The University of Michigan Biological Station

UMBS MINI-COURSES

SPRING
June 9-13, 2004
Birds of Northern Michigan (Mary Whitmore)
Flora of Northern Michigan (Ed Voss)
Mollusks – Snails, Clams, etc. (John Burch)
American Nature Writing (John Kinch)
Be a Biologist: Science Adventures for Kids (Marty Samson)

FALL
August 18-22, 2004
Aquatic Vascular Plants (C. Barre Hellquist)
Art in Nature (Ann Singsaas)
Photography in Nature -Digital (Kim and Chris Cerrudo)
Forest & Landscape Ecology of Northern Michigan (Burt Barnes)
Fungi of Northern Michigan (Marilynn Smith)

To register for spring and summer courses, click on the link below for a registration form you can print and mail:
mini-course registration form

GENERAL INFORMATION

We began offering mini-courses at the Biological Station twenty years ago in response to Alumni requests. You too can recapture the feeling of being a student at the Biological Station! You can enjoy being in the field and learning in the friendly atmosphere of UMBS. Whether you are a practicing naturalist, a retired biologist, a student, a long-lost alumni, or simply an interested individual, you will enjoy participating in a mini-course. It could be just what you need to round out your biological expertise and add it to your resume, or just for the pure pleasure of it. You are invited to come and know first-hand that the quality of camp life still exists and is available for you to sample.

Each course will be taught by a faculty member who is well acquainted with the Biological Station and the northern Michigan region. The Biological Station is an especially exciting place for naturalists in June. The northern ecosystems are fresh, clean and very active biologically after the long winter. The cost for five days of high quality instruction, including room and board, is quite reasonable.

Participants should plan to arrive at UMBS on Tuesday evening, June 8. Courses will begin Wednesday and continue through Sunday afternoon. Participants are asked to vacate their housing in time to accommodate incoming researchers and students by early Monday morning, June 14 .

If space allows, participants’ family members may accompany them to the Station. They will be assessed fees. Please bring your own sleeping bag or bedding, plus pillows, towels, etc. Please do not bring pets to the Biological Station.

MINI-COURSE 2004 FEE SCHEDULE:

Participants:

Tuition: $253.00
Lab and Facility Fee: $80.00
Total Course Cost: $333.00
Housing and Meals*: $132.00
TOTAL: $465.00

For individuals not registered in a mini-course:

Housing and Meals*: $132.00
Facility Fee: 40.00
TOTAL: $172.00

*Note: The session rate includes meals and lodging for the period from Tuesday dinner through Monday breakfast (6 nights & 17 meals) for all participants including commuters.

For more information please contact BioStation office:

734-763-4461 or email umbs@umich.edu

Spring Classes
June 9 - 13, 2004

BIRDS OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN

Mary Whitmore

We are fortunate that UMBS and all of Northern Michigan is rich in bird life during June and provides interesting watching at varied sites. This class will feature lots of time in the field, including early mornings highlighted by the traditional bird class breakfast and campfire. There will be special trips to the Upper Peninsula to see boreal species and a night trip to call owls.

Mary is a local resident with background in ornithology and is familiar with the birds of northern Michigan and their habitats. She is the director of SEE-North, a well known environmental education center in Petoskey.

FLORA OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN

Ed Voss

This course will deal with identification of late spring and early summer plants, and will cover some basic structures and terminology. Primarily outdoor work, it includes two indoor sessions for lecture, slides, and laboratory. There will be a fair amount of hiking and a little climbing (no big dunes). One field trip to the Upper Peninsula will visit Whitefish Point, Tahquamenon Falls, and some fine bogs.

Ed has taught botany courses at the Biological Station and on the Ann Arbor campus for over three decades as well as workshops in the Upper Peninsula for the U.S. Forest Service and the adult ed. program of the U-M Botanical Gardens. He remains as enthusiastic as when he began. He has written a three-volume Michigan Flora, the definitive guide for this region. His mini-course is designed so students at all levels can have fun learning about the local flora.

MOLLUSKS – SNAILS, CLAMS, ETC.

John Burch

Snails, clams, and slugs are mollusks, and as such are members of the second largest and the most diverse major group --in both form and function--in the animal kingdom. They are common in our forests, lakes, streams, and urban areas, and are significant constituents of our biosphere. They are important in organic decomposition, are a major source of food, and some are involved in serious human diseases. Mollusks are common in the UMBS area, but most are hardly noticed by the casual observer. This course, which will include lectures and fieldwork, is about these remarkable animals.

Jack is an adjunct Curator in the Museum of Zoology and Emeritus Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Emeritus Professor of Natural Resources and Environment. He previously taught at the Biological Station for fourteen years.

AMERICAN NATURE WRITING:
THEORY AND PRACTICE

John Kinch

We’ll combine theory and practice by reading classics in American Nature Writing, such as Thoreau’s “Walking,” and writing about nature ourselves. We’ll base our journal entries and more polished writings on excursions at the Biological Station, including hikes, canoe trips, and joining research biologists in the field. Join Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, Loren Eiseley and other writers in spirit and nature in fact at UMBS this summer.

John A. Kinch, Ph.D., is editor and author of A Journey for All Seasons, a collection of nature essays, and currently is executive editor of LSA magazine, the alumni magazine in the College of Literature, Science, and Arts at the University of Michigan.

