This intensive five-day Institute will prepare you to engage your middle and high school students in a real-world study of the effects of global change on ecosystems, including the impacts of climate change, elevated carbon dioxide and ozone levels, nitrogen saturation, acid rain, and invasive species. Through lecture, hands-on data collection, field trips, and lab experiences, educators will obtain new knowledge and skills. Teachers will also be trained in and receive the new Michigan Air Quality unit (easily adapted to other states). National and Michigan content standards for mathematics; life, earth and physical sciences; and technology will be addressed.

The Institute will be taught by internationally-recognized faculty and researchers from Michigan Technological University (MTU) School of Forest Resources and Environmental Sciences, along with guest scientists from the University of Michigan and the USDA Forest Service’s Forestry Sciences Laboratory. Another benefit of the institute is the opportunity to interact and collaborate with teachers from across the Midwest and the United States. To date, teachers have hailed from California, Conneticut, Maryland, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

Participants will visit the fascinating Aspen FACE (Free-Air Carbon Dioxide Enrichment) Experiment research site (http://aspenface.mtu.edu/) at the Harshaw

Experimental Forest near Rhinelander, Wisconsin (see photo on cover) where the effects of elevated CO2 and ozone on forest productivity are clearly observed.

Participants will also visit the new subterranean rhizotron research facility where scientists study carbon sequestration, the process by which plants “inhale” CO2 from the atmosphere and store carbon in the soil. The $500,000 tunnel is paneled with glass windows and stretches 75 feet into the hillside exposing roots, fungi, insects and worms without disturbing the soil.

Institute Instructors

Dr. Andrew Burton, Ecosystem Science Center, School of Forest Resources & Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, teaches ecosystem measurements, geomorphology, and basic field ecology skills. His research examines the effects of global change factors (climatic variation, nitrogen deposition/acid rain, elevated atmospheric CO2 and ozone) on carbon and nutrient cycling, forest health, productivity, and soil processes. He has published more than 38 papers in top scientific journals. 

Dr. Erik Lilleskov, Ecosystem Science Center & USDA Forest Service North Central Research Station, is a research ecologist and expert on mycorrhizae, the symbiotic fungi critical to the health of most plants. He investigates how global change will influence the fungi that control soil food webs and forest health, and is an expert on edible fungi. Lilleskov also examines the role of exotic earthworms in the forest ecosystem.

Dr. Janet Vail, Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, holds a Ph.D. in Science Education with an emphasis on Environmental Education from Western Michigan University.  She manages the outreach and education programs at the Annis Water Resources Institute, is a trainer for the GLOBE program, and is the author of Michigan’s new  Air Quality Unit for middle/high school students.

Alan Talhelm is a doctoral candidate in forest ecology at Michigan Technological University.* For his doctoral research, he is studying the effects of chronic atmospheric N deposition on net photosynthesis, water use and growth in northern hardwood forests. He has taught forest ecology labs at MTU on a variety of environmental topics, including N deposition, climatic change and exotic species invasions.

Dr. Kirsten Hofmockel is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on how global environmental change affects ecosystem function. Her research spans multiple levels of biological organization, ranging from microbiology to ecosystem ecology. She has been involved in research at multiple FACE research sites, where she investigates microbial mechanisms that mediate ecosystem carbon and nitrogen cycling.

Institute founder
Dr. Kurt Pregitzer, is well-known nationally and internationally for his research on global change. He received the Barrington Moore Award for life-long advancement of our fundamental understanding of forest biology and was recently recognized by Tomson’s ISI as one of the world’s most highly cited researchers in the area of environmental biology. Dr. Pregitzer has published more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific papers in the world’s top scientific journals. Formerly at Michigan Tech University, Dr. Pregitzer is now the Chair of the Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Science at the University of Nevada, Reno.