Outreach Committee Notes on Webinar

[Lissar]

Notes from Climate Change Webinar Conference Call: 24 Sept 2009
Jesse Schomberg, Cindy Hagley, Lissa Radke
BACKGROUND
Discussion about having a webinar on this topic started around the 2007 conference between Jesse and Liz LaPlante. No firm commitments to offering it were made, and the idea stalled when Marie Zhuikov recently left her position at Sea Grant.
Liz then asked Lissa to see if the Forum would organize a webinar since the group had already talked about doing one as part of their work plan on climate change. Liz asked that the target audience be teachers, preferably in middle school through high school. EPA has said they will offer the help of Pranas and EPA web sites to run the technological aspects of the program; the Forum and, if interested, MN Sea Grant, would organize it.
Jesse and Cindy have a big work load already, but both are willing to do some preliminary planning and help promote it using Cindy’s database of contacts from COSEE teachers, which are in fourth through twelfth grade and located throughout the Great Lakes and beyond. Jesse could contact some speakers he knows personally to invite them to participate; Cindy can’t be hands on but is good to brainstorm and give advice.
Jesse/Cindy think that these teachers have a variety of knowledge about the topic, but that it’s likely that most have a ‘rudimentary understanding’ at this point about climate change and impacts.
AUDIENCE
We think teachers in fourth through high school in the Lake Superior basin are our target audience, but we would promote it to teachers around the Great Lakes since all these lakes realize climate change and impacts.
SCHEDULING
We will have to keep in mind different time zones around the Great Lakes. Best time to start is 4 p.m. for Lake Superior viewers. Maximum length is 90 minutes to 2 hours. Discussed first session being longer, and 2 follow-up sessions a bit shorter.
We think multiple sessions—one per week for three consecutive weeks—lasting about 60 to 90 minutes is best. The best time of year to offer them is in January through February, but no later than April. Will have to find out when schools schedule spring breaks.
Duluth public schools are out on breaks Feb 15-19 and first week in April.
ACTION: Lissa will find out when Superior, Marquette, Thunder Bay, and SSMarie schools are on break to see if we can find dates that are open for most school districts. (DONE)
Open in January: Only 5-18
BEST DATES seem to be: Wednesday-Feb 3, 10, 24; Thursdays-Feb 4, 11, 25
No dates open in all of march except for March 1, 2, 5, 8
School CLOSED Janu Feb March April
Superior 22 4
12-22
SSM MI 21-22 5 and 8 9-11
23-25
29-31
Marq 19 20-23 6-13
TBay 21-29 15 15-19
Duluth 29 15-19
26 19 6-13
CLOSED FOR ALL 19-29 5, 8,15-19, 20-23, 26 4, 9-11, 12-22,
23-25, 29-31

CONTENT
Discussed setting up a Facebook/Ning/other social media or blog page for teachers to ask questions, interact, discuss topics, and get to know one another between (and after?) sessions. Perhaps a Teachers Climate Change Blog for Lake Superior?
Session 1: Climate Change 102: Climate Change and Impacts in the Great Lakes (focus is on the science behind climate change observations and forecasts. Beyond the absolute basics; not discussing greenhouse effect, polar ice caps). Possible speakers include:
A. Lucinda Johnson, ecologist at UMD, member of Union of Concerned Scientists: Overview of the state of climate change and expected impacts from a scientific perspective. If she can’t do it, suggest Jonathon Foley at the Institute of the Environment at UMD.
B. Mark Seeley, scientist at UM-Extension: meteorological perspective and weather changes. “Very good speaker, engaging, knows how to adapt message to audience.’
C. Bob Krumenaker, superintendent at Apostil Islands: Impacts he’s seeing in the national park
Each person speaks for about 20 minutes, then open time for questions. At the end of the session, moderator describes next two sessions, asks for feedback and comments on materials.
Session 2: Monitoring Climate Change: How do we know what’s changing and what can we do to track changes in our classes? Possible names discussed:
A. Lee Frehlich, forest ecologist at UM-Twin Cities: Tracking changes in forest and plant growth.
Dr. Jay Austin, Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota-Duluth
Lake Superior: Canary in the Coalmine? Changes seen in Lake Superior water temperatures and ice cover. Summer water temperatures in Lake Superior are increasing faster than the regional climate – why is this? We will explore the role that winter ice plays in setting the stage for the rest of the year, some of the potential consequences of this warming, and the sort of research that we are doing to help us better understand this very complex system.
B. Isle Royale Institute: Changes in the moose population
C. We really liked the idea of having a guest talk about phenology in general as that is something that even young students can do—learn how to track seasonal natural changes in general.
D. What monitoring programs can schools or classes get involved with—LoonWatch on inland lakes, ice out dates, stream water levels??? We’re not sure, but it would be great to find a way to connect teachers to monitoring programs near their schools/communities.
ACTION: Lissa will look for a speaker in phenology.
Session 3: Case Studies: Who is doing what to minimize their carbon footprints? Success stories and tools that teachers can use (what’s achievable at school?)
A. The principal at the Washburn Elementary School: growing a lot of their own food for the school cafeteria; built straw bale garden shed on the farm, includes community farmers and volunteers; eating healthy foods.
B. Superior Public School is an Early Adopter in the Sustainable Twin Ports group—who is doing something at that school?
C. Get speakers from Canada and Michigan on this—would they have ideas for speakers at the Youth Symposium office? National examples to show?
From 2009 Youth Symposium: ‘Going Green’: Being “green” is all the rage. Learn what’s involved in “greening” up your life and see first-hand what others are doing, from installing solar panels to using wind turbines, to “green” up theirs.
D. Offering of educational materials available to use in classrooms: EPA resources, DNRs, nonprofits materials, etc. Refer to carbon calculator web sites, curriculum like Connecting the Coasts; etc. Roseanne Fortner is a retired COSEE curriculum specialist—she might have ideas.
E. Web site for ideas: http://www.michigangreenschools.org/edu ... urces.html
F. Energy audit ideas: http://www.michigangreenschools.org/ene ... urces.html