During our five days together at the Biological Station next summer, we will read sections of these books. We will not have the time to read them in their entirety while at the Station. I recommend, however, that you familiarize yourself with these works prior to our gathering in June. I hope they delight and inspire you.

Book List:

Please get the specific published version if noted. All of these are available at your local bookstore or at online bookstores.

Nature and Walking, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry D. Thoreau, Beacon Press, $12
Walden, Henry D. Thoreau, any printing
A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, Ballantine Books, $7.50
The Immense Journey, Loren Eiseley, Random House, $10
A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard, Perennial, $13

Please contact me if you have questions: jkinch@umich.edu

BE A BIOLOGIST: SCIENCE ADVENTURES FOR KIDS

Marty Samson

Be a Biologist is a course especially designed for young scientists, ideally those between the ages of 8 and 13. In this course, we will feature exploration of some basic way-finding techniques to exploration of some local habitats. Our focus will be on experiencing science as a field biologist would and having fun! We will use scientific equipment ranging from a compass to a bug net to a microscope to learn about techniques used by "real" biologists and ecologists. Some of the habitats we will explore are Douglas Lake and nearby ponds, the Maple River, the Pine Point forest and the Grapevine Point forest. As a part of our exploration we will visit and learn about the Biological Station's research facilities and some ongoing research projects including the Biotron, the Stream Lab, the research towers and the Elevated CO2 project.

The course will be lead by long time SEE-North staffer Marty Samson, whose science background includes degrees from U of M School of Natural Resources and the Environment and includes several UMBS courses. However, Marty's main qualification is her love of doing science with kids and having fun. Other SEE-North staffers, Jamie Milkie and Jennifer Hill will bring their expertise to the course also.

Fall Classes
August 18 - 22, 2004

AQUATIC VASCULAR PLANTS

C. Barre Hellquist

Aquatic Vascular Plants This course will introduce participants to the various vascular aquatic plants of northern Michigan with an emphasis on invasive and rare species. Field trips to various aquatic systems will be conducted each day, with subsequent study in the laboratory. This course is particularly valuable to state agency personnel, consultants, and lake association members.

Barre Hellquist has been a professor (Emeritus in summer 2003) of Biology at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He has been studying vascular aquatic plants for 40 years throughout the world, especially Potamogeton and Nymphaea. He is co-author of the "Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Northeastern North America". He previous taught at the Station in the mid 1980's.

ART IN NATURE

Ann Singsaas

The beauty of UMBS and the surrounding area is often something we wish we had more time to enjoy. This class will focus on the rich visual experience and inspiration that the Bio Station's woods, fields and shorelines provide us. You will receive demonstrations and instruction in plein-air sketching, charcoal and pencil drawing, collage, simple print, and watercolor techniques, supplies provided. Ample time will also be devoted to personal aesthetic explorations and group discussions. Come enrich your skills and share your love of art and nature with kindred spirits. All skill levels, styles and media welcome.

Ann is an accomplished multimedia artist. Her expertise includes drawing, painting in oil and watercolors.

PHOTOGRAPHY IN NATURE - DIGITAL

Kim and Chris Cerrudo

Join us for a photographic odyssey through Northern Michigan in late summer. Explore the enormous photographic potential with abundant birds, mammals and summer flowers, including orchids with bogs, dunes and lakes providing spectacular scenes at almost every turn. Take this wonderful opportunity to learn nature photography. Conventional cameras are welcome, but the course will emphasize the acquisition of digital images, their manipulation, storage, and recall. There will be opportunity for evaluation and comment each day. There is no provision to process film this year.

FOREST & LANDSCAPE ECOLOGY OF

NORTHERN MICHIGAN

Burt Barnes

Why do plants grow where they do? We can answer this question for most species of the northern forest right at UMBS. That's because of the remarkably diverse glacial geology, landforms, soils, vegetation, and disturbance history of UMBS landscapes. In addition, we'll examine old-growth forests at Colonial Point and Hartwick Pines and study Kirtland's Warbler habitats in the burned-over plains at Mack Lake that are home to jack pine and northern pin oak. Plan on moderate hiking-short and long hikes-rain or shine!

Burt is a forest ecologist who teaches field courses, Woody Plants and Forest Ecology, in the UM's School of Natural Resources and Environment. He's been active in field research emphasizing landscape ecosystems and forests at UMBS for many years.

FUNGI OF NORTHERN MICHIGAN

Marilynn Smith

The Fungi Mini course will consist of field trips to varied habitats to collect fungi for identification in the lab. Emphasis will be on the ecology of forest fungi: What are the fungi doing? How does one find a specific mushroom? Techniques for preparing and storing edible fungi, as well as avoiding their poisonous look alike will be studied. In order to insure good mushroom hunting, participants are encouraged to perform rain dances two weeks before the course.

Marilynn is a former student and independent researcher at UMBS. She teaches short courses in mushroom identification in Michigan, and has traveled world-wide studying fungi.

University of Michigan Biological Station
2014 Natural Sciences Bldg.

830 North University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048, USA

Voice: (734) 763-4461
Fax: (734) 647-1952
E-mail: umbs@umich.edu
Web: http://www.umich.edu/~umbs/

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