In 2019, Team Echinacea transplanted over 1400 Echinacea angustifolia plants from three local prairies to 12 plots at the West Central Area (WCA) High School, also known as exPt10. Since then, the West Central Area High School instructors and students have collaborated with members of Team Echinacea to gather data and plan the treatments of the plots, anything from burning to assessing plant fitness. In the fall, WCA students do an individual investigation using the Echinacea plots and then create a poster showing the process and conclusion of their investigation.
Here’s one of the 12 Echinacea plots at West Central Area High School used by Echinacea Project and WCA students to do research. Four of the plots are burned in the spring, four burned in the fall, and four are used as controls and haven’t been burned.
Having the Echinacea plots located at West Central Area School has provided many opportunities for the students to be involved in relevant research helping the Echinacea Project and doing individual projects. The plots at the school have also been used for additional research by Echinacea Project team members. Specifically, in the summer of 2021, graduate student Drake Mullett started a research project on prairie parasitic plants at exPt10 and will continue for the next few summers. Amy Waananen also continued an ongoing research project on Echinacea plants’ gene flow in exPt10. In May 2021, Team Echinacea conducted a prescribed burn at exPt10. Read more about the burn here.
An article in the local newspaper about WCA student Kennedy and Echinacea Project member Maris working together measuring the plants on one of the 12 plots located on school property.
- Start year: 2018
- Location: West Central Area High School’s Environmental Learning Center, Barrett, MN
- Overlaps with: Gene flow in remnants, exPt10 Pedicularis planting, prescribed fire in plots
- Data collected: Survival data for seedlings planted in summer 2019 from Amy W’s gene flow experiment, located in the cgdata bitbucket repository along with recheck data. Data from p10 will not be going into the SQL databases
- Samples collected: None this year
- Products: High school posters. Contact John Van Kempen for info.
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