The Echinacea Project is looking for enthusiastic graduates or soon-to-be graduates for paid internships starting in June 2025 and running for 5-12 months. We are looking to assemble a team with diverse skills and interests, and we encourage individuals with a bachelor’s degree in biology, botany, entomology, statistics, computer science, or a related major to apply. We especially encourage applications from individuals belonging to groups underrepresented in science. All levels of experience are encouraged to apply.
This internship is a great opportunity for aspiring ecologists, conservation biologists, and evolutionary biologists to gain research experience and learn about the ecology and evolution of plants and insects in fragmented prairies. Read more general information about our field season!
Job description
Abby (research intern 2023-2024) records the spatial location of an Echinacea plant using a GPS unit
As a research intern, you will play a key role in supporting and contributing to ongoing research on the conservation genetics, reproductive biology, and demography of the prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia. Summer fieldwork occurs in western Minnesota, and greenhouse and lab activities are at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Interns will also have the opportunity to conduct an independent research project. This project may involve field research, lab activities, data management and analysis, developing computer software, or other activities depending on the intern’s goals and interests. Potential project topics include: fire ecology, mating compatibility, rare plant conservation, plant-aphid-ant interactions, plant quantitative genetics, hybridization, software development, restoration ecology, and plant-pollinator interactions.
As an intern, you will engage in many aspects of scientific research, outreach, and mentoring. Tasks during the summer include database management, experimental plot management, supervising data collection, and discussing science with other interns. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, you will participate in a variety of research and conservation-related activities, attend seminars, and interact closely with conservation scientists, graduate students, interns, researchers, and volunteers associated with Plant Conservation Science at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the graduate program in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern. Interns will spend time managing Echinacea Project volunteers and mentoring students. Tasks with volunteers include teaching protocols and answering science-related questions. In collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Echinacea Project hosts a number of high school and undergraduate students over the fall, winter, and spring. Interns will mentor these visiting students on independent projects and engage them in lab activities.
Desired skills and experience include completing tasks independently & on time, communicating clearly in writing, paying attention to detail, and working effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. We seek interns with experience using R or the desire to learn. Other valuable interests or experience include but are not limited to: performing outdoor physical work in adverse conditions, computer programming, supervising community scientists, mentoring students, conducting artificial crosses, organizing and curating specimens, automating systems, conducting outreach, growing plants, and identifying insects. If you are interested, please apply and let us know what you can contribute and what you hope to learn!
Applications will be reviewed starting on March 4th, 2025 at 11:59 pm CST and filled on a rolling basis. Salary is commensurate with experience. Housing in Minnesota during the summer is included.
Mia (research intern 2020-2022) harvests porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea)
Send a cover letter, your resume, and a transcript (unofficial OK) in one email to echinaceaProject@gmail.com. Use the subject line: “research intern application” and format your cover letter, resume, and transcript as pdf files. Begin each file name with your surname.
Review of applications will begin on March 4th, 2025 at 11:59 pm CST. We’ll accept applications until the position is filled. Be sure to include an email address and phone number where you can be reached in February.
Members of groups underrepresented in science and those who have had few to no experiences with research are particularly encouraged to apply. Depending on funding, to be eligible for one position you must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or permanent resident of the United States.
More information
First, read about our field season! If you have any questions, contact a team member via e-mail. Read about our lab and field activities on the flog and more about the project’s background. To learn more about fire and prairie plants, check out this video that we made.
Wyatt (intern 2023-2025, center left) and Maddie (intern 2024-2025, upper right) discuss Echinacea pollen and nectar collection with other team members in a prairie remnant
Applications for summer 2024 are closed. Check back next year!
The Echinacea Project is looking for an enthusiastic graduate or soon-to-be graduate for a 12-month paid internship starting in June 2024. We are looking to assemble a team of research interns with diverse skills and interests, and we encourage individuals with a bachelor’s degree in biology, botany, entomology, statistics, computer science, or a related major to apply. We especially encourage those who have had few or no research or training opportunities during college to apply.
This internship is a great opportunity for aspiring ecologists, conservation biologists, and evolutionary biologists to gain research experience and learn about the ecology and evolution of plants and insects in fragmented prairies. Read more general information about our field season!
