Photo from a Scientech visit in the late 1990s.

The man in the black beret (left) is the late Robert B. Annis.

 

 

Photo  from the Scientech visit during their tour of the Allendale campus in 2011.

Annual Scientech Club Visit

For over 30 years, the Annis Water Resources Institute has been hosting members of the Scientech Club, a local organization from Indianapolis, Indiana, each summer as middle and high school students from the Indianapolis area visit GVSU for a busy weekend. Previously, these students were winners of their local Indiana Science Fair, but 2011 is the first year of a new partnership between Scientech Club and Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Center for Earth and Environmental Studies (CEES).

The schedule for this annual weekend has been the same for many years:

Roxana Taylor, AWRI Secretary, makes all of the arrangements for the group. They arrive at the Allendale campus on Friday afternoon and are housed in living centers on the Allendale campus. They receive a tour of campus that is led by several of our AWRI summer interns, who are funded by Scientech. They eat supper on campus and then attend a presentation about AWRI and water resources issues presented by AWRI's Kurt Thompson.

On Saturday morning, they take a cruise on the research vessel W. G. Jackson and then have lunch at the Lake Michigan Center in Muskegon. The AWRI Director, Alan Steinman, as well as faculty and staff attend the luncheon to network with the students and chaperones. After a tour of the Lake Michigan Center by Dr. Janet Vail and AWRI's Principal Investigators, AWRI's Rod Denning leads a trip to P. J. Hoffmaster State Park, where they learn about dune ecology, and depending upon their bravery, take a dip in Lake Michigan. The group then goes to the Charles and Laurel Angus home for a picnic supper and recreational activities on Spring Lake. Charles is a Scientech member, and nephew of Scientech co-founder and supporter of GVSU, D. J. Angus. In the evening, the group experiences the Grand Haven Musical Fountain and then returns to the living center in Allendale for the night.

On Sunday morning they head for home.

The Scientech Club was founded by D. J. Angus, who donated GVSU's first research vessel ANGUS. His friend, Robert B. Annis, was also a Scientech member and supporter of GVSU's science programs. Our Institute is named after him.

For more information on the Scientech Club, please visit www.scientechclub.org.

LMC Events

June 1
Daisy Brook School visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities.

June 6
Alto Elementary School visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities.

June 7 & 8
Murray Lake School visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities.

June 9
The West Michigan Soil Erosion Control Network Group (WMSECN) toured AWRI.

June 14
The Muskegon County Environmental Coordinating Council (MCECC) held their quarterly meeting in the MPR.

June 15
A Project Learning Tree Workshop for educators was held in the Annis Educational Foundation classroom.

June 16
Refuel, a home-school consortium, visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities.

June 18
The Scientech Club/Indiana science student group visited the AWRI as part of their annual trip.

June 21
Godfrey Lee Elementary 2nd and 3rd graders visited the Annis Educational Foundation Classroom for hands-on activities.

June 22
A group from NOAA, CILER, and AWRI held an Asian Carp Modeling meeting in the Bultema room.

 

Activities

AWRI hosted 20 people associated with the Scientech Club/Indiana science student trip when they visited AWRI and the Allendale campus for their annual trip on June 17-19. This year, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis helped to recruit the students.

John Koches attended a Sustainability Conference in Detroit on June 7 9.

Mark Luttenton attended a workshop in Marshall, MI on the ecology and identification of freshwater mussels on June 17.

Carl Ruetz was in Duluth, MN to conduct wetland training on June 13 - 14.

Al Steinman participated in an International Joint Commission (IJC) webinar concerning the recent report dealing with the exploratory analysis to raise water levels in the Upper Great Lakes on June 6.

Al Steinman and Janet Vail attended GVSU's annual Enrichment Dinner in Grand Rapids on June 8.

Al Steinman attended the second Great Lakes Rivermouth Collaboratory meeting held in Ann Arbor on June 15 - 16.

