Lake Superior Basin Update
Lake Superior Basin Project Fosters a Sense of Place
By Joanie McGuffin, Lake Superior Conservancy and Watershed Council
We live in Ontario, near the eastern shore of Lake Superior
between Batchawana and Goulais Bays, arguably one of the most
beautiful landscapes on Earth. Four very different seasons, a wide
variety of ecosystems, a rich cultural history with First Nations,
and a significant geographic location create an incredible natural
classroom just waiting to be experienced. In our nearby city, Sault
Ste. Marie, there is a high school that has been doing just that.
In 1992 Bob Moore and John Ferguson, department heads in
geography and English at White Pines Collegiate & Vocational
School, discovered the Rivers Project. The Rives Project began as a
pilot project of 8 schools along the Mississippi and lower Illinois
River. Collecting and analyzing water samples, students were
learning in a hands-on way about the river flowing past and
influencing their communities. The Rivers Project had evolved to
include mathematics, social studies and language arts. This
cross-curriculum study got Moore and Ferguson imagining a
similar program at their high school using the connectivity of the
Lake Superior watershed and shoreline. They quickly understood
the formidable impact such a program could have on the lives of
the teachers and students involved.
By integrating curriculum around the central theme of the Lake
Superior watershed, and by providing opportunities for students
and teachers to work collaboratively, the Lake Superior Basin
program would instill a sense of belonging to and a sense of
pride about living on the greatest expanse of freshwater on
Earth. “Our idea was to start with White Pines [schools]” Bob
recently explained to me “and then share this with schools and
students around Lake Superior.” The teachers began to develop
partnerships in the community with businesses, and federal and
provincial government agencies. A wealth of support ensued
from the private sector.
A critical component of the Lake Superior Basin project was the
adoption of Harmony Beach. Ontario’s Ministry of Natural
Resources provided dune grasses and pine for regeneration. The
government agency’s shorelines technician, Peter Burtch, helped
organize the first student field trip to the shores of Batchawana
Bay where the restoration began. Not long afterwards, a
contingency of more than a dozen teachers from a variety of
subject areas came to the beach to find out how they might“use”
the Lake Superior experience in their teachings. Even the skeptics
were quickly won over.
This hands-on restoration of a heavily used public beach provided
students with ongoing opportunities to excel in the arts,
language, science, technology and social studies with environment
at the core. Other events have included: planting trout
fingerlings in Lake Superior; participating in a sweet grass
ceremony with native elders near White Fish Island; sketching
Ojibway pictographs at Agawa Bay; cutting holes through the
lake ice and operating Echmann dredges to retrieve bottom
sediment samples for analysis; and the orchestration of a huge
blacklight multimedia theatre production complete with an
original musical score employing Lake Superior stones as
percussion instruments.
As the project progressed, the students took more and more
ownership in Harmony Beach. They cared about and cleaned up
the refuse left by careless people. They worked with the Ministry
of Natural Resources to place signs on the beach forbidding
vehicular access to protect the fragile dune grasses. The students
took their concerns about water quality to the public through the
local media. They raised funds to produce educational signage and to take their story on the road to share with students around
Superior. By providing the students with a real hands-on project in
the field, the teachers of White Pines were encouraging
community interaction to find solutions to problems. The
students were empowered by their capacity to make a difference.
They had control over improving the quality of their lives and that
of other living things. The more time the students spent on the
project, the more their feeling of attachment to the Lake grew.
One riveting experience that stands out in the participants minds
was when a group of students came up from the River Project in
Illinois. As the school bus descended into the Goulais River valley
en route to Harmony Beach and the Chippewa River, the Illinois
students had their faces pressed to the window panes. During the
water testing, one student from White Pines overheard two Illinois
students exclaim incredulously, “My test says this water is safe to
drink!”
White Pines principal Mark Zorzit is highly supportive of the
program. “A common vision for the entire school provides
purpose and meaning and motivation to learn. For students
wanting to solve problems and help society, this gives them a
sense of hopefulness to impact the world.”
For more information:
Joanie McGuffin
Lake Superior Conservancy and Watershed Council
Goulais River, Ontario • adventurers@sympatico.ca
Disclaimer:
The interpretations and conclusions presented in this newsletter represent the opinions of the individual authors. They in no way represent the views of the Tip of the Mitt Watershed Council, the C.S. Mott Foundation, subscribers, donors, or any organization mentioned in this publication.
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