Greene searches for research trips she can take every summer. She’s been to the Arctic and hopes to do a Teachers at Sea trip next year.
In July, she spent a week on the Lake Guardian, a 180-foot-long National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research vessel. The Shipboard and Shoreline Science trip took 14 teachers to various points on Lake Huron to collect samples from the lake and evaluate the bio-life living in the water.
The Lake Huron workshop was hosted by the Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence, and neither Greene nor the school district had to pay for it.
The research trips provide her with experiences to take back to the classroom, as well as the chance to work with scientists and expand her network of scientists working in the field.
Greene said her favorite part of the trip was searching through sedimentary samples for “critters” that lived on the lake floor.
“I told them I had to bring home a round goby,” she said of the small jar she brought back with the bottom-dwelling invasive fish that live in the lake.
Greene also worked this summer at Stone Lab on Lake Erie. Her trips also have served as inspiration for her daughter, Natalie.
Natalie graduated in June from Tecumseh High School and spent her summer traveling around the country with a geological research trip. Natalie will attend Bowling Green State University this fall.
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