EXPLORING THE GLEON COHORT MODEL FOR TRANSFORMATIVE TRAINING IN LAKE SYSTEM SCIENCE

We present the outcomes and lessons learned from 12 years of the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network (GLEON) Fellowship Program (FP). The FP has trained 5 student cohorts with a total of ~50 participants, 30 institutions. It was created with the understanding that the future of transformative science would be carried out by diverse teams that require training in team science, network leadership, facilitation, and organizational skills. The Fellowship Program is built on a cohort model in which each cohort of 9-12 students develops new technical and big data analytics skills through creating products. The cohorts have shared both newly acquired leadership and collaborative skills with their home labs, the GLEON community, and the ecological community via leading workshops and presentations. Experts in team science co-led training through the use of three team science approaches, with the goals of improving collaborative skills while creating products to share broadly. The approaches included applying the Toolbox dialogue method combined with exercises in facilitation skills, emotional Intelligence training, and learning and applying best practices from the science of team science. Scientific products led by the cohorts have included: how to build the team for team science; analyses of drivers of water quality for 1000 lakes and changes in water quantity for over 100,000 lakes, using new AI and machine learning analytic tools; determining lakes at risk for anthropogenic salinization, and modeling carbon cycling and gas fluxes in detail for smaller subsets of lakes.      

Primary Presenter: Kathleen Weathers, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies (weathersk@caryinstitute.org)

Authors:

Kathleen Weathers, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies  (weathersk@caryinstitute.org)

Paul Hanson, University of Wisconsin, Madison  (pchanson@uwisc.edu)

Jeni Cross, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  (Jeni.Cross@coloradostate.edu)

Christine Olex, Here’s the Point, Boston, MA  (chris.olex@yahoo.com)

Michael O'Rourke, Department of Philosophy and Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Center, Michigan State University  (orourk51@msu.edu)