Applied Environmental Problem-Solving: New Approaches and Techniques for Undergraduate Teaching Faculty

9353978五大湖研究联盟建议让20名本科生教师沉浸在为期3周的暑期实习中，展示解决环境问题是一种有效的教学策略，以激发本科生对环境科学的兴趣。在两年制和四年制本科环境科学教师的暑期实习中，该模式被证明是有效的，他们成功地将环境问题解决课程纳入了他们的课程。本科生教师学员学习环境分析技术，并为安大略湖污染港口的假想开发项目准备环境影响报告书。随着他们接触到五大湖研究界为了解和解决环境问题而开发的新的创新理论概念和技术，参与者将把解决环境问题纳入其本国机构的课程。以五大湖经验为基础的专题将包括：群落生态学中级联营养相互作用和粒度谱的理论和应用；确定沉积物和鱼类中有毒化学物质浓度的分析方法；以及使用微型计算机对大型湖泊系统进行质量平衡和生物能量学模拟。通过为现实项目准备环境影响报表，这些技术将被整合到整体环境分析和解决问题的方法中。参加实习的人将带着扩展和更新的专业技能以及改善本科教育和解决当地社区环境问题的新战略、方法和技术返回自己的机构。***

9353978 Smardon The Great Lakes Research Consortium proposes to immerse 20 undergraduate faculty in a 3-week summer practicum that demonstrates environmental problem-solving as an effective teaching strategy to stimulate undergraduates' interest in environmental science. This model has proven to be effective during a summer practicum for undergraduate environmental science teachers of two and four year colleges who, as a result of the practicum, successfully incorporated environmental problem solving curriculum into their courses. Undergraduate faculty participants learn environmental analysis techniques and prepare 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 will integrate environmental problem-solving into curricula at their home institutions. Special topics, based on the Great Lakes experience, will include 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 the 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 will be integrated into the overall environmental analysis and problem-solving approach. Participants in the practicum will return 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. ***