Al Steinman, Carl Ruetz, and Mary Ogdahl met with Ed Rutherford (NOAA-GLERL) and Hongyong Zhang (UM-CILER) to discuss a collaboration on Asian carp food web modeling on June 22.

Al Steinman was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Community Foundation for Muskegon County.

Al Steinman attended the Green Infrastructure Initiative meeting of the West Michigan Strategic Alliance in Grand Rapids on June 30th.

Janet Vail coordinated another successful trip to Milwaukee, WI (June 11) and Port Washington, WI (June 12) for the research vessel W.G. Jackson, as part of the Making Lake Michigan Great Tour. Almost 300 people were reached through cruises and open houses. The next trip will be to Waukegan, Illinois on July 11 - 13.

Janet Vail attended a Groundswell professional development committee meeting on June 23. This is in preparation for a workshop in July.

Janet Vail attended a West Michigan Clean Air Coalition meeting on June 23.

 

Presentations

Sara Damm gave a presentation about the Ruddiman Creek TMDL project to the Muskegon City Commission at their commission meeting on June 14.

Al Steinman presented on the Bear Lake internal phosphorus loading study to the Muskegon River Watershed Partnership at the Dalton Township Hall on June 9.

Ryan Thum, and graduate students Hannah Tavaliere and Liz LaRue, attended the annual Society for the Study of Evolution meetings held June 17 21 in Norman, Oklahoma, and gave the following presentations:

LaRue, E. (Poster). Population genetic structure of the round goby in Lake Michigan: implications for dispersal of invasive species.

Tavaliere, H. (Oral). The roles of hybridization and cryptic ecological diversity in a biological invasion.

Thum, R. (Oral). Rapid adaptation to anthropogenic environments via hybridization?: Invasive hybrid watermilfoil genotypes are more common than parental genotypes in herbicide-treated lakes.

Janet Vail gave a presentation about AWRI and provided a tour of the Lake Michigan Center for the West Michigan Soil Erosion Control Network on June 9.

 

Publications

Rick Rediske and other AWRI investigators are co-authors on an article currently in press.

Xie, L., J. Hagar, R.R. Rediske, J. O'Keefe, J. Dyble, Y. Hong, and A.D. Steinman. In Press. The influence of environmental conditions and hydrologic connectivity on cyanobacteria assemblages in two drowned river mouth lakes. Journal of Great Lakes Research.

An article by Nadia Gillett and Al Steinman was recently published:

Gillett, N.D. and A.D. Steinman. 2011. An analysis of long-term phytoplankton dynamics in Muskegon Lake, a Great Lakes Area of Concern. Journal of Great Lakes Research 37: 335-342.

 

Awards & Recognition

Bopi Biddanda and Carl Ruetz were each appointed to the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystem Research (CILER) Council of Fellows at the University of Michigan.

 

AWRI In the News

The science of learning: aboard the W. G. Jackson
Grand Valley Lanthorn, June/July edition, June 9, 2011 There is a picture on the front page of the Lanthorn of young scientists doing research on the W.G. Jackson. The reader is then referred to page A4, where there is an article titled: Annis Water Research Institute brings the classroom to the water with hands-on Outreach Education Program. Janet Vail is interviewed about the vessel program.

Milwaukee celebrates the best of Milwaukee, outdoors and freshwater at the Gathering Waters Festival
News Release, Friends of Lakeshore State Park, June 1, 2011 The article mentions that the W. G. Jackson will be giving tours during the Gathering Waters Festival, held June 11, 2011.

All aboard for Making Lake Michigan Great
Port Washington-Saukville Patch, June 13, 2011 The W. G. Jackson was in Port Washington as part of the Making Lake Michigan Great tour.

Great Lakes Water Festival promotes stewardship, advocacy, fun
The Grand Rapids Press, June 27, 2011 Jon VanderMolen manned a booth to get input from the general public about their opinion on wind farms.

Ohio may take more Great Lakes water
WZZM13 News, June 29, 2011 Al Steinman is interviewed regarding how Ohio allowing more water to be drawn from Lake Erie might affect Lake Michigan.