A research and education network will be created to address critical problems linking watersheds and the ecology of the Lake Erie ecosystem. Problems of interest include loss of fish and wildlife habitat, urban sprawl, and disruption of natural flow regimes of Lake Erie tributaries. The network's goal is to establish a research component for an existing watershed-based service learning initiative focused on linking watershed stewardship activities with undergraduate STEM course work at colleges and universities throughout northeast Ohio. Products will include coordination of education initiatives and creation of a web-based portal to provide educators access to research data. Core participants are affiliated with an undergraduate, environmental service learning network, CLEAN (Collaborative Learning for Environmental Action Network). Academic institution partners include Case Western Reserve University, Cuyahoga Community College, Baldwin Wallace College, University of Akron, Hiram College, Lake Erie College, Lakeland Community College, Oberlin College, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University. Agency partners to be invited to engage in strategic planning for the network are the Cuyahoga Regional Action Plan, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Northeast Ohio County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Western Reserve Resource and Conservation and Development Council, and community-based watershed stewardship organizations. Broader impacts of this project will include improved coordination of and access to educational resources, initially to a diverse set of partner colleges and universities, and ultimately to all educational institutions in the Lake Erie watershed. Public outreach and education opportunities will be provided at institutions such as the Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and nature centers located in the region's Metroparks. By involving agency partners, the project will add to the science basis of management and policy decisions in watershed management. This project is supported jointly by the Biological Sciences Directorate and the Division of Undergraduate Education.
The RCN-UBE Incubator grant to Case Western Reserve University led to the creation of the Lake Erie Research and Education Network (LEWREN). The (LEWREN project has accomplished its goals. By building on an existing watershed-based service learning initiative in northeast Ohio (Collaborative Learning for Environmental Action Network), we were able to use a distributed hydrologic monitoring infrastructure, which is maintained by various community partners, to address watershed stewardship activities with undergraduate STEM course work at colleges and universities in northeast Ohio. We thus have established a proof-of-concept for using civic engagement as a basis for a research coordination network that links research and Biology curriculum development. In creating a Web-based portal for data standardization and sharing, we have successfully promoted wider use of important research resources of community partners like the Cleveland Metroparks and promoted inquiry-driven pedagogy into existing biology courses. Unexpectedly, we discovered an even wider interest in developing watershed learning communities that broaden the education initiatives into K-12 education and informal science education. It is especially gratifying to note how much our community partners have begun to use the network to inform management policies and communication of the science behind policy recommendations to the general public. In forging a working relation with Cleveland Metroparks, LEWREN has provided an academic link to a major new facility in the West Creek Watershed Leadership Center, which will be a major facility for demonstration and monitoring of methods of regulating storm water runoff . West Creek is a tributary of the Cuyahoga River. The successful use of the West Creek Watershed Leadership Center through education and research partnerships thus provides additional impetus for the Cleveland Metroparks, City of Cleveland, and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District to renovate the Coast Guard Station at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River for the purpose of transforming that facility into a companion venue where the research, monitoring, and analysis generated by the network become available to the general public.
