The K-12 Partnership has included schools from many districts in Southwest Michigan, over 300 teachers, administrators, advanced graduate students pursuing degrees at KBS, and MSU science faculty from KBS and science-teaching faculty from the College of Education have participated.

Partnership Leadership:

Kara Haas, K-12 Partnership Coordinator

Joelyn de Lima, KBS Visiting Scholar

Misty Klotz, KBS Community Outreach Coordinator

Liz Schultheis, KBS LTER Education & Outreach Coordinator

2025 Leadership Team: 

Jenny Brenneman (Parchment); Shirley Brezzell (Detroit); Lauren Sullivan (MSU faculty); Gabriel Knowles (Whitehall); Jillian Osbourne (Ebersole/Lansing); Melissa Frost (Buchanan); Sara Syswerda (Pierce Cedar Creek Institute); Torrey Wenger (Bloomingdale)

Current Fellows:

Kara Haas, 2024-25

25th Anniversary Planning Committee:

Connie High, Marty Buehler, Sara Syswerda, Liz Schultheis, Kara Haas

Former Fellows:

Alice Puchalsky, 2023-24

Ayley Shortridge, 2023-24

Robin Waterman, 2021-2023

Isabela Borges, 2022-2023

Elizeth Cinto Mejia, 2020-2022

Kyle Jaynes, 2020-2022

Lindsey Kemmerling, 2019-2020

Ava Garrison, 2019-2020

Sean Griffin, 2018-2019

Meredith Zettlemoyer, 2018-19

Lana Bolin, summer 2019

Heather Kittredge, 2016-18

Susan Magnoli, 2017-18

Dustin Kincaid, 2016-17

Tyler Bassett, 2016-17

Sara Garnett, 2016-17

K-12 Partnership Steering Committee members (2015-16): Kara Haas, Kay Gross, Andy Anderson, Sarah Bodbyl Roels, Jake Nalley, Tyler Bassett, Kim Sandefur (Comstock), Beck Drayton (Gobles), Marty Buehler (Hastings), Jody Lugar-McManus (Parchment)

MSU Staff and Faculty Partnership Collaborators

Andy Anderson

• GK-12 Co-Director (Co-PI) and Professor
• Department of Teacher Education

Sarah Bodbyl

• Post-doctoral Researcher, Project Manager (Co-PI) for KBS GK-12 Project, and network coordinator for CarbonTIME
• Kellogg Biological Station and Teacher Education

Tom Getty

• GK-12 Co-Director (Co-PI) and Professor
• Kellogg Biological Station and Department of Integrated Biology

Kay Gross

• Steering Committee Science Lead
• Kellogg Biological Station Director

Phil Robertson

• Long Term Ecological Research Project Director
• Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences
• Kellogg Biological Station

Teaching Evolution (summer 2015)

Program for preservice teachers, a KBS summer experience, hands on courses and working with a cohort to better understand evolution and how to teach it in the secondary classroom.  In partnership with BEACON Center for the study of Evolution in Action and MSU’s Department of Teacher Education.  Thank you to Jamie Bowman and Jodie McManus for their mentorship.  Congratulations to Diontae Matthews, Kathryn Schwartz and Chris Symons for completing the first summer Undergraduate Research Experience for Teachers!

Many thanks to Louise Mead (BEACON), Tomomi Suwa (KBS) and David Stroupe (MSU College of Teacher Edcation) for their leadership and collaboration.

Teacher REvoluTION (summer 2015)

This KBS project was funded and implemented in partnership with BEACON.  Seven Research Experiences for Teachers (RET), five based at KBS and two based on MSU main campus, were brought together as a cohort over the summer of 2015.  RETs were each able to create a lesson that was presented during the KBS K-12 Partnership Summer Institute and provide a session at the BEACON Congress about the impact of RET experiences.  Participants were

• Lau lab: Shaun Davis (Thornapple Kellogg) and Katie McKinley (Mattawan)
• Litchman lab: Connie High (Delton Kellogg)
• Conner lab: Marcia Angle (Lawton) and Cheryl Hach (Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center)
• Lenski lab: Rick Schultz (St. John’s) and Fred Hingst (DeWitt)
• Gross Lab: Ashley Carroll (Gull Lake) (GLBRC RET)

GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project:

This KBS project, part of a national network of GK-12 sites funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), ran from 2010 – 2015. The primary goal was to provide science graduate students with skills broadly preparing them for their professional and scientific careers, through interactions with teachers and students in area K-12 schools. Graduate student fellows honed their science communication, teaching, and outreach in local classrooms though partnerships with teachers of the KBS K-12 partnership. For a project overview and to access all products, including over 120 classroom-ready lesson plans, please visit the KBS GK-12 website at http://kbsgk12project.kbs.msu.edu/.

Please contact program co-Director Tom Getty , program manager Sarah Bodbyl or co-Director Andy Anderson for more information on the new KBS GK-12 Bioenergy Sustainability Project.

NSF Math Science Partnership:

This program is part of the larger Environmental Literacy Project at MSU, it is also known as the Pathways Project. The goal of our project is to develop learning progressions leading toward environmental science literacy—the capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based discussions of socio-ecological systems and to make informed decisions about appropriate actions and policies—for students from upper elementary school through college.  Contact Andy Anderson for more information.

Ecological Literacy in the K-12 Classrooms of Rural Michigan:

This project ran from 2006-2009. This GK-12 Program teamed KBS graduate students pursuing advanced degrees in ecology with K-12 science teachers in rural districts near KBS. The program aimed to enrich K-12 science instruction by promoting inquiry-based science teaching in participating school districts. At the same time, the program aimed to provide graduate students the opportunity to improve their teaching and science communication skills.   Contact Andy Anderson for more information.