(See also attached document)

The Great Lakes Fishery Commission (commission) was created in 1955 by convention between the governments of the United States and Canada to control the invasive sea lamprey, coordinate research, and facilitate management and protection of the $7 billion dollar fishery of the Great Lakes among the state, provincial, tribal, and federal management agencies.

The commission employs an extensive outreach program to educate the public about its programs. The outreach program is conducted throughout the basin and educates the public about the importance of the Great Lakes, healthy ecosystems, the economic vitality of the region’s fisheries and fresh-water activities, sea lamprey control, and other invasive species. Much of the outreach program is currently geared toward an adult population and the commission would like to expand outreach to young adults and children. To this end, the commission is seeking to produce material suitable for children in grades K-8^[1].

The commission staff does not have the background in the appropriate literature and methods to formulate an effective communications effort for children. Thus, project investigators have an opportunity—and are expected—to develop and execute a research initiative that not only answers the research questions, but results in tangible products.

One possible approach is to gauge children’s interest in the commission’s program. To do this, team members could observe how children absorb different types of information, as presented during outreach events (described below). Although the commission’s displays are geared toward adults, elements (e.g., live animals, photographs, etc.) are likely to appeal to children. Members of the research team by observing kids’ behavior at the displays could collect useful data. As such, participants could attend at least one large regional show, a medium-sized show, and a local, smaller event as part of their research to help determine the outcome of the materials they will be producing.

Much of the commission’s outreach takes place by attending different sized events over the course of a year; these events span three categories: 1) larger regional and international shows where there is usually heavy traffic of adults and teens, but can include children’s groups, 2) medium sized events include those at smaller outdoor festivals or retail shops like Cabelas, and is attended by families with children, and 3) smaller venues, such as those located in Ann Arbor like the Natural History Museum and the Hands On Museum, often geared solely to young children and children’s groups.

At each of the outreach shows that the commission attends, the following materials are available to the public: GLFC pencils, sea lamprey brochures, GLFC fact sheet folders, sea lamprey DVDs, sea-lamprey-mouth-tattoos, and sometimes posters. Though the pencils and tattoos are suitable for children, there is limited educational, informational, or academic value to them. The written materials (brochures and fact sheet folders) are written for older audiences with a skill or comprehension level of at least middle-school (to be further determined by this study).

As the commission is a non-profit, quasi-government organization, it cannot sell items. In fact, the commission is interested in disseminating material for educational and informational purposes and for all who request it to receive these materials. This should be kept in mind for the final product produced for this project—paper-based educational materials that are easily produced in large numbers are preferred, but not limited to this medium.

Dissemination of the commission’s outreach material includes the aforementioned shows, as well as schools, individuals, and other interested groups who request these materials. Environmental educators from around the region often request materials from the commission.