Discover the natural world
Blue Mountain Field Science explores the natural world through experience-based learning, offering real-life meaning to academic concepts while deepening an understanding of local ecosystems. The program engages middle-school aged students in outdoor field research to enhance their knowledge of natural processes that have shaped the unique landscapes of the Columbia Plateau and Blue Mountains.
During the week-long course, students will visit multiple locations around the valley to explore both geological and biological systems first-hand to enhance their field research skills. Designed and led by Whitman College Faculty members Tim Parker (Biology & Environmental Studies) and Nick Bader (Geology), Blue Mountain Field Science is geared towards students interested in the natural sciences and environmental exploration.
Blue Mountain Field Science - Summer 2022
June 27 - July 1, 2022
Students grades 7-8
Registration:
Contact your school’s Gear Up representative
Pioneer - Elionay Quiros Meneses equiros@earlyoutreach.wsu.edu or 509-526-1970
Garrison- Terri Gingras tgingras@earlyoutreach.wsu.edu or 509-526-1905
College Place- Brady Svilich bsvilich@earlyoutreach.wsu.edu or 509-525-7300
If your school doesn’t have Gear Up, please register here:
Blue Mountain Field Science Syllabus
MEET THE INSTRUCTORS
Nick Bader, Associate Professor of Environmental Geology
Nick's interest in geology was sparked as a child after seeing the remains of prehistoric creatures at the Museum of Natural History in New York. After high school, he studied geology at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and earned Master's at the University of Arizona at Tucson.
At the University of California at Santa Cruz, he earned my doctorate for his work on the influence of plants and soil microbes on the global carbon cycle, and on global climate. Nick's current research interest is paleosols (ancient buried soil horizons) and what they can tell us about past climate.
Tim Parker, Chair, Department of Biology & Interdisciplinary Program in Environmental Studies
Growing up, Tim Parker spent as much time as possible in the woodlands, swamps, and marshes of Massachusetts and Georgia. In college, he developed an interest in birds, and this led to a stint as a biological technician at Olympic National Park followed by graduate degrees at Kansas State University and the University of New Mexico. After graduate school, he conducted post-doctoral research back in Kansas and at Oxford University in the UK. He is now a Professor of Biology at Whitman College. His research interests are broad; much of his work has involved birds but he is fascinated by plant ecology and has a long-running study of a Columbia Basin grassland at the Wallula Gap Biological Station.