Day in the Life of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River
On This Page
- Day of Event Resources
- Completed Data Sheets from Participating Schools
- Classroom Resources
- Lesson Plans
- Student Activity Resources
A Day in the Life of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River Project
A Day in the Life of the Lake Ontario - St. Lawrence River (LOSLR) watershed will give students from across the region an opportunity to learn about the health of their local environment, how what they do on the land upstream impacts downstream waters and habitats, and what they can do to help take care of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.
The project expands and enhances existing experiential environmental education programming:
- train and offer resources to middle school teachers,
- engage and educate students in classroom learning, and
- a basin-wide, field-based student summit with hands-on environmental monitoring activities.
The goal of the project is to promote awareness of Great Lakes environmental issues and stewardship of the LOSLR watershed ecosystems. Teacher workshops are planned in the summer of 2022 and 2023 to train teachers and educators, and student summit events are planned for the fall of 2022 and 2023 to engage students in hands-on environmental monitoring activities. To request information about getting involved, email greatlakes@dec.ny.gov.
Map of proposed Day in the Life (leaves DEC website)
student summit event locations (icons), Lake Ontario
and St. Lawrence River watershed area (pink),
and Potential Environmental Justice Areas (blue).
This Day in the Life of LOSLR project applies the established Day in the Life of the Hudson River, Day in the Life of the Long Island Waterbodies, and Day in the Life of the Lake Erie/Niagara River watershed models to enhance K-12 educational programming and partnerships within the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River watersheds. The project is being funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Focus Area 5 and uses specific criteria to engage and impact youth through experiential environmental education in the Great Lakes basin.
DEC is collaborating with NY Sea Grant, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, and other partners to complete the project in support of NY's Great Lakes Ecosystem Education Exchange.
Day in the Life of LOSLR Resources
Day of Event Resources
- Teacher Instruction Packet (PDF)
- Master Datasheet (Required) (PDF)
- Student Data Packet (PDF)
- Predictions Worksheet (Optional) (PDF)
- Classroom Survey of Students pre/post (PDF)
Completed Master Data Sheets
2022 Completed Data Sheets (single PDF) includes
- Belleville Henderson School at Wescott Beach State Park, Jefferson County
- Mexico Point Middle School at Mexico Pt Park, Oswego County
- Harley School at Webster Park, Monroe County
- RCSD12 Anna Murray Douglas School at Hamlin Beach State Park, Monroe County
Classroom resources
- DEC Water Assessments by Volunteer Evaluators sampling guide and training videos
- NYSG Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative videos and fact sheets (leaves DEC website)
- DEC Uninvited Documentary (leaves DEC website)
- Critter cube count (PDF, see page 16) (leaves DEC website)
Lesson Plans
- DEC's "We all live in a watershed" lesson plan (PDF) and presentation (PDF)
- NYSG Plastic Pollution and You: Pollution Prevention curriculum (leaves DEC website)
- Means and modes invasive species activity (PDF, see pages 6 and 7) (leaves DEC website)
- Macroinvertebrate mayhem (PDF) (leaves DEC website)
- New York's Great Lakes Ecosystem Education Exchange curriculum (leaves DEC website)
- Determining Water Quality- Great Lakes Science (leaves DEC website)
- Build your Own Watershed from Great Lakes in My World (K-8th curriculum, page 15) (leaves DEC website)
- Ohio Sea Grant's How can small organisms be big indicators of water quality? (PDF)
Student Activity Resources
Macroinvertebrate Identification Cards (PDF) (leaves DEC website)
