakes and maritime history, Detroit history and culture, automotive history, art and architecture, literature, sports, ecology and the environment, and books for young readers.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
DNR hosts and supports many environmental education trainings and programs. Visit their website learn more about these resources!
MEECS
MI EGLE along with many partners developed the MEECS training and curriculum guides. Some of the resources can be found on PBS Learning Media!