If you are interested in the great outdoors, then come to an Ecology club meeting.

This club is centered around making the environment a cleaner and greener place for everyone.

“Ecology is about studying the living and nonliving things around us and how they interact with each other. We should be aware of our surroundings because it is very beneficial for us to learn about situations like the one at Hillsdale Lake, which is now filling up with a lot of chemicals that can cause algae blooms. Currently, Gardner is looking at taking more water out of the lake, and that could potentially solve their water issues, but how long is that going to solve anything if the lake is filling up with sediments? This is a good opportunity to get students to observe the ecology out there and learn to problem solve,” said Biology teacher Mr. Batterbee.

Some examples of how the ecology club helps the earth is by managing the recycling through the school, such as picking up bins outside classrooms.

Some of the students who pick up the recycling bins want to stress the importance of why teachers need to put the recycling bins out in the hall on time for the students to pick up.

“It takes too long to go into the classrooms to get the teachers bin, and it is more efficient if the teachers put their recycling bins outside on time for us to pick up,” Ecology club officer Jael Hansen said.

Stream sampling for the Hillsdale watershed is another activity that Ecology club takes part in. It isn’t mandatory, but members of the club are welcome to participate.

If you are interested in observing plants and animals that are native to the prairie grasslands, there is a Flint Hills field trip that the ecology club is planning to take in the spring.

More information on the trip will be given closer to the spring, but it is important to come to meetings in order to get all the information.

Also, the club picks up trash outside of the school and in the parking lot area, in efforts to keep the environment around the school clean

If you or anyone you know are interested in activities to promote the environment, you can be involved by coming to a club meeting.

Community service or volunteer hours are a part of picking up trash outside the school and picking up recycling. So if you need volunteer hours, this is a way to get them.

Ecology club meets every Thursday during seminar in room 308. Everyone is welcome and you don’t need to have any background knowledge of ecology or ecosystems.