Outreach and Recruitment

     The Station is used by a variety of groups for educational, professional and outreach activities.  Educational and outreach programs range from K-12 school and scouting based programs and interagency meetings to visiting classes from other universities and the regular summer classes that involve intensive field work offered at the Station.  Summer courses have been offered at the station continuously since 1966.  Courses, ranging from herpetology and ornithology to field mycology and aquatic/wetlands plants, are offered during 2 four-week sessions each summer.

     During the fall of 2001, Dr. Seán Jenkins, Dr. Richard Anderson and Dr. Michael Romano of the Department of Biological Sciences at WIU submitted and received funding for a project titled “Long-term riparian and aquatic ecosystem monitoring projects on the upper Mississippi River” to the Student Challenge Awards Project (SCAP) through the Earthwatch Institute.  SCAP provides support and research funds to allow gifted high school students to work with scientists on their research.  The researchers continue to resubmit and maintain funding for the project from SCAP.  Over the last two summers, they have worked with seven to eight students for two weeks in late July and early August.  The students participated in several on-going long-term research projects at the Station; these being: (1) the establishment and initial survey of riparian forest plant community monitoring and inventory plots, (2) continued research on native mussels population and diversity monitoring, (3) continued research into the relationship between habitat and turtle community characteristics and turtle growth, and (4) continued population monitoring of fish species.  This program provides these gifted students with opportunities to participate in real research, and provides the participating scientist with manpower and funds to help defer some of the cost of their research.  The Earthwatch Institute has indicated that they would like to continue the project at the field station in the future.  Along with the on-going research projects, Dr. Susan Meier, Phycologist in the Department of Biological Sciences at WIU, will be initiating monitoring projects of algal populations on the Mississippi River and in Cedar Glen Creek as part of the SCAP expedition during the summer of 2004.  A photo gallery of the 2002 and 2003 SCAP Expeditions at the Station can be seen here.

     In addition, As part of our outreach and recruitment program, the station personnel and biological sciences faculty have been involved in an annual conservation day for 400 to 500 5th and 6th graders each spring.  The Station has also hosted weekend conservation workshops with high school girl scouts.  At these workshops, girl scouts not only participated in conservation projects like invasive woody species control, prairie seed collection at the Station and a prescribed burning equipment presentation, but also received instruction and mentoring, from scientists and resource managers from various state and non-profit natural resource agencies, concerning career options available in the natural resource field.

     During the summer and fall of 2002, Dr. Thomas Dunstan (Avian Ecologist in Department of Biological Sciences at WIU) and Sean Jenkins conducted a workshop for high school teachers in the area.  The purpose of the workshop was to provide the teachers with methods to introduce the ecological concepts of diversity and conservation into their school's science curriculum.  The participants spent a weekend in the summer learning the methods in the field and lab.  They then incorporated the methods they learned into their class in the fall.  The teachers then met with the workshop instructors to discuss their experiences and critique the effectiveness of the methods as teaching tools.

     The Station has also “adopted” two river miles to clean up several times a year as part of the “Adopt a Mississippi River Mile Program of the Mississippi River Beautification and Restoration Project to show continued support of the cleanup efforts on the river.  In the future, we can use our involvement in this program as a hands-on opportunity to promote environmental awareness and the importance of steward in conserving our natural resources to young people attending classes and workshops at the station.