By Daijah White / Staff Writer

Students from Ecology, Wildlife Management and Herpetology classes recently took a trip to the Reis Biological Station. This year, they also got the opportunity to go to the Missouri Forest Ecosystem Project on the same trip. 

Reis Biological Station is in Southern Missouri. It is in one of the subdivisions of the Mark Twain Forest. The Huzzah creek flows through the station providing the study for aquatic ecosystems. Students were able to discover multiple different ecosystems in this national forest. The students stayed in the cabins that are within the forest and were also provided with dining facilities for their 5 day trip.

Professor Michele Reinke is one of the professors that organizes this for the students and prepares them for the trip. She teaches the ecology class that attends the trip. 

“It gives all of our students hands-on experience and the other thing that I think is valuable is that not all of our biology majors are going to go out in the woods,” Reinke said. “But usually by the time they leave there they have a better appreciation for the world around them and the creatures that are in it.” 

The students took part in multiple activities over the span of the trip. They looked for amphibians, analyzed different aquatic animals, and some different land animals as well. 

Logan Cunningham said: “I am a conservation major so this trip really was a good experience for me because I got to experience first hand what it’s like to be out in the forest and what I could potentially be doing in my future.” 

Valley science classes take the trip to Reis Biological Center two times a year. The Fall trip is for the ecthiology class and vertebrate zoology class. The spring trip that just happened is for the more conservation based classes.