Champion students recently had the rare opportunity to tour the 180 foot EPA Lake Guardian research ship. The Lake Guardian only spends a short amount of time on Lake Erie once every five years, as it rotates between the five Great Lakes. Champion Middle School teacher, Dave Murduck, spent a week with scientists on the ship on Lake Erie in 2014. At that time, he made arrangements with the EPA for Champion students to get the personalized tour. While touring the ship, students had the opportunity to learn about the technology used to study the health of the Great Lakes. Equipment such as the "Rosette" along with large chemistry and biology labs help scientists study water quality. Plankton nets, ponar, and bottom coring equipment help scientists learn about native and invasive species. Students also learned that the Lake Guardian is the largest research ship on the Great Lakes, it has a full time crew of 14, and can accommodate up to 27 scientists. After visiting the ship, students traveled to the Cleveland Aquarium for a tour and program. Bus transportation costs were paid by education funding from the EPA and Sea Grant.

Champion Middle School students recently used the common area in their new building to learn about the Great Lakes. Students in Mr. Murduck's 5th grade Science classes have been learning about how metric measurement is used by scientists around the world to make exact observations and communicate with one another. Students used string to create scale models of the shore line, distances of the five Great Lakes and then applied this information to estimate the volume of water and the commercial mass of fish caught in each Great Lake. Interestingly, students learned that with only 2% of the total water volume, 49% of the fish caught in the Great Lakes come from Lake Erie due to the large amount of food found in shallower water. While students in Science classes learned about the importance of the Great Lakes, metric measurement skills were reinforced in math classes, geographic landforms in the region were being studied in Social Studies, and students have been writing journals which support Language Arts standards. While learning academic content, students also learn valuable social skills when working in groups.