July 31 — Summary – Valerie Brady and George Host, both of the Natural Resources Research Institute, spent the day sharing watershed concepts and showing us firsthand several computer resources useful in a K-12 classroom.

And then we went into the field to sample the Lester and Amity Rivers and Tischer Creek. The cool water, shaded streams and plunging waterfalls felt wonderful on a warm afternoon, and we were in the water as often as possible. Dinner at the UMD dining hall provided an opportunity to recharge our batteries and to get an overview from Cindy and Bruce of the Duluth area and its place in the overall Lake Superior basin. And then it was off to a local landmark, the Fitgers Brewery, to sample the local brew and to share a wealth of conversation and to generate new questions that demand answers – what the heck ARE English fuggles anyway??

Here’s what our students thought important –

If you snatch a rock from the creek, lift straight up quickly and don’t turn it over until you get it out of the water. You may find stoneflies, mayflies, caddis flies and snails, like we did – Erica

Brian, another student, helped me to better understand the differences in lava flows – Jane

Big idea for today – everyone lives in a watershed – think globally, act locally – Lauren

What are you doing to protect your watershed? – Erin

I was amazed at how much runoff is due to lawns – Ann

Two great sites to use with classes are “www.duluth streams.org” and waterontheweb.org – Jim W and Brian

You can do more than kick seining in creeks. We measured slopes, sediment depth, water flows, volumes, percent shade, temperature and flood plain area. – Jim W

Discussing watersheds and run-off has given me added incentive to proceed with plans to put in a rain garden at our school and even initiate some changes at home – Denise

I slipped and fell in Lester Creek
My flops flipped
My glasses slipped
I grabbed a rock, backed up,
Climbed out and up and went to find the ones
Who didn’t even know I’d left – Patty Lester

Jim’s C –> F conversion – amaze your friends and even your students

Measure the temp in C
Double it
Subtract 10 %
Add 32 degrees to get F

Some pictures from today…

Concept mapping 101

Taking the stream’s temperature

Measuring stream bank angle

Demonstrating how to use the turbidity tube

It’s getting hot. We need water!!!

How deep is the stream sediment?

The Great Orange Race - FALSE START!!!!!!!

The Great Orange Race - approaching the finish line

The conscientious among us took notes on everything!

Time for a break

The waterfall swimming hole

Cindy finds Jessica’s memory stick

A hearty dining hall dinner after a day in the field

How do we find out way out of this maze?

Everybody in this workshop seems to have great resources to share. You can add “Comments” to this portion of the blog to share resources with others. Let us know about the other great summer opportunities, website, or other resources.

July 30 – The day started at 0800 with a ride to the Duluth Aquarium for breakfast. It was overcast and much cooler – cold to some – than Saturday, with a bit of rain and hail during the 10 minute ride. Following breakfast and an overview of the day, Jim Miller of the Minnesota Geological Survey and the University of Minnesota, and Betty Dahl, a retired state archeologist, set the stage for the day’s field excursion.

By 1130 the day had turned sunny and a bit warmer, and we were aboard a coach bus on a journey to look firsthand at some of the oldest rocks in North America and to visit culturally and historically significant sites inhabited by the native peoples.

With Jim and Betty as very knowledgeable guides we traveled back millions of years to read the story told by the rocks, and back many hundreds of years through local human history. But the following comments and quotes from workshop participants will better tell the story of the day’s events.

“Lesson for Geology – Teach the language, but make sure to read the story.”

“Native American history and tradition tied in so well with all of the sights and landmarks we toured.”

“Today was a day of exploring geology, native history and nature, and walking away with ‘rock souveniers.’”

“On a bulletin board in my classroom I had a saying ‘Earth’s history can be read in its rocks.’ It was welcome validation as a teacher to hear a scientist cite the same idea with such enthusiasm.”

“As a geology teacher it is important to take students beyond the identification of rocks and minerals to the interpretation….”

“The mid-continent rift and the Grenville orogeny information gave me a way to tie Lake superior to North Carolina geology.”

“The whole Grenville mountain building episode was fascinating. I had no idea that South America was once pushing up against North America and that was what stopped the continental rift. My fifth grade students are going to love hearing this part of the story.”

“What struck me is that Minnesota has spent more time at the earth’s equator in the last billion years than it has as it’s current location.”

“Remember it’s the story that’s important – the past which helps us with the future.”

And here’s a poem to close our first full day of exploring Lake Superior….

Lines of symmetry all around –
Is that a gabbro on the ground?
Oh no it’s not, but it could be
Basalt with calcite looking at me!

A gabbro is red or pink or gray
Careful! Diorite gets in the way!
Flows of lava go up and down
In Minnesota this we found!

Ojibwa secrets found on Ely’s Peak
A glacier lake whose birth we seek.
Hidden mountains and beaches too
When at the crest we came to view.

While four Great Lakes surround my state
And things from minerals we make
In Minnesota there’s a key
To life, and how things came to be.

And now a pictoral review of the day…

Geology at Ely Peak

Native Culture and History at Chambers Grove

Can you find the imperfection?

Geology at Leif Erikson Park

More Geology at Leif Erikson Park

An unusual perspective on geology

Getting a jump on homework

Now that’s a BIG aquarium!!

Team Michigan waits for a ride home. Jim, where are you?!?

Sailing home…

July 29 –

No “cooler near Lake Superior” in the breeze today. Seventeen enthusiastic educators arrived at the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus in a heat wave reminiscent of old San Juan to begin a week-long workshop exploring Lake Superior from the watershed to open water and from millions of years ago to the present and beyond. We began our journey at the Duluth Aquarium under the guidance of Dr. Bruce Munson, UM-Duluth, Cindy Hagley, MN Sea Grant, and Sue O’Halloran, University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Following an overview of the course format, expectations and logistics, we followed the travels of “Paddle-to-the-Sea” as the carved canoe and Native American passenger traversed the Great Lakes from the headwaters to the Atlantic. It’s really the same course that we are all starting in this workshop and that will continue over the next four years of the COSEE project. And then it was time for dinner in Duluth’s historic Canal Park area, a quick look at Lake Superior and back to housing at UM-D to prepare for a long day on Sunday.

We’re gearing up for a great week on a Great Lake - join us here to follow our progress from July 29 through August 4, 2006.