Spring 2015 Student Capstone Projects

Sample site from Little Kitten Creek in Manhattan.

Water quality sample site along Little Kitten Creek in Manhattan.

Nineteen students – from three colleges and different majors – successfully completed the NRES capstone course in Spring 2015.  Faculty advisors were Lisa Harrington (Geography), Shawn Hutchinson (Geography), and Anandhi Swamy (Agronomy).

Students worked on four different projects including “Adapting to Climate Variability:  An Analysis of the Southern Great Plains”, “Anderson Watershed Water Quality Analysis”, “Kansas State University Sustainability”, and “Water Quality Assessment:  The Effects of Land Use and Land Cover in Urban and Agricultural Lands.”  Project reports and scientific poster presentations can be viewed and downloaded from the NRES website.

Continue reading

New NRES Courses Now Available

At their Fall 2014 meeting, the NRES Governing Board approved the following courses as new block electives:

CHM 316 Environmental Science:  A Chemistry Perspective Lab
Natural Sciences
ENGL 270 American Literature: American Natures
Social Sciences and Humanitites

The NRES Secondary Major is pleased to include these courses to our list of approved block elective as interesting new options.  If you have a suggestion for a new course that should be considered for inclusion in the program, please see the procedure outlined in our Suggest a New NRES Course web page.

Thank you to Dr. Dan Higgins (Department of Chemistry) and Dr. Steffi Dippolds (Department of English) for their assistance during the course review and approval process!

NRES Seminar Series Update

Dr. Keith Gido presents "Groundwater Loss, Dams, and Drought:  Ratcheting Down Great Plains Fish Diversity" during the Spring 2015 semester.

Dr. Keith Gido discusses changes in Great Plains fish communities due to groundwater loss, dams, and drought.

The Spring 2015 NRES Seminar Series featured guest presentations by five K-State faculty and staff.  Special thanks to Lisa Harrington (Geography), Bruce Snead (Engineering Extension), Robert Atchison (K-State Forest Service), Saugata Datta (Geology), and Keith Gido (Biology) for their terrific talks.

The seminar series helps us achieve our student learning outcomes by expanding students broad-based knowledge of natural resources/environmental science and by illustrating the commonalities (and differences) in academic perspectives for studying and solving contemporary natural resources issues.

Continue reading

Welcome New NRES Board Members

We welcome Dr. Trisha Moore from the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Dr. Lisa Harrington from the Department of Geography as the newest members of the NRES Board of Directors.  Dr. Moore is an ecological engineer with teaching and research interests in sustainable soil and water use.  Long affiliated with the NRES Secondary Major, Dr. Harrington rejoins the board and has expertise in environmental change and management, sustainability, and rural geography.  The terms for both new board members run from 2015-2018.

10452_A&S_NRESSocialMedia_YouTubeCoverfacebooki_twitteryoutube

The NRES Secondary Major is supported financially by the Office of the Provost, College of Agriculture, College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering, and GENEROUS ALUMNI and donors like you!

Fall 2014 Student Capstone Projects

pond

Site drawing from the Warner Pond Project.

Nine students – spanning different three colleges and 6 departments – successfully completed the NRES capstone course in Fall 2014.  Faculty advisors for the Fall 2014 semester were Dr. Shawn Hutchinson (Geography) and Dr. James Steichen (Biological & Agricultural Engineering).

Congratulations to students Kathryn Biver (Civil Engineering),  Amelia Firns-Hubert (Park Mgmt & Conservation), Lisa Henderson (Agricultural Economics), Caleb Jury (Civil Engineering), Kalene Lozick (Interior Design), Casey Mahoney (Civil Engineering), Connor McClelland (Agronomy), Amber Myers (Park Mgmt & Conservation), and Jessica Weber (Regional & Community Planning)!

Continue reading

NRES Seminar Series Update

dodds_f14

Dr. Walter Dodds presents “Humanity’s Footprint” during the Fall 2014 semester.

The Fall 2014 NRES Seminar Series featured guest presentations by eight K-State faculty researchers.  Special thanks to Dr. Trisha Moore (Biological & Agricultural Engineering), Dr. John Harrington (Geography), Dr. Jason Ellis (Agricultural Communications and Journalism), Dr. Jason Bergtold (Agricultural Economics), Dr. Walter Dodds (Biology), Dr. Stacy Hutchinson (Biological & Agricultural Engineering), Dr. Elizabeth Dodd (English), and Dr. Matthew Sanderson (Sociology) for their outstanding contributions.

Continue reading

Datta Joins NRES Board of Directors

Dr. Saugata Datta (Department of Geology)

Dr. Saugata Datta

We welcome Dr. Saugata Datta from the Department of Geology as the newest member of the NRES Board of Directors.  Dr. Datta teaches courses in hydrogeology, low temperature geochemistry, and water resources and conducts research on trace element and oxyanion migration and contamination in the environment, especially in groundwaters, urban air particulates, subway microenvironments, and unproductive soil environments using hydrological and geochemical tools including synchrotron spectroscopy.

Continue reading

NRES Launches YouTube Channel

In response to the successful, NRES Seminar Series, many of our thought-provoking K-State faculty research presentations are being recorded by the Division of Communications and Marketing and the resulting videos are then uploaded to our new YouTube channel.  Current topics range from ecosystem goods and services to climate change to environmental literary studies.  Check back often for new videos or preview upcoming talks at the NRES website.