The Ohio component of this two-year, multi-program project will involve Education and Communication leaders to expand the concepts and instructional materials developed during the two parent projects. We will combine the tools of formal and informal education to bring the ideas and materials from the previous projects to additional educators, using the Internet and traditional teacher education methods for which Ohio is well known.
Ohio's experience with Internet site development and teacher education with electronic resources in E/NIS-2 and E/TER-1 will allow this component to expand existing education web sites to include information and activities specific to ANS education for North America.
Ohio's expertise in teacher education will be used to provide more teachers in the state with materials and methods for teaching about ANS.
Using mixed-method evaluation techniques, the Ohio program will coordinate data collection and arrange for the evaluation of the various components of the total project.

The shallowness of Lake Erie offers many nearshore and estuarine sites for species habitats and a temperature compatible with easy survival of introduced organisms. The amount of recreational vessel traffic in Lake Erie waters and the watershed compound the possibility that unwitting transfer of ANS may occur. Finally, the heavily utilized and varied shoreline brings many people into contact with the lake's resources. Together these conditions have the potential to increase inadvertent introduction or transfer of ANS. Knowledge about aquatic nuisance species is a necessity for the present and future generations of citizens of Ohio, and this project will utilize the proven expertise of Ohio Sea Grant personnel to provide that essential information through both traditional and technological means. Since the project involves many programs implementing a variety of instructional techniques, it is important to have common goals and evaluation strategies that can asses the value of those techniques, both for future instructional improvement and for documenting outcomes from Sea Grant investment.

With the collaboration of professional organizations of science teachers and environmental educators, as well as OSU's Technology Enhanced Learning Resources facilities, Ohio Sea Grant will develop and implement
a) An expansion of our the existing EATM web site for teachers, using selected instructional activities from ESCAPE and student projects from geography competition
b) Bring the ANS projects for education into the network of marine educators using the BRIDGE, an award-winning internet site for educators coordinated by the National Ocean Partnership Program (Dr. Fortner is the Great Lakes coordinator of BRIDGE resources for the Internet.)
c) Provide an on-line asynchronous learning short course by which formal and informal educators can earn continuing education credits through learning about aquatic nuisance species. The course will use an appropriate combination of video, downloaded hard copy, networking, and digital components to meet different classroom needs and varied learning styles.
d) Offer workshops for experienced and preservice teachers, formal and informal, in conjunction with programs at state, regional and national conferences and at F.T. Stone Laboratory on Lake Erie.
e) Design data collection strategies, analyze and report results of all components of the multi-program project.

The EATM web site has been enhanced with 12 new species descriptions for educators. The site links to other sources of information and to publications of the projects. Internet site: http://www.iisgcp.org/EXOTICSP/. Also, a CD-ROM from parent project (IL-IN) was created.

Alien Species Education [NR 690] On-line course for 2 graduate credits offered for the first time in Autumn 2003.

Three Alien Species Education modules for continuing education will be offered for the first time in Winter 2004. Titles are Learning about Aquatic Exotics, Teaching about Aquatic Exotics, and Zebra Mussel Case Study.