Collegiate Education
The reserve provides many educational services for our regional community colleges and universities:
Class field experiences that emphasize estuarine ecology, biodiversity, aquatic/environmental biology, geology (GPS) or archaeological studies
We try to adjust our programs to meet the specific needs of the professors. In the past we have offered experiences on carnivorous plants, coastal habitats, invasive species, marsh zonation, ornithology and water quality monitoring. We hope to work with a school in the near future to develop a ground-truthing activity so that students can test their mapping skills directly in the field.
Mentoring opportunities/internships that help students learn how to design and carry out a research project and then present the information at a scientific forum
Many of our staff members over the
past several years have served as mentors to interns from a local community
college's honors biology course. Through this program, our staff members
propose a scientific project, and if a student is interested, they are assigned
to work with the particular staff member that proposed the project in order to
design, develop and carry out the project during their first semester in the
program. During the second
semester, the students in the program present their findings to the Mississippi
Academy of Sciences at their annual meeting. This program helps the students learn how to design a project in accordance with the
scientific method and hopefully helps build their interest in continuing in a
scientific field of study.
Professional development for instructors
The reserve can work with faculty members to design professional development or enrichment activities to suit their needs. Although we currently do not have housing facilities, we can sometimes partner with the local Gulf Coast Research Laboratory to provide low-cost housing for attendees who have to travel a long distance to reach our site.
Volunteer opportunities for ecological restoration projects
Often, the reserve initiates stewardship projects that require volunteers to help make the project successful. We are frequently in need of a team to plant marsh grass, locate and eradicate invasive species, delineate and groundtruth habitats or monitor plant growth. If you are looking for a class project to adopt or participate in, or if you would like to propose a scientific project for your class to carry out in the reserve, please contact us.
This program is administered
through our research coordinator in partnership with NOAA. Graduate students compete at a national
level for two positions at each reserve in the system. The projects of the GRFs address issues
of concern within the reserve that they are chosen to work in. When chosen, the students receive a
generous stipend that allows them to periodically visit the reserve in order to
carry out their research. For more information on the project, please contact
our research coordinator.