| The EcoLab provides field trip opportunities for K-12 groups and other groups. These can be led by EcoLab staff and partners or self-led.
Staff led field trips
EcoLab field trips involve a service-learning ecological restoration project for at least half of the field trip time. Your students will contribute to the restoration of the EcoLab while gaining some hands-on knowledge in ecology. Students will also tour the EcoLab and learn about one of the themes below.
Teachers can request a combination of one of the service projects and one of the themes below.
Service projects:
- Exotic species removal – For this project students will help the staff of the EcoLab remove some of the invasive exotic species that are present in the EcoLab. Our main point of attack is garlic mustard, a one meter tall forb, which needs to be picked from late April to late May. Other species such as bush honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet, and wintercreeper can be removed at other times throughout the year.
- Native plant species installation – In this project, students will help the staff of the EcoLab install native forbs, trees, and shrubs in areas of the EcoLab that need extra attention. Typically done in Spring and Fall, students will get their hands dirty learning a bit of horticulture while practicing the art and science of environmental restoration.
- Native Plant seed collection and sowing – In the Fall, native plant seed in areas of the restoration that are doing well ripens and can be collected to be sown in other areas that need more native coverage. Students will learn to identify and collect seed from a few native plants. This seed will be immediately planted. Teachers are encouraged to bring some seed back to the classroom to be grown through the winter and planted in the EcoLab or your own outdoor classroom in the Spring.
Themes:
Any of the above service projects can be combined with one of the themes below. Themes will be brought out in the tour portion of the field trip.
- Native and non-native species. Students will see native and non-native plants in a wetland and lowland forest and measure the effects of an invasive exotic, bush honeysuckle. They will also see several types of wetland and how beaver affect their landscape.
- Wetlands. Students will see a cattail marsh, swamp, fen, and forest wetlands. They will learn which characteristics are used to delineate a wetland. Students will discuss the historical changes in our attitudes about wetlands and learn the functions of a wetland.
- Beaver. Students will learn about the engineers of the wetland, the beaver. They will see beaver lodges, evidence of feeding, beaver channels, and other ways beaver affect the landscape. Students will learn what beaver eat and how they farm the wetlands. Because the EcoLab contains two very active beaver colonies, this tour is different every time.
Other programs can sometimes be developed at the request of the teacher.
A nominal fee of $2 per student will be charged for an EcoLab staff-led program.
Teachers are also very welcome to use the EcoLab on their own. Some teachers have used the area to study water quality, others have done pond studies, and still others have enjoyed learning the ways of the beaver without assistance.
For more information e-mail ecolab@marian.edu or call David Benson at 317.955.6028 or to schedule a field trip.
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