Our outreach and education activities are strengthened by many factors, including MSU's proximity to Yellowstone National Park, the expertise and experience of our faculty and close partners and the outstanding commitment from our MSU students to share their work with the public.
Extreme Yellowstone Expedition (EYE) is a series of activities and lesson plans for middle schools geared to the Next Generation Science Standards and focusing on astrobiology and Yellowstone National Park. Based on an actual scientific expedition into Yellowstone's backcountry, students will see research come to life, mimic experiments conducted by scientists, work with actual data sets, and get to know researchers and STEM role models.
TBI has created a new Yellowstone microbial identification wheel and an accompanying book called Living Colors: Microbes of Yellowstone National Park, a paperback guide that introduces the public to some of the microbes of Yellowstone.
This three-part lesson ties together the concepts of pH, Yellowstone extremophiles, and the search for life beyond the Earth. In part one, students conduct a laboratory activity in which they test several substances to determine pH. In part 2, students plot the pH values of Yellowstone National Park thermal features on a pH scale, then learn about extremophiles and the types of environments in which they are found. In part 3, a brief reading connects the concepts learned in parts 1 and 2 and expands on this content.Mars and Europa are discussed as possible sites where extraterrestrial life may be found. Lastly, an exit quiz assesses student knowledge of the lesson and its major themes.