News - Mission Earth
GME-UT Professional Development Focused on AREN's AquaROVERs
The GME/B-WET team (described below) held professional development in using the TerraROVER (Remotely Operated Vehicles for Education and Science). Andy Henry and Geoff Bland from AEROKATS & ROVER Education Network (AREN) Project trained the teachers in the use of the AquaROVER which takes water quality measurements in a water body. On August 2, Andy Henry and Geoff Bland offered training to 10 GME /B-WET teachers in four locations. Andy Henry trained Toledo area teachers face-to-face at the University of Toledo and remotely to teachers in Defiance, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Marquette, Michigan. GME used the hybrid model developed for NOAA’s B-WET professional development from last year. Each location received a AquaROVER for teachers to use in their training. Teachers drove the AquaROVERS in local streams. The AquaROVER measures water temperature, pH, salinity and dissolved oxygen. The AquaROVER systems used in the EPD were assembled by James Moon-Dupree, Wayne RESA, with assistance from Kay Rufty and Ted Miles, from Black Swift Technologies. Andy Henry showed how the data can be downloaded and imported into various platforms like CODAP to visualize the data. In the practice session, teachers were encouraged to submit videos and photos to shared Google photo album. All training sessions were recorded and uploaded to GME’s YouTube Channel so that teachers who were unable to attend could view later. The links were added to the Google classroom. Teachers continued their professional development in the same Google classroom as done in the previous years. Teachers requested SME visits to go along with the AREN training.
For the 2020-2021 school year, the University of Toledo received B-WET (Bay Watershed Education and Training) funding from NOAA for the Great Lakes Student Research Campaign: Engaging Students and Teachers in Authentic Watershed Studies. This funding allowed GME-UT to expand to more teachers through collaboration with more GLOBE partners. Dr. Czajkowski (lead PI) worked with Drs. Amanda Gilbert (Defiance College), Michael Jabot (SUNY-Fredonia) Mitch Klett (Northern Michigan University) and GLOBE Partner, David Bydlowski to create this GME/B-WET team.