The environmental science program supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute award presently involves teachers and students in grades 6 to 12 from the Murray City High School and Middle School. The students and teachers from these schools will conduct fieldwork on a 5-acre wooded site adjacent to Murray High School.

Environmental issues associated with global change have the ability to capture the imagination of students at a very early age and to sustain that interst for a lifetime. Because environmental research also can be understood and performed at various levels of sophistication, it is an ideal subject to use throughout K-12 levels to build student awareness and appreciation of the science that surrounds them in their everyday lives.