This award establishes a regional Center for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) in the Great Lakes area. The new Center adds the critical freshwater component to the COSEE network through a diverse set of scientist and educator collaborations across the Great Lakes region. Sea Grant educators will lead the education efforts. Native Americans and urban teachers and students will be targeted in the Great Lakes/ocean literacy effort. A multi-layered set of activities (including use of GLOS data), that is focused on public understanding of ocean/Great Lakes science, will provide nearly 1800 educators with enhanced science knowledge and will engage over 350 researchers in education of new audiences. Fifteen thousand Grades 4-10 students in Great Lakes states will benefit from the proposed activities. The COSEE-Great Lakes will engage in six types of activities: 1) teacher enhancement (Lake Exploration workshops, Lake Guardian workshops, Scholarships for teachers, teachable moments), 2) research scientist interactions, 3) Great Lakes/ocean science for the public, media, and schools, 4) curriculum development linking the Great Lakes and the ocean, 5) forging student connections to Great Lakes science and research, and 6) adding the freshwater component through collaborative activities with the COSEE network. The project is proposed through the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, but includes partnerships with Pennsylvania Sea Grant, Penn State Erie; Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Michigan Sea Grant; Great Lakes Sea Grant Network/Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.
