Several Michigan Tech faculty will deliver presentations during the 2017-18 Carnegie Museum Natural History Seminar Series: Citizen Science.
Citizen Science
Can citizens impact governance by collecting climate data?: A case from the tropical mountains in Veracruz state, Mexico
Alex Mayer
Dr. Alex S. Mayer
Charles and Patricia Nelson Presidential Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Professor, Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Carnegie Museum Community Room
6:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Social and introductions
7 p.m.-8 p.m. Lecture and discussion
(mostly) 3rd Thursdays each month, January – May 2018
Location: G002 Hesterberg Hall, Michigan Tech Forestry Bldg.
Time: 7:00-8:30 pm; enjoy coffee, dessert, and facilitated discussion
Cost: FREE, $3 suggested donation
Jan. 18 – This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate Presents powerful portraits of communities on the front lines, from Montana’s Powder River Basin to the Alberta Tar Sands, from South India to Beijing and beyond. Interwoven with these stories is author Nina Klein’s narration, connecting the carbon in the air with the economic system that put it there. Klein builds to her most exciting idea: that we can seize the crisis of climate change to transform our economic system into something radically better.
Feb. 15 – FREIGHTENED: The Real Price of Shipping Goods 90% of goods consumed in the West are manufactured in far-off lands and brought to us by ship. The industry is a key player in world economy forming the basis of our modern civiliza-tion—without shipping, it would be impossible to fulfil the ever-increasing demands of our societies. The film reveals an invisible industry that supplies 7 billion humans and holds the key to our economy, our environment and our civilization.Friday, March 23 – An American Ascent (202 Great Lakes Research Center) First ascent of Denali attempted by an all African American team. In only a few decades in the U.S., people of color will outnumber today’s white majority for the first time. Yet, a staggering number of people in this soon-to-be majority do not consider the outdoors as a place for them. By taking on the grueling 20,310’ peak of the continent’s biggest mountain, nine African-American climbers set out to shrink this Adventure Gap, promoting inclusion in the outdoor/adventure community. The film chronicles the challenges of climbing one of the world’s most iconic peaks.April 19 – The Creeping Garden Real life science fiction exploring a world creeping right beneath our feet, where time and space are magnified and intelligence redefined. Exploring the work of scientists, mycologists and artists, and their relationship with the extraordinary plasmodial slime mold which is being used to explore biological-inspired design, emergence theory, unconventional computing and robot controllers.May 17 – Burned: Are Trees the New Coal? A look at the controversy of creating energy using biomass. Film makers, Lisa Merton & Alan Dater of Marlboro Productions, visited the Warden Electric Plant in L’Anse, as they traveled across the U.S. documenting the problems created by burning this type of “green” material. Many local residents are interviewed and MDEQ public hearings are featured.
William Bulleit is a structural engineering professor at Michigan Tech. He says, “The more complicated the roof the more difficult it is to decide what you should do with it.”
There are things you can look out for that may be a sign there’s too much snow on your roof.
Bill Sproule (CEE) has been appointed by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) to be an Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Ambassador for a two-year term.
ACRP is an industry-driven, applied research program that develops practical solutions to problems faced by airport operators. It is managed by TRB and sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
ACRP Ambassadors are volunteers who serve as liaisons between the TRB and ACRP, the research community, and airports operators at conferences and industry events and will make presentations on the ACRP research process and products, and other airport topics, and promote opportunities for others to be involved in ACRP research panels and projects.
Michigan Technological University, a leading public research university and key educational leader in Michigan, will soon begin implementing a 2-year project titled, Creating Great Lakes Stewards to PromoteClean Drinking Water & Healthy Urban Watersheds in Detroit, under the leadership of Joan Chadde, Director of the MTU Center for Science & Environmental Outreach. The project is funded with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Education grant of $91,000. Grant recipients are required to award $4550 to each of five non-profits who will participate in the project. The following sub-grantees will assist with the project: Belle Isle Nature Center/Detroit Zoological Society (DZS), Detroit Math & Science Center/Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), Wayne State University’s Healthy Urban Waters, Detroit Audubon, and Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision. These collaborating agencies will contribute staff time and or cost share: U.S. Forest Service Urban Connections Program, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and DPSCD.
The overall project goal is to build student and teacher capacity to steward the urban water resources of Detroit now and in the future. The project will engage 32 teachers at 16 schools, reaching 960 middle school students over 2 years, in becoming stewards of their community’s drinking water. Teachers will participate in five workshops during the school year to enhance their environmental education teaching skills and knowledge of their local water resources. Students will participate in 3 field trips during the school year which includes: visiting the Detroit drinking water treatment plant, conducting stream health or ecosystem monitoring, and completing a stewardship project. The 2013-14 student body demographics of Detroit schools are: 80% qualify for free / reduced lunch, 83.9% are African American, 12% Hispanic, 2.36% White and <2% other, with a 71% graduation rate in 2014. (2013-14 Data from NCES).
