Welcome to Conservation Biology at Heronwood Field Station!

KNC’s Conservation Biology class, offered in partnership with the Kalamazoo Regional Education Service Agency’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, introduces students to the exciting careers in Natural Resource Conservation and Wildlife Biology. This is a laboratory/field-based course which involves hands-on learning of ecological science, animal and plant studies (i.e. behavior, identification), job shadowing, and field trips.

Heronwood Forest Carbon Project

Current Families & Students

Visit this page for monthly updates from Heronwood Field Station lead instructor, Allie Springer.

2022-23 CTE Conservation Biology Syllabus >

AllieMay 2023 update from Allie:

Happy Spring!

Here in Conservation Biology class, we are gearing up to finish out the school year strong and say goodbye to our Seniors. We’re wrapping up the year with our wildlife unit, where we’ll learn to identify a variety of wild animals and track the wildlife on the Heronwood property. We had a busy winter and early spring completing our forestry and water units, spending lots of time outside on the trails, and attending a few field trips. This spring, we had our first ever Student Showcase event where parents and community members gathered to see some of the work that the students produced throughout the year. Every student accomplished great things this year, and they have a lot to be proud of.

Forestry is our largest unit, and this year, we created a video to highlight the work that went into our forestry project. As noted in the video, the project is ongoing, and we are currently carrying out some of the forest management strategies that the students chose to implement, like invasive species removal and planting climate resilient tree species.

 

Some highlights from this spring include:

  • Visiting Nature’s Way preschool and teaching their students how to sample macroinvertebrates
  • Students presented their Independent Projects that they spent the whole year working on
  • Collaborating with the CTE Art and Design class to create conservation related infographics
  • Students showing off their forestry projects at Kalamazoo’s Earth Day celebration

Student Work Highlights

Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture Piktochart

A piktochart made by a student that describes the benefits of one tenant of regenerative agriculture, diverse cover crops.

Cooking For Sustainability

Cooking for Sustainability Website

As part of her independent project, one student made a website describing the ecological footprint of various food items at a local grocery store, ranking each item on a sustainability scale.

Glass Art Presentation

Glass art Presentation

For her independent project, Maia created glass art depictions of various types of endangered species native to Michigan, which were displayed at Glass Arts Kalamazoo.

Workday with Heronwood

Workday Project

For her independent project, this student coordinated with a local DNR officer to plan a work day at Fort Custer Recreation Area.

Herbarium

Herbarium

Students assembled an herbarium of native Michigan flora collected from the Kalamazoo Nature Center.