Great Lakes Research Consortium Summer Practicum for AppliedEnvironmental Problem Solving: New Approaches and Techni- ques for Undergraduate Faculty

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Great Lakes Research Consortium (GLRC) is immersing 20 undergraduate faculty in a three week summer practicum that is demonstrating environmental problem-solving as an effective teaching strategy to stimulate undergraduates' interest in environmental science. Undergraduate faculty participants are learning environmental analysis techniques and preparing environmental impact statements for a hypothetical development project in a contaminated harbor of Lake Ontario. As they are being exposed to new innovative theoretical concepts and techniques developed by the Great Lakes Research community to understand and solve environmental problems, participants are being shown how to integrate environmental problem-solving into curricula at their home institutions. Special topics, based on the Great Lakes experience are including the theories and applications of cascading trophic interactions and particle-size spectra in community ecology; analytical methods for determining toxic chemical concentrations in sediments and fishes; and use of microcomputers for mass-balance and bioenergetics modeling of large lake systems. Through preparation of environmental impact statements for a realistic project, these techniques are being integrated into the overall environmental analysis and problem-solving approach that has stimulated undergraduate interest in science at two GLRC campuses for a decade. Participants in the practicum are returning to their home institutions with expanded and updated professional skills and new strategies, methods and techniques for improving undergraduate education and addressing environmental problems in local communities.