Kids in the Captain’s Seat: Summer Day Camp on the Lake Explorer II Research Vessel

Published September 12, 2022

EPA scientists in the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division hosted a group of students from the Great Lakes Aquarium as part of EPA’s new Lake Explorer Education Program (LEEP). The new program takes student groups out on the research vessel, Lake Explorer II (LEII), and educates them about EPA Great Lakes research. The group spent the day on Lake Superior learning about limnology, Great Lakes biology, and what it means to be a scientist. At the beginning of the tour the students were asked what a scientist looked like, and many envisioned an Albert Einstein looking character dressed in a white lab coat.

Scroll through these photos to follow the students through their day!

Students don safety gear as they prepare to board the research vessel.

Once they boarded LEII, students were given safety gear and instructions on how to stay safe on the boat. Here a staff member from the Great Lakes Aquarium tries on a water immersion suit, often called a “Gumby suit,” that is designed to protect crew members in the lakes’ frigid temperatures.

Throughout the day the LEII crew challenged the students’ perceptions of who a scientist is and what they do. EPA researchers love exposing students to different types of scientists, research, and lab environments. A scientist doesn’t have to wear a white lab coat and mix chemicals; they could wear a bright orange immersion suit and collect samples of lake water or wear a hardhat and operate a crane! This scientist is an engineer that works on the LEII. 

The crew dredged sediment from the lakebed for students to feel. Since the sediment is buried and covered by more than 70 feet of cold Lake Superior water, it stays super cold! That’s certainly one way to cool off on a warm day.

While dredging, the crew also pulled up an old tire innertube. This isn’t the first time that our Great Lakes researchers have pulled trash from the water. Ryan Lepak, a research limnologist in EPA’s Great Lakes and Ecology Division, said that the crew occasionally finds debris in the lakes while gathering samples (though this was his largest haul), making their research double as trash clean-up.

The students were then able to study the dredged sediment in the science lab of the ship just like our EPA researchers.

The students also gathered water samples to study. After preparing the samples on microscope slides, they took a closer look at zooplankton and phytoplankton. 

Finally, the students entered the pilot house. The captain disengaged the wheel so that students could sit in his chair and pretend to steer the ship!

This group of budding young scientists had a great time with our researchers and some students even asked when they could come back! We can’t wait to host more student groups on our research vessels in the future to dig up lake sediment, sample some lake water, and expand ideas on what a scientist might look like.