Students must apply to enroll in KBS undergraduate courses and the ELME graduate courses.  Due to limited on-site housing, we prioritize accepting undergraduate students who plan to take multiple courses within a session, or across sessions.  So check with your adviser to see which courses will work for you!

Applications are reviewed and students are accepted on a rolling basis until courses are full (maximum of 16-18 students).  After you have been accepted, and have made your required housing deposit if you choose to live at KBS, we will enroll you directly into our courses when the summer course registration period opens in March.

**Please note you will need to provide  a PDF of your unofficial transcript(s) so we can ensure course prerequisite requirements are met.

Please check back December 15th for the application!

**Non-MSU students can take courses at KBS by first filling out MSU’s FREE application to become a MSU Lifelong Education student.  After you have been accepted then you will fill out the KBS course application.

**If you are a PhD student attending an institution in the Big 10 Academic Alliance, you may become a BTAA Traveling Scholar in order to register and pay for KBS courses through your home institution.  Please contact the BTAA representative at your institution at least six (6) weeks prior to the start of your course to begin the process.  Please list Dr. Katherine Gross (KBS Faculty) as the faculty mentor on your BTAA application.

If you have any questions please email: KBSsummer@kbs.msu.edu

Each summer over 100 undergraduates and graduate students from around the country live at KBS.  Resident Mentors facilitate student life activities at KBS including bonfires, volleyball games, group meals, camping trips and weekend excursions. A summer at KBS is one you will never forget!

KBS is located on beautiful Gull Lake, which is about 1.5 hours from the MSU main campus in East Lansing. Students can choose to live at KBS, or commute for their summer courses.

All student housing at KBS is shared in the KBS Apartments or the Orchard Dorm Suites.  Depending on availability, the KBS Conference Center may be able to honor a request for private housing, but additional charges will apply.  Click here for additional details on KBS student room & board plus a link to our housing form.

Due to generous donations to KBS, students accepted to take courses and live at KBS are awarded a 50% housing scholarship to offset the cost of living at KBS.  Students in need of additional housing assistance should contact the Academic Programs Coordinator at KBSsummer@kbs.msu.edu.

KBS housing scholarships are allocated to students after they are accepted into courses, and preference for acceptance of students that would like to live at the Station is given to students that apply early and take multiple courses in a 5-week session.

***To secure your housing, room and board scholarship, and seat in your KBS course(s) you must pay a 1-week, non-refundable deposit after you are accepted. The deposit will be deducted from your total due upon arrival at KBS.

Tuition for courses at KBS is the same as tuition for courses on MSU’s main campus. Your tuition will depend on where you live, and whether you currently attend MSU.  You can estimate how much your tuition will be by using MSU’s Summer Tuition and Fees Calculator.

MSU students can apply for tuition scholarships through the MSU Office of Financial Aid and the MSU Student Affairs Advancement Office.

**Non-MSU students can take courses for credit at KBS by becoming a MSU Lifelong Education student, and the application is FREE!  You are responsible for working with your home institution to ensure that your course credits transfer.

**If you are a PhD student attending an institution in the Big 10 Academic Alliance, you may become a BTAA Traveling Scholar in order to register and pay for KBS courses through your home institution.  Please contact the BTAA representative at your institution at least six (6) weeks prior to the start of your course to begin the process.

We offer a set of integrated courses BS162 (3 cr) + BS172 (2 cr) + STT224 (3 cr) during Session 1 that are requirements for several majors and fill quickly on campus.

Students can take this set of courses during Session 1, then couple them with 1 or 2 courses during Session 2.

This could put you a full semester ahead (up to 15 credits!), fill necessary prerequisites, and give you the skills needed to jump into your upper level curriculum back on campus.

*** Indicates these are the Launch Your Major Program integrated courses (BS162/172 & STT224), and because they are integrated courses where you learn concepts, design experiments to test the concepts, then analyze the experimental data so all 3 courses must be taken together

Course Code: BS 162 (3 credits)
Dates: May 21 to June 20
Meeting time: Class meets all day Tuesday & Thursday
Instructor: Dr. Andrea Bierema (MSU – Integrative Biology & CISGS) 

Prerequisite: BS 161, LB 145, or equivalent

Biological diversity and organismal biology. Principles of evolution, transmission genetics, population biology, community structure, ecology.

