The NRS is often accurately described as a classroom without walls or a library of ecosystems. Such descriptions recognize that, in order to study the environment, one must go out into it and learn through direct observation and measurement. Those who've experienced university instructional programs conducted in the field will attest: such programs promote learning that cannot be readily achieved in the classroom.
Field study is an important dimension of many disciplines, and the NRS supports a wide variety of disciplines that require field sites. These disciplines include, but are not limited to: botany, entomology, zoology, geology, geography, meteorology, archaeology, paleontology, ecology, environmental planning, wildlife management, public health, even the arts. No limits of a disciplinary sort are normally imposed at NRS sites. The use of the reserves for photography by university-level classes or the composition of outdoor writing — two areas involving landscape interpretation and inspiration — is fully as valid as a natural science project.
HOST Program (2000-2001)
Field-based science curricula: The NRS HOST (Hands On for School Teachers) Program, a pilot program that ran in the years 2000 and 2001, improved ecological education for hundreds of students from underprivileged high schools by training teachers in the field at NRS reserves. See the HOST website for field-based science curricula developed by the HOST teachers.
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