ACTION: Lissa look into Marquette schools to see if there are teachers working in this area. (DONE) http://www.michigangreenschools.org/ HUGE web site with all kinds of resources!
We will promote this jointly and electronically only since there is no budget for printing or mailing. Use GLIN, Sea grant newsletters, both group’s web sites, etc.
NEXT STEPS
Lissa type notes and share with Jesse/Cindy; add or change anything to the notes and return to Lissa. (DONE)
Lissa send notes to Forum Management Committee for discussion; forward to Forum.
Lissa send final notes to Liz LaPlante.
Lissa talk with Jesse/Cindy about next conference call after all this is done.
IDEA: Make plans for recording webinars and posting online; perhaps with climate change blog/facebook page? Sea Grant could host, as well as forum?


We talked about asking for people to volunteer to tell us about their good work when they registered for the webinar. Here’s an example of a request like this from the 2009 youth symposium web site:
WANTED - MODEL STUDENTS GROUPS!
The Lake Superior Youth Symposium Steering Committee is offering travel and registration stipends for 4 groups of students who have a special project that they would like to tell other students about at the symposium. The Committee believes one way to inspire students to become active stewards of Lake Superior and the Great Lakes is to have them learn from their peers. Students throughout the Lake Superior and Great Lakes watershed area are involved in many exciting and inspiring projects that we would like Symposium participants to learn about! To encourage students groups to present, the Steering Committee is offering stipends of up to $1000 per group to assist with registration and travel expenses for four groups of students from Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ontario to attend the symposium and tell others about this special project. Student groups receiving stipends are expected to provide a minimum of 25% of their registration and travel costs to attend the symposium, as a reflection of their commitment.
Selection Criteria
Projects will be evaluated according to the following criteria.
Is/does the student project:
1. Designed and/or implemented by one or more students.
2. Demonstrate initiative, creativity, and commitment by students on behalf of environmental education, scientific research, and/or environmental protection.
3. Demonstrate collaboration with other students, classes and/or community members.
4. Has had a positive impact on the community and/or natural resources of Lake Superior or the Great Lakes watersheds.
Students who receive stipends must be prepared to conduct one 20-minute or one 45 minute presentation at the symposium telling other students about their project.





Marquette Climate Change Actions
Organization urges action on global climate issue
By MIRIAM MOELLER Journal Staff Writer
POSTED: September 22, 2009



John Anderton, head of Northern Michigan University’s Geography Department, talks to residents who have gathered to raise awareness about global climate change at Mattson Lower Harbor Park Monday. (Journal photo by Miriam Moeller)
MARQUETTE - Several Marquette residents were among millions of people in 130 countries who conducted what they called a global climate wake up call along Marquette's Lower Harbor Monday evening.
"We have more carbon in our atmosphere now than in the last 400,000 years," said John Anderton, head of the Geography Department at Northern Michigan University. "It's really important and it's really encouraging that people come out like this to send a message to legislators."
Organized by Marquette resident Paula Paszke, the gathering of people - waving yellow flags and holding banners saying "Bees? Fish? People? Act now" - was meant to raise awareness of global climate change. In addition, the effort involves urging the public to send a message to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama, pressing them to attend the next United Nations global climate summit in Copenhagen in December and sign a "fair, ambitious and binding treaty on climate change."
Anderton, who spent a few minutes addressing the 15 or so people gathered to talk about climate change, said the United States is the last industrialized country that has not signed the Kyoto Protocol - a global treaty that commits a country to reduce greenhouse gases.
Paszke got interested in hosting a "wake up call" after her children - who work in environmental education all over the world - made her aware of avaaz.org, which is a global Web movement that aims to help citizens send messages about important issues to government officials.
"They (her children) have been talking to me about this for the past six years and how critical climate change is," Paszke said, adding that this year she decided to actually take action. "(Avaaz) means 'voice' in many languages and they put polite political pressure on governments by people who usually don't have a voice."
Paszke said she followed the organization's instruction on how to hold a "flashmob," which is a large group of people assembling in a public place to perform an action for a brief time. People were asked to gather for 15 minutes after 5 p.m. at Mattson Lower Harbor Park, take pictures of the gathering and send it to avaaz.org.
The organization will make a video from the pictures and message to be shown today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, where world leaders are discussing the climate issue.