NOTE: This is an integrated course so you must also register for BS 172 and STT224 concurrently

*** Indicates these are the Launch Your Major Program integrated courses (BS162/172 & STT224), and because they are integrated courses where you learn concepts, design experiments to test the concepts, then analyze the experimental data so all 3 courses must be taken together

Course Code: BS 172 (2 credits)
Dates: May 24 to June 21
Meeting time: Class meets all day Friday
Instructor: Dr. Sara Garnett (KBS)

Prerequisite: BS 161, LB 145, or equivalent

Nature and process of organismal biology including experimental design, statistical methods, hypothesis testing in genetics, ecology, and evolution.

NOTE: This is an integrated course so you must also register for BS 162 and STT224 concurrently

*** Indicates these are the Launch Your Major Program integrated courses (BS162/172 & STT224), and because they are integrated courses where you learn concepts, design experiments to test the concepts, then analyze the experimental data so all 3 courses must be taken together

Course Code: STT 224 (3 credits)
Dates: May 20 to June 19
Meeting time: Class meets all day Monday & Wednesday
Instructor: Dr. Sara Garnett (KBS)

Prerequisite: MTH 103 or MTH 116 or MTH 124 or MTH 132 or MTH 152H or LB 118

Probability and statistics with computer applications for the analysis, interpretation and presentation of ecological data. Data analysis, probability models, random variables, estimation, confidence intervals, test of hypotheses, and simple linear regression with applications to ecology.

NOTE: This is an integrated course so you must also register for BS 162 and BS172 concurrently

Course Code: ZOL 355 (3 credits)
Dates: May 20 to June 19
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Monday and Wednesday
Instructor: Dr. Matt Kolp (MSU Plant Biology)

Prerequisite: BS 162, LBS 144, LBS 148H, approval of the instructor.

Students learn about the relationships between plants, animals and the physical world. The class explores population, community and ecosystem level processes in a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Students are introduced to basic ecological principles and how they can be used to solve environmental problems. Students will learn a variety of sampling techniques, how to analyze data, and will present results of the field research to the class.

Course Code: IBIO 355L (1 credit)
Dates: May 24 to June 21
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Friday
Instructors: Dr. Danielle Zoellner (KBS)

Prerequisite: BS 162, LBS 144, LBS 148H, approval of the instructor.

Students learn about the relationships between plants, animals and the physical world. The class explores population, community and ecosystem level processes in a wide variety of habitats. Students are introduced to basic ecological principles and how they can be used to solve environmental problems. Students will learn a variety of sampling techniques, how to analyze data, and will present results of the field research to the class.

Course code: PLB 418 (3 credits)
Dates: May 21 to June 20
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Tuesday & Thursday
Instructor: Dr. Todd Barkman (Western Michigan University)

Prerequisite: PLB 105 or BS 162, LBS 144 or LBS 148H or approval of instructor.

A field-oriented systematics course, emphasizing native flora identification and classification. Each day starts with a one and one-half hour lecture on systematics and plant family characteristics. The remainder of the day is spent in the field identifying habitats and the factors controlling plant distribution, understanding biodiversity and human effects.  Skill-building for continuing new species identification are emphasized.

Textbook: Edward Voss, Anton A. Reznicek. Field Manual of Michigan Flora (2012).

OR

Part I. Gymnosperms and Monocots. Bulletin 55.
Part II. Dicots (Saururaceae – Cornaceae). Bulletin 59.
Part III. Dicots (Pyrolaceae – Compositae). Bulletin 61.

Course Code: IBIO 355 (3 credits)
Dates: July 1 to July 31
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Monday & Wednesday
Instructors: Dr. Matt Kolp (MSU Plant Biology)

Prerequisite: BS 162, LBS 144, LBS 148H, approval of the instructor.

Students learn about the relationships between plants, animals and the physical world. The class explores population, community and ecosystem level processes in a wide variety of habitats. Students are introduced to basic ecological principles and how they can be used to solve environmental problems. Students will learn a variety of sampling techniques, how to analyze data, and will present results of the field research to the class.

Course Code: IBIO 355L (1 credit)
Dates: July 5 to August 2
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Friday
Instructors: Dr. Danielle Zoellner (KBS)

Prerequisite: BS 162, LBS 144, LBS 148H, approval of the instructor.

Students learn about the relationships between plants, animals and the physical world. The class explores population, community and ecosystem level processes in a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Students are introduced to basic ecological principles and how they can be used to solve environmental problems. Students will learn a variety of sampling techniques, how to analyze data, and will present results of the field research to the class.

