Welcome to Erie, Pennsylvania!!! 18 participants traveled from all over the Great Lakes basin to participate in this year’s workshop. One educator even traveled all the way from North Carolina! The purpose of the workshop is for non-formal and formal educators to gain a better understanding of this small, but very productive lake. All week we will be conducting experiments, visiting and sampling different places on Lake Erie, listening to scientists discuss their research, and then figuring out ways that we can bring this all into our classrooms. It is going to be an action-packed week.
We started out the day at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center with some introductions and then Helen Domske led a couple activities from the GOGL (Greatest of the Great Lakes) CD.

We couldn’t stay in the classroom all day, so we then headed out to Presque Isle State Park. As we drove through the park it was a great intro into beginning our understanding of Lake Erie. We saw evidence of wave action, sandy beaches, pristine wetlands, and protected canals. We were also lucky enough to get to experience the beautiful wetlands and canals from canoes and kayaks. We all enjoyed the paddle and had only one small mishap. One of our participants has a new name - “flip”. On our paddle Kathleen Ryan provided us with a description and history of the Graveyard Pond. It is called Graveyard Pond because in 1813-1814 many of the men under Oliver Hazard Perry’s command during the War of 1812 got smallpox. They were quarantined in Presque Isle and many of them died and their bodies were laid to rest in Graveyard Pond. I am glad that I heard this after I got out of my kayak or I would have been thinking about dead bodies the entire time I was paddling. Since then, canals have been dredged to connect the ponds and they are now open to non-motorized recreation.

Our evening started with a water taxi ride around the bay and then a getting-to-know-you dinner at the Sloppy Duck. Upon our return to TREC (Tom Ridge Environmental Center), Howard introduced us to concept mapping, a knowledge visualizing tool, which we will be using throughout the week. We also discussed Ocean Literacy and how COSEE and this workshop will help us to improve our student’s ocean literacy and help us to infuse it into our curriculum.

Did You Know?
- 90% of the water going into Lake Erie comes from the Detroit River
- Lake Superior looks like a wolf’s head
- Lake Huron has the most shoreline out of all of the Great Lakes
- Commander Perry was the first to say “Don’t give up the ship” and “We have met the enemy and they are ours…” in the battle of Lake Erie
- There are native species of phragmites living in Lake Erie