Millbrook Matters ACADEMICS, ATHLETICS, ARTS, STUDENT LIFE, AND FACULT Y
ACADEMICS Our primary focus continues to be nurturing the spirit of inquiry in our students. Within the Warner Gallery, the canopy walkway, the Trevor Zoo, and our more traditional academic classrooms, students have the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary studies in direct and meaningful ways.
Environmental Stewardship: Practical Applications in the Curriculum Protecting Threatened Wood Turtles: Tracking and Data Mapping “ You have to expose kids to conservation so they might develop a passion for it and pursue conservation work,” says Director of the Trevor Zoo Dr. Alan Tousignant. That is precisely what he has been doing by way of his collaborative, hands-on work researching wood turtles with students since 2016. Millbrook’s 800-acre campus has a unique diversity of habitats for scientific study, including its wetlands, which are where wood turtles dwell. Wetlands in the northeastern region of the United States currently face multiple threats but are important habitats for many species and serve vital roles in our ecosystem. “Wetlands are buffers, and, simply put, we need them and need to protect them,” says Dr. Tousignant. Independent Science Research student Si Wei ’17 first approached Dr. Tousignant in 2016 with an interest in studying the threatened wood turtle within our wetlands. She ultimately spent tens of hours surveying this turtle population on campus and reporting on a population of five females and five males.
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• SPRING 2019