Students, Experience Your Environment Through Conservation (EYE Con) Institute June 17-20, June 26-28

EYE Con provides a fun, hands-on STEM opportunity for high school students grades 9 to 12 (as well as graduating seniors) to experience conservation science while earning college credit.

The Institute is led by biologists and educators from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Natural Heritage Program, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and Westminster College.

Students work with biologists to design field-based experiments that will answer research questions relevant to natural resource management. EYE Con’s data collection methods are very similar to methods used by conservation professionals.

This allows students to learn more about long-term monitoring of natural communities and populations of rare species in Pennsylvania, especially as it relates to climate change.

This year’s institutes will be held at Jennings Environmental Education Center June 17-20 in Butler County and Ohiopyle State Park June 26-28 in Fayette County and are about “Conservation in a Changing Climate.”

Students will investigate what interests them about ecosystem monitoring and conservation in relation to climate change, which may include:

-- Stream water quality challenges in the face of more frequent and intense storms

-- Impacts of climate change on water tables, crayfish habitat, and massasaugas

-- Spread of invasive plants and animals

-- And more!

Click Here for all the details and to register.