Visitors peer into Lab

Outreach and Science Translation

Our students, staff, and faculty work with each other and with partners to deliver public outreach and science translation programs that highlight our research, inform the public about science, and address contemporary local and global environmental issues. Our partnerships with ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, Lake Champlain International, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, University of Vermont Extension Watershed Alliance, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, and Vermont EPSCoR provide numerous opportunities and platforms to engage with the public at many different levels.

Watershed Alliance students in a stream

University of Vermont Extension Watershed Alliance

The UVM Extension Watershed Alliance is a partnership program between UVM Extension, Lake Champlain Sea Grant, and the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. The UVM Extension Watershed Alliance offers programming to K-12 students and their teachers. The program is focused on increasing watershed science literacy throughout the Lake Champlain Basin and Vermont through the extension of current and emerging research. 

The program offers three educational opportunities:

  • Stream Monitoring and Stewardship is a place-based program that provides an introduction to stream ecology. Students explore their local streams and gather data on the biological, chemical and physical parameters. They then evaluate the data and design an action-based stewardship project.
  • Lake Champlain Live is a trip aboard the R/V Melosira where students engage in basic limnology and learn about current lake research and the features of the R/V.
  • Keeping the Balance is a lab-based program that includes a fish dissection and a presence/absence detection of microplastics.
School children taking a tour on the Melosira on Lake Champlain

Lake Champlain Public Education Trips

University of Vermont Extension, the Lake Champlain Sea Grant Program, and ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain host educational boat tours throughout the summer on UVM's research vessel Melosira. Each of these Summer on the Lake trips focus on one of two themes, either Stories of Lake Champlain or Lake Champlain Live.

Learn more about public education trips >>

 

Partners