A small class of high schoolers had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience Lake Erie science hands-on this summer, thanks to Ohio Sea Grant’s outreach efforts.
In June, 11 students from Posen High School in northern Michigan participated in a week-long field trip led by Jill Bartolotta and Sue Bixler, Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Lab education specialists, focusing on plastics and other Lake Erie environmental issues.
“The students walked away with so much new knowledge,” said the students’ teacher, Stephanie Dege Goebel, who teaches environmental science, biology, and anatomy at Posen. “Not only did everyone involved go out of their way to host us through various field experiences, they took the time to get to know our students, taught them about issues impacting the different areas along Lake Erie, and helped them make memories that will last a lifetime.”
Throughout the week, the students – all in grades 10 to 12 – participated in a variety of activities across the Lake Erie coastline planned by Bartolotta and Bixler, including a museum tour, a beach cleanup, a science cruise, and laboratory visits.
“This was pretty much the coolest trip or program I’ve ever been able to plan for my job,” Bartolotta said. “It was a lot of hard work, but it was a lot of fun. It was very much a place-based educational experience.”
Goebel, who just finished her 22nd year of teaching, started a Great Lakes Marine Debris Prevention Program at Posen in the fall of 2023. She realized students could make an impact on nearby Lake Huron, and she had recently participated in the Shipboard Science Immersion, a program for science educators aboard an EPA research vessel – made possible by Sea Grant and the Center for Great Lakes Literacy (CGLL).
Her first cohort of students quickly showed an interest in expanding the program beyond Northern Michigan, so they set a goal: visit and complete stewardship projects on all five of the Great Lakes by the summer of their graduation year. After this summer’s Lake Erie trip, they’ve now visited four out of five, and they plan to visit Lake Ontario next June, Goebel said.
“I realized that this was an issue the students could have an immediate impact on,” she said.
Students began the week with a tour of the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo, Ohio, which offered free admission for the group. They also participated in a beach cleanup at Mentor Headlands Beach State Park in Mentor, Ohio, where they collected 11 pounds of trash.
“My favorite part was walking the beach shore and experiencing Lake Erie for the first time,” said Nora Kowalski, an incoming 12th grader at Posen High School.
Next, the group traveled to Erie, Pennsylvania, to meet Dr. Sherri A. “Sam” Mason, a plastic pollution expert and director of Project NePTWNE at Gannon University. Mason showed the students how plastic pellets from manufacturing facilities enter the environment, and she took them on a tour of a nearby wastewater treatment plant. She helped students collect water samples from Lake Erie and then analyzed them back at her lab, finding bottle caps, food wrappers, pellets, and other debris mixed in with organic matter.
Abigail Comar, marine debris outreach specialist at Ohio Sea Grant, also visited the group at Gannon, demonstrating the program’s trash-trapping robot, the Pixie Drone, a boat-like device that can gather all kinds of waste floating on the water. The program was made possible thanks to a partnership with the Council of the Great Lakes Region (CGLR) through the Great Lakes Plastic Cleanup.
“It was inspiring to watch how people took the conservation of Lake Erie and included it in their career paths,” said Ava Ewing, another incoming 12th grader.
Later in the week, students participated in a tour of Stone Laboratory, kayaked around the eastern end of South Bass Island with ODNR Division of Wildlife Communicaion Specialist Martyn Drabik-Hamshare and Emily Rugg, and got a hands-on crash course in Lake Erie snakes from Bixler. They also learned about South Bass Island’s plastic reduction campaign and toured the Put-in-Bay Aquatic Visitor Center with Center Manager, Stephen Norton
On the last day of the trip, the group visited the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve in Erie County, Ohio. With Jennifer Bucheit, education coordinator, and Kara Tarallo, naturalist, students canoed through the estuary, conducted another beach cleanup, and learned about NOAA’s Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project. They also toured the reserve’s water quality laboratory, learning about ongoing research.
“The activities that stood out the most and were most impactful were when students were out in the field being hands on,” Goebel said. “The beach cleanups, paddling experiences, hiking, exploring, and learning about the ecology and history of an area were their favorite activities. They learned how different Lake Erie’s ecology and some of the wildlife is from our local area along Lake Huron.
“Much of what they learned was new and surprising to them. It was a much different experience than what they had previously experienced on Lake Huron, Lake Superior, and Lake Michigan,” she continued. “They also have a much greater appreciation for the importance of reducing the dependence on single use plastics and for the importance of water quality for the health of Lake Erie.”
Bartolotta said the project was a large team effort, with many partners involved and funding from different sources, including the Center for Great Lakes Literacy. And while students weren’t all interested in environmental science careers, they walked away with a deep appreciation of Lake Erie science. She remarked that the group’s bus driver, Wayne, was an integral part of the field trip throughout the week as well.
“It was a really cool opportunity to be a part of,” Bartolotta said. “What I love about this kind of stuff is that the students got to see concepts they had learned in the classroom applied through hands-on interaction.”
Goebel said the trip would not have been possible without Bartolotta’s coordination and knowledge and Ohio Sea Grant’s resources.
“The partnership with Stone Lab was also an unbelievable experience for our group,” she said. “Students learned so much and had an exciting day on South Bass and Gibraltar Islands.”
“My favorite part was kayaking on Lake Erie when there were little waves – it was so fun,” added Posen High School 12th grader Addison Chojnacki.
In the future, Bartolotta hopes to host similar trips across Lake Erie for students, and she will help Goebel find resources for the group’s trip to Lake Ontario next year.
“I could not be happier with how our trip went and am immensely grateful to Jill and everyone else involved in this trip,” Goebel said.
Ohio Sea Grant is supported by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University Extension, and NOAA Sea Grant, a network of 34 Sea Grant programs nation-wide dedicated to the protection and sustainable use of marine and Great Lakes resources. Stone Laboratory is Ohio State’s island campus on Lake Erie and is the research, education, and outreach facility of Ohio Sea Grant and part of CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources.