Great Lakes Research Consortium Practicum in Applied Environmental Problem-Solving: New Approaches and Techniques for Undergraduate Teaching Faculty

五大湖研究联盟（GLRC）提议让20名本科教师参加为期三周的暑期实习，以证明解决环境问题是一种有效的教学策略，可以激发本科生对环境科学的兴趣。这种模式在两年制和四年制大学环境科学本科教师的暑期实习中被证明是有效的，他们通过实习成功地将环境问题解决课程纳入了他们的课程中。本科教师参与者学习环境分析技术，并为安大略湖受污染港口的假设开发项目准备环境影响报告（EIS）。由于他们正在接触大湖研究界为理解和解决环境问题而开发的新的创新理论概念和技术，参与者将了解如何将环境问题解决纳入其本国机构的课程。根据五大湖的经验，专题将包括级联营养相互作用和群落生态学中的粒径谱的理论和应用；测定沉积物和鱼类中有毒化学物质浓度的分析方法；以及利用微型计算机对大型湖泊系统进行物质平衡和生物能量学模拟。通过为一个现实的项目准备环境影响报告，这些技术将被整合到整体环境分析和解决问题的方法中，这种方法已经在GLRC的两个校区激发了十年来本科生对科学的兴趣。参加实习的学员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、方法和技术回到自己的母校。

The Great Lakes Research Consortium (GLRC) 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 (EIS) 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 shown how to 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 massbalance 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 that has stimulated undergraduate interest in science at two GLRC campuses for a decade. 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.