Kellogg Biological Station

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Kellogg Biological Stations GK-12 Bioenergy
Sustainability Project
Your resident scientist Alycia Lackey Harper
Creek coordinators Sandy Erwin and Steve Barry
Project Director Tom Getty Project Manager
Robin Tinghitella
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Species Loss in Stickleback Fish

• Historically 2 species that differ in
• Color, size, shape, behavior
• Feeding mating habitats

• One species mates in the open
• The other species mates in the vegetation

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Invasive Species Changed Mating Habitats

• Recent crayfish introduction

• Ecological changes
• - Vegetation loss
• - Increased turbidity
• - Water color

Historical Conditions
Current Conditions
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Loss of species through hybridization
Percent of Population
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Importance of research outcomes

• Inform conservation and management actions
• Understand how evolution works
• Explore impacts of the environment on
  evolution - including human changes to
  environment
• Understand what affects biodiversity (formation
  and loss of species)

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Kellogg Biological Stations GK-12 Bioenergy
Sustainability Project
Project Director Tom Getty Project Manager
Robin Tinghitella
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NSFs GK-12 Program Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12
Education
This program provides funding for graduate
students in NSF-supported science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
disciplines to bring their leading research
practice and findings into K-12 learning
settings.
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NSFs GK-12 Program Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12
Education

• Benefits
• Grad students
• Communicate science broadly
• Learn to teach
• K-12 students
• Excitement for science
• Real-world, hands-on application
• K-12 teachers
• - Experiment with new activities, concepts

This program provides funding for graduate
students in NSF-supported science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
disciplines to bring their leading research
practice and findings into K-12 learning
settings.
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Our theme is bioenergy sustainability and we will
work in collaboration with
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center
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From the new GK-12 grant proposal We will
create a collaborative research network of
schoolyard science research sites which will
(a) serve as arenas for inquiry science
activities that mimic aspects of KBS
and fellows thesis research, while
addressing Michigan Science GLCEs in
Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science and
Mathematics. (b) allow K-12 classes to
develop their own research initiatives, (c)
facilitate cross-district research collaboration
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The Schoolyard Science Plots - these are
experimental ecology plots
designed to
address specific questions
to be
determined via collaboration
continuing
through fall 2010
B1 C1 D1
B2 C2 D1

• Combinations of 3 treatments
• Plant Composition
• 1. switch grass
• 2. native prairie mixture
• B. Fertilization
• 1. fertilized
• 2. not fertilized
• Harvesting
• 1. harvested (biomass removed)
• 2. not harvested (small biomass samples)

B1 C2 D1
B2 C1 D1
B1 C1 D2
B2 C2 D2
B1 C2 D2
B2 C1 D2
y
x 3m
2 standard replicates at each site.
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The Schoolyard Science Plots - these are
experimental ecology plots
designed to
address specific questions
to be
determined via collaboration
continuing
through fall 2010
B1 C1 D1
B2 C2 D1

• Research Questions are still developing.
• Example questions
• Which section will have more biomass switch
  grass or prairie?
• important for using these crops as biofuels
• 2) Which section will attract more species of
  insects?
• - important for understanding how planting
  biofuel crops might affect community diversity

B1 C2 D1
B2 C1 D1
B1 C1 D2
B2 C2 D2
B1 C2 D2
B2 C1 D2
y
x 3m
2 standard replicates at each site.
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GK-12 Fellow Nikhil and KBS K-12 Partnership
teacher John Edgerton check out a native prairie
plot at KBS.
KBS K-12 Partnership teacher Sandy Erwin observes
a switch grass plot at KBS.
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Switchgrass after 1 year
Switchgrass June 2010
Switchgrass after 1 month
Native prairie after 1 month
Native prairie after 1 year
Native prairie June 2010
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Sandy, Alycia and Steve marking four of the 10
blocks of plots in the Harper Creek school
district.
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Parchment will be added (returned) to this map
asap.
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A few ideas about the usefulness of our plots

• Biology/Ecology
• Species identification and diversity, humans as
  part of the ecosystem, plants, birds, insects,
  microbial diversity (fungi, bacteria)
• Changes in ecosystems and environmental factors

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• Soils and Earth Sciences
• - Soil quality measurements, gas exchange
  surveys, water flow through plots
• (measuring evapotranspiration)

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• Geography/Social Studies
• Implications of human land use decisions
  comparisons of fertility and diversity across
  different landscapes and soils
• Agronomy
• Productivity of various biofuel crops under
  differing conditions, impacts of plant diversity
  on productivity

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The KBS K-12 Partnership gathers at the manor
house during our 2010 Summer Science Institute.
Our fearless leader, Tom Getty
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Kellogg Biological Stations GK-12 Bioenergy
Sustainability Project
Your resident scientist Alycia Lackey Harper
Creek coordinators Sandy Erwin and Steve Barry