The University of Michigan Biological Station: Challenges of developing and sustaining innovative educational and outreach programs

Background/Question/Methods

The University of Michigan Biological Station, located in the northern forested region of the Great Lakes, has provided opportunities for student-faculty teams to engage in productive, field-based ecological research continuously since its founding in 1909. Education, research and outreach programs developed in parallel as field station residents and citizens of surrounding communities interacted in multiple ways to learn about, enhance and sustain the region’s environmental quality and biotic communities. Therefore, while we have provided thousands of undergraduate and graduate students with mentored field research experiences in both courses and research projects, we have structured our programs to engage northern Michigan’s permanent and seasonal residents, young and old, in science-based experiences aimed at advancing ecological interest and literacy. This has led to the development and public support of various independent, not-for-profit organizations working year round in the region to maintain water quality, preserve sensitive habitats and open space, nurture out-of-classroom science education for K-12 students, and engage working adults and retirees in citizen science activities. Effectively managing a diverse program of university course offerings, undergraduate and graduate research support, community outreach and K-gray education activities presents both challenges and opportunities.

Results/Conclusions

We have overcome financial and staffing constraints on outreach activities by allocating space, staff time, and physical resources to community outreach programs and informal science education during seasons when credit-bearing university courses are not offered. We have also leveraged summer session guest lectures (6 to 8 per summer), symposia (e.g. Scientific Integrity in 2006 and Regional Climate Change in 2007), guided field trips and open houses to provide opportunities for non-university students to participate in our science programs.

Our challenge is to more efficiently and effectively integrate field-based outreach and community activities into our overall program, and to better link them to our core undergraduate and graduate research and training programs. Meeting this challenge will require more effective networking with field stations across the continent to develop new tools and methods for engaging an increasingly diverse and more numerous human populations in field-based ecological inquiry.