In July and August of 2012, three K-12 Partnership teachers traveled to Toolik, Alaska to participate in a research experience as a part of the LTER Math Science Partnership. Marty Buehler from Hastings High School, Mary Grintals from Northeast Middle School, and Lisa Wininger from Plainwell Middle School all made the two-day trip up to Toolik to help collect data for the annual “Toolik Pluck.” The teachers spent long hours in the field and the lab collecting plant, soil, and microbial samples. The teachers flew from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Anchorage, Alaska, and finally to Deadhorse,
K-12 Partnership teachers travel to Alaska for research experience
Self-guided walking tour opens for season
We are excited to announce that the KBS LTER self-guided Agriculture & Ecology Walking Tour is now open for the season! The walking tour offers a chance for the community to explore the research taking place at our main Long-term Ecological Research experiment site. Visitors can enjoy nature while learning how our scientists are researching ways to help make farming profitable while protecting and enhancing our state’s natural resources. A colorful trail guide leads visitors through 16 stations along the ¾-mile trail that takes about an hour to complete. The trail is open dawn to
KBS LTER research featured in National Geographic
KBS LTER scientists Phil Robertson and Sieglinde Snapp are featured in "Fertilized World," an article examining commercial fertilizer use around the globe, in the May 2013 issue of National Geographic magazine. Read the article online here.
Gi-normous global issues, one little person, and a community of collaboration
Our congratulations to Bonnie McGill, KBS LTER graduate student, who was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. We’ve asked Bonnie to write a blog post about her research. Enjoy! The earth and our society face such “gi-normous” problems like climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, food security—what can a little person like me do about it? This question has been rolling around inside my head for the last 11 years or so, and it seems like my quest is starting to gain more traction. I’ve narrowed my research focus to water quality,
New tools to measure greenhouse gases
KBS LTER volunteer and retired journalist Bill Krasean reports on new tools we are using to measure greenhouse gases from agricultural lands. His piece was published today in the National LTER Newsletter and reprinted here. When the plants and microbes exhale on the 1,700-acre W. K. Kellogg Biological Station’s hundreds of plots, Sven Bohm, Kevin Kahmark and a team of fellow researchers sniff their breath. Not literally, of course. Rather, using the latest and fastest instruments and software -- much of it based on their own ingenuity -- the team continually samples and analyzes gases
2013 KBS LTER All Scientist Meeting
The focus of this year’s KBS LTER annual All Scientist Meeting is science communication, a topic of increasing importance in this socio-political climate. In the morning we will have research updates from our lead scientists and a keynote address from Arthur Lupia, entitled, "Communicating Science in Politicized Environments: Lessons from the Study of Attention, Elaboration, and Source Credibility". We’ve also recruited communication advisors who will help us brainstorm creative, effective ways to communicate our science to the following groups: interested citizens (Dave
Graduate Student Spotlight – Megan Woltz
Name: J. Megan Woltz Hometown: Afton, NC Degree: Ph.D. Candidate in Entomology & Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior, Michigan State University Dissertation advisor: Professor Doug Landis, Department of Entomology, MSU Graduate Research Focus: As a landscape agroecologist, I am primarily interested in understanding how landscape heterogeneity influences the provision of ecosystem services in agroecosystems. In other words, I want to know how the way we design the landscapes around us affects things that we humans care about, such as clean water, wildlife habitat, and air
KBS LTER Graduate Fellowships for 2013
The KBS LTER Graduate Fellowship provides stipend support ($30,000) plus tuition and fees for one year beginning each May. Additional funds (up to $5,000) are available for travel and meeting expenses. The fellowship is open to prospective graduate students or current MSU PhD students who are interested in or currently conducting research in association with the KBS Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Program (lter.kbs.msu.edu ). For more details click here >>.
LTER Math Science Partnership in its final year
For the last five years, KBS K-12 Partnership teachers have been participating in a unique program that involves teachers, scientists, and educators at four LTER sites around the country. The goal is to promote environmental science literacy through the frame of learning progressions. In other words, the project has conducted research about how students make sense of important environmental issues and used that research to help teachers work more effectively with their students about these issues. This program – the LTER Math Science Partnership (MSP) – is a collaboration between four LTER
Nature paper highlights KBS LTER long-term data sets
KBS LTER scientists published a paper in the journal Nature today showing how lands that are unsuited for food crops - called marginal lands - can help to meet our nation's alternative energy production goals. By using over 20 years of KBS LTER data, coupled with innovative modeling techniques, the researchers documented that marginal lands can contribute greatly to transportation energy needs while providing climate and conservation benefits. Read more about this research from MSU News and from the National Science Foundation.