Outreach 2024

Tour group standing on both sides of long row of native plants at KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden listening to Kelly Kindscher, scientist, speak

Pathways to understanding

Our annual summer solstice tour of the KU Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden typically draws a crowd of more than 80 people.

In 2024, our researchers and staff led 50 unique outreach activities, including programs that involved multiple days or site visits; they had booths at three Kansas events. In addition, we hosted 15 Friday Ecology Seminars, which are open to the public; many of the seminars are posted on our YouTube channel.

KU Field Station staff members led 33 programs and also had booths or participated otherwise in 13 area external events. The fall Visitors’ Day open house drew 170 participants.

In a typical year, our research center engages in several broad categories of educational outreach activity: guest lectures, teaching assistance, non-academic presentations, field trips and informational educational activities. Through this activity, we reach out to KU groups, schools and local, regional, state, and national groups and institutions. 

We welcome visitors come to the KU Field Station public trails and Native Medicinal Plant Research Garden, which are open dawn to dusk every day throughout the year. We also hold annual public tours at the garden and at the KU Field Station's Baldwin Woods Forest Preserve.

Monarch Watch, an internationally renowned program administered through our research center, conducts continentwide outreach through its monarch tagging and Monarch Waystation programs, hosts local events and participates in a wide variety of outreach events. 

Here are a few examples of our 2024 outreach activities:

  • service presentations to the Kansas Water Office on water quality in several reservoirs;
  • webinars and in-person talks on flood inundation mapping, plant microbiomes, tracking Kansas plant biodiversity, synchronized species behavior across distances, research on agriculture with perennial crops, native seed collection and other topics;
  • guest lectures at KU and Haskell Indian Nations University on lake ecology, bird identification, invasive species and other topics;
  • KU Field Station Science Sundays talks on butterflies and moths in Kansas, bat ecology and behavior, ticks and other topics;
  • prescribed burn training at the KU Field Station for the KU Grounds Crew;
  • wildflower walks, plus tours of the R.L. McGregor Herbarium at KU.

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