Graduate student Hanqing Wu heads out into Lake Erie on a field sampling cruise as part of her master's project research with the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR).
Typically, all incoming University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) students spend time at the 10,000-acre U-M Biological Research Station.
SEAS maintains six nature areas totaling 1,761 acres, not including U-M's 854-acre Matthaei Botanical Gardens and 500-acre Nichols Arboretum, and many SEAS courses include a strong field-based component.
Research labs and institutes across the university provide students with the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge research. A number of these, such as the Center for Sustainable Systems, the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR), the Perfecto Lab, and others, are located within SEAS.
Michigan Sustainability Cases, produced by students for students, present learners with a case, a decision maker, and various stakeholders, allowing them to analyze priorities and tradeoffs in reaching a recommendation.
Sites for master's projects involve engagement with local and national communities, as well as international communities in countries such as Peru, Liberia, China, Costa Rica, and India.
A number of students find opportunities to present their research at national conferences (Impact Seattle, Ecological Society of America, North American Association for Environmental Education, Student Conference on Conservation Science, and others).
There are many projects in Detroit. Students have installed stormwater runoff mitigation projects, engaged in food access programs, studied urban agriculture projects, and partnered with the city to study recycling and waste plans.