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. Participating faculty will 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 theoretical concepts and techniques developed by the Great Lakes Research community to understand and solve environmental problems. Participants will be shown how to integrate environmental problem-solving into curricula at their home institutions. 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 and techniques for improving undergraduate education, and addressing environmental problems in local communities.
