Outreach 2025

Child at event in large gynmasium looks up smiling after looking through a microscope; adult scientist smiles at the child's reaction..

Sharing what we've learned

Maggie Wagner, associate scientist/associate professor, greets a young visitor at the Rocks and Rockets event in Colby, Kansas.

Our research center provides significant outreach to the local community, the state of Kansas and beyond. In 2025, our researchers and staff led nearly 150 unique outreach activities, including programs that involved multiple days or site visits. They also hosted booths at three key Kansas events, including the State Fair in Hutchinson, and at other area events.

Outreach activities include community programs, field trips, educational activities, guest lectures, teaching assistance and nonacademic presentation, as well as activities through local, regional, state and national groups and institutions.

We welcome visitors come to the KU Field Station public trails and the Native Medicinal Plant 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. These activities reached a minimum of 5,600 people through direct contact or presence at focused.

Examples of our 2025 outreach activities include:

  • hosting the Ecosystems of Kansas Summer Institute, a three-day research-based training for secondary school science teachers, held at the KU Field Station; 
  • organizing and hosting the 2025 Annual Grassland Restoration Network, a two-day event that drew more than 75 restoration practitioners from across the U.S.;
  • hosting a workshop on culturally significant plants at KU and the Ioway Reservation, White Cloud, Kan., funded through a U.S. Forest Service grant;
  • hosting booths at the Governor’s Water Conference and the Kansas Natural Resources Conferences, and giving several presentations at each; 
  • organized a workshop on freshwater mussel identification at Baker Wetlands Discovery Center for state and federal agency scientists and students;
  • guest lectures on high-resolution AI crop yield forecasts, use of microbes in land restoration, bird ecology and other topics;
  • KU Field Station Science Sundays talks on prairie chickens, woodrats, prairie restoration and other topics;
  • created and distribution of a highly detailed map of the Kansas River watershed.

In addition, Monarch Watch, an internationally renowned program administered through our research center, conducts extensive continentwide outreach through its monarch tagging and Monarch Waystation programs. It also hosts local events and participates in a wide variety of outreach events. These activities are not counted in the numbers reported here. 

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