Center for Earth and Environmental Science at IU Indianapolis

CEES and DEES faculty, staff, and volunteers put on a spectacular program of activities today for the Kids College STEM camp! Students learned about volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, rocks & minerals, soil science, pollution movement through watersheds, and how to use cell phone apps to identify plants (and how doing so can contribute to scientific research).
Special thanks to Greenhouse Technician Matt Trilus for aiding with today's event and providing an excellent greenhouse tour experience.

It's a bio blitz!
CEES staff and interns - and many volunteers from the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences - pulled together to help campers from the Girls STEM Institute learn about the importance of biodiversity while cataloging some of the many plant species found on the IU Indianapolis campus.

On the road of life, college graduation is a major milestone. It is the result of dedication and hard work.
CEES Interns Halyee Carter, Ivey Ross, Claira Brizendine, and Addison Lopian have wrapped up their undergraduate degrees and are moving on to bigger and better things.
Congratulations Academic Year 2025/2026 Graduates! We at CEES salute your achievement!
Enjoy this retrospective of your time with CEES.

CEES and INDNR are partnering to offer the Indiana Streams Course, a four-part series for environmental professionals.

Migratory bird movement through Indiana peaks during the month of May as birds engage in their annual journey to their summer breeding grounds. This is a time when the likelihood of bird-building collisions increases.
CEES is recording bird-building collisions on campus. The data collected will help identify areas on campus that are more prone to collisions (so that we know where collision-reduction measures need to be concentrated).
Your help is needed!
If you find a bird, you can report it to the Center using our handy online reporting form (the button for the reporting form is at the bottom of the project page): https://cees.indianapolis.iu.edu/service-learning/current-projects/bird-window-strike-project/index.html
Alternatively, email CEES ([email protected]) and provide the following information about when/where you found the bird: date, time, building, and side of the building where the bird struck. If possible, please include a photo (or photos) of the bird (beak-to-tail close-up), as well as a photo showing the bird in relation to the building where it was found (this helps us locate the bird).
If you come across a bird in a chalk circle, that means we've already collected data for that bird.

CEES interns Ivey Ross and Claira Brizendine presented their work at the IU INSPIRE Showcase today.

IU INSPIRE (IU INdiananapolis Scholarly Projects, Internships, Research & Engagement) is a chance for students to show off the work they've been doing over the past year. Said work takes various and sundry forms - some traditional, some unusual.

This year, the event was held at the NCAA building - a much more capacious venue than has been enjoyed in times past!

Happy Earth Day! Truly a day to explore the myriad wonders of nature.
Enjoy this rare find on a rare fine day.

King Rails, the largest species of North American rails, are not commonly seen in Indiana. In addition to being shy, secretive, and uncommon, they are under threat of extinction: their conservation status is "orange alert tipping point species."

Conservation organizations have adopted a color-coded system to indicate the extinction threat level that a species faces. An orange alert indicates that a species' population size has declined by 50% or more over the past 50 years. In the case of King Rails, losses have accelerated in the last decade.
These rails have experienced a cumulative population decline of 85% since 1966, much of which has been caused by loss of their wetland habitat.

As it turns out, the April 10th service learning event was not, in fact, the final stewardship project of the semester. That honor went to today's event - a last minute addition to the schedule that took place because there was still sections of the ARBOR in need of clearing of invasive garlic mustard. The April 10th volunteer crew made mighty inroads in outing garlic mustard from the ARBOR. However, due to lack of time (or too much garlic mustard) last week's focus was predominantly restricted to the southern portion of the ARBOR. Today's volunteers covered the forest's northern section.

What a difference a week makes! The weather today was decidedly NOT picture perfect, being far too warm for the middle of April. Many of the spring ephemerals seen in abundance on April 10 were "past prime" today (April 17). A different set of spring wildflowers is now in bloom, as are a few tree species (hawthorns, buckeyes) that have showy flowers. More wildlife was in evidence: spiders have begun spinning webs, and a number of butterflies - and some caterpillars - were seen.

Today's volunteer group was small in number, but mighty in effort. Three 45-gallon bags stuffed full of garlic mustard were removed from the ARBOR, clearing the north end of the forest of the invasive herb. Interestingly, many of the plants found were small and stunted, with curling leaves. Additionally, garlic mustard leaves were often covered in small holes - clearly something was nibbling on them! Could native herbivores - and possibly fungal, bacterial, or viral pathogens - be adapting to handle this invasive species' particular cocktail of chemical defenses?

Good work today, volunteers! You persevered under trying conditions and accomplished a great deal! Thanks also to our project partner, Urban Wilderness Trail's Greg Harger, who hauled away the invasives and trash we removed from the forest.