The following Michigan Tech faculty and staff are contributing their time as cost share on the project: Dr. Audra Morse, CEE chair; Dr. Daisuke Minakata , CEE; Dr. Hugh Gorman, Chair, Dept. of Social Sciences; Gerald Jondreau, School of Forest Resources & Environmental Science; and Dr. Kathryn Perrine, Dept. of Chemistry.
A young brook trout at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community tribal fish hatchery. SARAH BIRD
Interlochen Public Radio and Michigan Public Radio aired a story about toxic chemicals in fish in the Great Lakes, particularly their impact on indigenous peoples, quoting Noel Urban (CEE) and Jerry Jondreau (SFRES).
When fish advisories threaten a traditional way of life
If you eat wild caught fish from Michigan, you might know about fish consumption advisories. They’re recommended limits on safe amounts of fish to eat, and they’re necessary because toxic chemicals build up in fish in the Great Lakes and inland lakes and streams.
A toxic burden
Around this same time, an invisible problem emerged: toxic contamination of fish by chemicals like methylmercury and poly-chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
Noel Urban is a professor at Michigan Technological University who studies pollutants cycling through the environment. He tells me the chemicals that build up in fish are still being emitted around the world.
“So mercury’s primary sources are coal-fired power plants, mining, metal processing. PCBs are emitted from landfills, from wastewater treatment plants, from transformers that are still in use that have PCBs, agricultural chemicals are also in this so there’s a wide variety of sources,” he explains.
U.P. tribe wants to know: “When can we eat the fish?” Researchers try to answer.
“When can we eat the fish?”
That’s what the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula wants to know.
“Culturally-relevant” fish advisories
In 2008, Valoree Gagnon was still an undergraduate student at Michigan Technological University. She learned that toxic chemicals like mercury and PCBs build up in fish in the region. And she learned that not everyone limits their fish intake, especially tribal communities.
“They were consuming fish at rates that were above human health criteria, and that was a really big concern for me,” she says.
Houghton Middle School has done it again for the third time. Their team of eight students has won the 2017 Lexus Eco Challenge. Their project titled “Backyard Backlash” investigates how to prevent nitrate-laden water from reaching Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes by surface area.
Much of the surface and groundwater contamination comes from nitrate-rich fertilizers and topsoils (due to lawn and garden care, roadside grass seeding projects, and agricultural practices) and will eventually reach Lake Superior.
In the Lexus Eco Challenge, student teams tackle environmental issues related to land, water, air, and climate, and create practical solutions while competing for amazing prizes. The Lexus Eco Challenge gets students involved in project-based learning, teamwork, and skill building as they identify an environmental issue that affects their community, use their critical-thinking and research skills to come up with a solution, and report on the results by way of an Action Plan. Teams of 5-10 students are led by one or two Teacher Advisors—who are full-time teachers employed at the school.
Houghton Middle School won in 2014 with their invasive species education project, and again in 2015 with their project to identify a grass species that could grow on copper-laden stamp sands.
Teacher Advisor Sarah Geborkoff has participated in the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative (LSSI) since 2014. She receives biannual grants to support projects that incorporate environmental monitoring and stewardship in the Huron River watershed. “LSSI has been critical to helping me prepare my students to compete in the Lexus Eco Challenge.”
Joan Chadde, Geborkoff’s mentor for the LSSI project, is equally elated at HMS’ success. “Sarah Geborkoff is a phenomenal teacher who continually goes above and beyond for her students. They start these projects during the summer. These are truly student-led projects. Sarah is an excellent teacher and student mentor.”
HOUGHTON, Mich. (WLUC) – Biosolid spreading at the Mason Stamp Sands has local residents still concerned but experts from Michigan Tech are speaking up on the subject.
“It’s not surprising that people have questions about biosolids because most people don’t think about the whole wastewater treatment process,” said Jennifer Becker, Civil and Environmental Engineering professor.
Top questions include impact on water supply and wildlife.
“We can’t say there is absolutely no risk because there is nothing I can think of that we do that has no risk,” said Becker.
But biosolids are processed to the point where experts says health risks are very low, even in unlikely cases of high contact with the material.
“So, for example, for many of the metals this would be a child actually eating the biosolids. This gives you a feel for the regulations. They are based on a very extreme case,” said Eric Seagen, also a Civil and Environmental Engineering professor at MTU.
This is the fourth year CTT has conducted the semi-annual Roadsoft Tech Assist visits, which are hands-on sessions with agency-specific topics. Besides helping Roadsoft customers, the sessions provide CTT software engineers with valuable information about client workflow and challenges. Roadsoft is a roadway asset management software suite for collecting, storing and analyzing data associated with transportation infrastructure.
Roadsoft is developed and supported by the Center for Technology and Training with principle funding from the Michigan Department of Transportation.