Course Code: FW 417 (3 credits)
Dates: July 2 to August 1
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Tuesday & Thursday
Instructors: Dr. Steve Hamilton (KBS & Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies), Todd Losee (Niswander Environmental), Dr. Tiffany Schriever (Western Michigan U.)

Prerequisite: ZOL 355 or equivalent and completion of Tier I writing requirement

Wetlands have increasingly been recognized as ecosystems of particular value, yet many of our wetlands have been lost or degraded by agricultural land conversion, river regulation, and urban development. As a result wetlands now receive special attention and protection in natural resources management and policy. This course covers the ecology of wetlands, and how this ecological knowledge can be applied to the sustainable utilization and conservation of wetlands. Students will visit a diversity of sites to learn about why wetlands are so ecologically variable, how wetlands are delineated, the plant and animal life they harbor, the ecosystem services they provide, and how they can be managed—or even created from scratch. Lead instructors include Dr. Steve Hamilton, an aquatic ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist, and Todd Losee, an environmental consultant who practices wetland restoration and has also worked in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). Dr. Tiffany Schriever, a freshwater ecologist with extensive experience in wetland research across the US and Canada, will also have a role in instruction.

Course Code: FOR 419 (3 credits) – this course was formerly FW419
Dates: July 1 to August 2
Meeting time: Class meets all day on Monday, Wednesday & Friday
Instructors: Dr. Ali Locher (GVSU), Josh Green (GIS Professional), Lisa Vormwald (GIS professional)

Prerequisite: None

Application of geographic information systems, remote sensing, and global positioning systems to integrated planning and management for fish, wildlife, and related natural resources.

Course Code: IBIO/PLB/CSS 891 Section 401 (1-2 credits)
Meeting time: Please visit the Eminent Ecologist course page for specific dates for class meetings.
Instructor: Dr. Nick Haddad (KBS-IBIO)

This course is also known as the “Eminent Ecologists” series.

Distinguished scientists in ecology or evolutionary biology who reside at KBS for a week over the summer will offer formal seminars, informal discussions and one-on-one dialogue with students. To prepare for the seminars, students are expected to read selected publications by each speaker in his or her current research and participate in post-seminar discussions.

Please visit the Eminent Ecologist course page for specific dates of class meetings. All seminars begin at 5 pm in the Academic Building Auditorium.

***You can register yourself for this course directly through MSU’s online student registration system.

Course Code: PLB809 Section 431 (1 credit)
Meeting time: Class meets all day Monday thru Friday
Instructor: Dr. Thomas Koffel (KBS)

This course will present an overview of the mathematical theory of populations and communities, organized around a few core ecological principles. Topics covered will include models of exponential growth, structured populations, population regulation, predator-prey dynamics and competition. The course will be taught in a lecture and discussion format coupled with laboratories involving both pen-and-paper and computer-based modeling exercises. The students will learn how to read, build and analyze an ecological model, with an emphasis on solving for the model equilibria and analyzing their stability.

For the course syllabus click HERE.

***You must fill out the Summer 2019 KBS Course Application to enroll in this course.

If you are a non-MSU PhD student attending an institution in the Big 10 Academic Alliance, you may become a BTAA Traveling Scholar in order to register and pay for MSU/KBS graduate courses through your home institution.  Please contact the BTAA representative at your institution at least six (6) weeks prior to the start of the course to begin the process.

Course Code: PLB809 Section 433 (1 credit)
Meeting time: Class meets all day Monday thru Friday
Instructor: Dr. Craig Osenberg, University of Georgia

The course will provide an introduction to all elements of meta-analysis. The emphasis of the course is on both the conceptual understanding and practical use of this method, as applied to ecological questions. It will consist of lectures, on-line learning modules, discussions, and practical exercises.  Students will gain hands-on experience, so that after the course they will be able to conduct their own meta-analyses, informed by knowledge of the strengths and limitations of the approach.

For the course syllabus click HERE.

***You must fill out the Summer 2019 KBS Course Application to enroll in this course.

If you are a non-MSU PhD student attending an institution in the Big 10 Academic Alliance, you may become a BTAA Traveling Scholar in order to register and pay for MSU/KBS graduate courses through your home institution.  Please contact the BTAA representative at your institution at least six (6) weeks prior to the start of the course to begin the process.