Academics

 

Project Explore > Program Themes

The program is centered on the natural world around us. Our philosophy is to encourage participants to use their natural interest in the environment to ask questions, and then to see how questions can be answered by professional scientists, other academics, teachers, and students in a fun and engaging way. Project Explore is aimed at motivating students to fully realize their talents and potential.

The program will concentrate on three themes:

How to be a scientist:
How do scientists operate? Asking questions about nature

Ecology & The Environment
How are ecosystems related to each other? How do organisms depend on each other within the context of the physical world?

How can our knowledge of nature and the environment help us improve our communities?

All this is based on the idea that learning should be fun if it's to engage students fully!

A majority of the days in Project Explore will take students on field trips - enjoyable opportunities for careful observation of nature in different settings. These will include visits to such sites as Glacial Park, Independence Grove, Wright Woods, Lake Forest Open Lands, Milwaukee Public Museum, and the prairie on the Lake Forest College campus. We will also take an overnight camping trip to a nearby State Park.

Other activities will include work under close supervision in Lake Forest College's well-equipped biology laboratories, use of computer simulations, readings, and discussions about biology and other fields such as literature, history, and art in order to relate science to other disciplines.