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Lake St. Clair festival takes students into water
The Detroit News (5/16)
The Lake St. Clair festival featured interactive presentations and exhibits designed to teach students about the importance of water, how it's used in daily life and why it needs to be safeguarded from pollution.
2008 Lake Michigan Exploration Workshop
The Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence (5/14)
4th-10th grade teachers and non-formal educators from the Great Lakes region are invited to participate in the Lake Michigan Exploration Workshop, August 2-8, in Chicago. This workshop is designed to promote Great Lakes and ocean sciences in formal and informal education and forge lasting relationships between science researchers and educators.
Drinking Water Week
American Water Works Association (5/6)
Drinking Water Week, May 4-10, is a unique opportunity for water professionals and the communities they serve to join together to recognize the vital role water plays in our daily lives.
American Wetlands Month
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (5/2)
This May will mark the 18th anniversary of American Wetlands Month, a time when EPA and its partners celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's ecological, economic, and social health. It is also a great opportunity to discover and teach others about the important role that wetlands play in our environment and the significant benefits they provide.
Great Lakes Regional Research Information Network (GLRRIN)
GLIN's May 2008 Site of the Month (5/1)
Established in 2006 by NOAA Sea Grant, GLIN and regional partners, GLRRIN provides a powerful means to foster collaboration, acquire funding, highlight research needs and issues, and increase the overall impact of Great Lakes research. GLRRIN is a free service and offers research-related news and upcoming events, and profiles of Great Lakes researchers and their current projects.
Mother Earth Water Walk
(4/28)
Two Anishinawbe Grandmothers, and a group of Anishinawbe Women and Men have taken action regarding the water issue by walking the perimeter of the Great Lakes. The 2008 Lake Michigan walk kicked off April 26.
What's going on in your neighborhood this month? Meet other people and learn together at recreational and educational events! Our new dynamic calendar is updated daily with current educational events.
Introduction: Glaciers and more glaciers
Let's go to the beach!
The sandy dunes
Marshes, bogs, and swamps
Isle Royale
Human impacts and the future
References
Great Lakes Shoreline Geology
From the wetlands along Lake Ontario's shore, to the sand dunes along Lake Michigan, to the rocky shore of Lake Superior, the Great Lakes shoreline abounds in diversity. Millions of years of glacial formation, wind, lava flows, and changing lake levels have sculpted a unique and ever changing shoreline. These shoreline systems absorb the brunt of wind and wave energy from the lakes, helping to protect the inland areas. Let's explore!
Glaciers and more glaciers
Six hundred million years ago, during the Paleozoic Era, central North America was covered by a shallow sea. This sea deposited a lot of sand, salts, and silts, which, after time, were compressed into limestone, sandstone, shale, halite, and gypsum.
The sea retreated from the Great Lakes region before the end of the Paleozoic Era. Eventually, the earth cooled, and during the Pleistocene Epoch, about 1 million years ago, the ice ages began, and glaciers advanced and retreated many times over what is now the Great Lakes region. Being over one mile thick, these glaciers flattened and carved large holes in the land. Where they encountered more resistant bedrock, such as volcanic deposits, only the overlying layers were removed; but, the softer sandstone and shale allowed the glaciers to dig out the large basins that make up the Great Lakes today.
As the glaciers melted and began receding, their leading edges left behind high ridges and fascinating rock formations, some of which can be seen today in the cliffs of Door County, Wisconsin, and the "flowerpots" on Bruce Peninsula in Ontario. 
Huge lakes formed between these ridges from the retreating ice fronts. As many as 8-12 ice ages occurred, each lasting around 50,000 years; during the longer, warmer periods in between each ice age, plants and wildlife returned to the area.
The last glacier began retreating around 14,000 years ago, and the earth warmed considerably. As the glaciers melted, the resulting water, called meltwater, filled the huge holes left by the glaciers. During this time, the lakes were much larger than they are now, and they had different river outlets. But as the ice retreated, the St. Lawrence River Valley revealed itself as the outlet to the Atlantic Ocean, and the lake levels eventually dropped to current levels.
See the TEACH topic How the Lakes were Formed for a more detailed discussion on glacial formation.
Graphics: Miners Castle on Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore; glacial advance during the Pleistocene Epoch; and, a "flowerpot" on Flowerpot Island on Bruce Peninsula