Abby (research intern 2023) records the spatial location of an Echinacea plant using a GPS unit
Job description
As a research intern, you will contribute to ongoing research on the conservation genetics, reproductive biology, and demography of the prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia. Summer fieldwork occurs in western Minnesota, and greenhouse and lab activities are at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Interns will conduct an independent research project. This project may involve field research, germinating seeds in the lab, organizing and analyzing a dataset, developing computer software, or other activities depending on the intern’s goals and interests. Potential project topics include: flowering phenology, fire ecology, mating compatibility, plant-aphid-ant interactions, plant quantitative genetics, hybridization, software development, and plant-pollinator interactions.
Mia (research intern 2020-2023) harvests porcupine grass (Hesperostipa spartea)
As an intern, you will engage in many aspects of scientific research, outreach, and mentoring. Tasks during the summer include database management, experimental plot management, preparing data to use in the field (such as GPS paths), and discussing science with other interns. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, you will participate in a variety of research and conservation-related activities, attend seminars, and interact closely with conservation scientists, graduate students, interns, researchers, and volunteers associated with Plant Conservation Science at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the graduate program in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern. Interns will spend time managing Echinacea Project volunteers and mentoring students. Tasks with volunteers include teaching protocols, answering science-related questions, and preparing samples so volunteers can collect data. In collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Echinacea Project hosts a number of high school and undergraduate interns over the fall, winter, and spring. Year-long interns will mentor these visiting interns on independent projects and engage them in lab activities.
Desired skills and experience for all applicants include: experience using R, completing tasks independently and on time, communicating clearly in writing, paying attention to detail, and working effectively with people from diverse backgrounds. Other valuable interests or experience include but are not limited to: performing outdoor physical work in adverse conditions, computer programming, supervising community scientists, mentoring students, conducting artificial crosses, organizing and curating specimens, automating systems, conducting outreach, growing plants, and identifying insects. If you are interested, please apply and let us know what you can contribute and what you hope to learn!
Applications will be reviewed starting on 13 March 2024 at 11:59 pm CST and filled on a rolling basis. The salary starts at $16.50/h. Housing in Minnesota during the summer is included.
Send a cover letter, your resume, and a transcript (unofficial OK) in one email to echinaceaProject@gmail.com. Use the subject line: “12-month research intern application” and format your cover letter, resume, and transcript as pdf files. Begin each file name with your surname.
Review of applications will begin on 13March 2024 at 11:59 pm CST. We’ll accept applications until the position is filled. Be sure to include an email address and phone number where you can be reached in March.
You are welcome to apply to multiple positions with the same application. Please indicate which positions you are interested in on the form you submit with your application.
Members of groups underrepresented in science are particularly encouraged to apply. In order to be eligible for this position, you must be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or permanent resident of the United States.
More information
First, read about our field season! If you have any questions, contact a team member via e-mail. Read about our lab and field activities on the flog and more about the project’s background. To learn more about fire and prairie plants, check out this video that we made.
Lindsey (research intern 2022-2023, right center) and Wyatt (research intern 2023, left center) clean Echinacea and Liatris heads with students and volunteers in the lab at the Chicago Botanic Garden
Stuart shows RAHSS participant Shea (2019) how to collect pollen from a flowering Echinacea plant
Applications for summer 2024 are closed. Check back next year!
Are you a high school junior or senior interested in gaining research experience? Do you like working outside and learning about plants and insects? If so, then our research internship may be right for you!
The Echinacea Project has conducted research experiments on tallgrass prairie plants and insects in the Kensington-Hoffman area since 1995. Prairie used to cover this landscape, but it is now restricted to small patches. We devote a lot of effort to Echinacea angustifolia, the species of purple coneflower native to Minnesota. But we also investigate other plants and insects, including native bees, to gauge the health of native prairies in their current fragmented habitat. Plants and insects in these small habitats face both ecological and genetic threats, and we conduct long-term cutting-edge research experiments to assess whether these populations will persist.
We’re seeking a high school student to participate in a paid, summer-long field biology internship. You will work with PhD scientists, graduate students, and college students to collect data on the ecology and evolution of the purple coneflower in prairie patches. You will participate in field research activities, gain experience in GPS and mapping techniques, learn to identify plants and insects, collect pollinating bees, and measure plant traits. You will work on an independent project with guidance from Stuart Wagenius. Your project will contribute to our main research goals, and in the process, you will learn about the evolutionary, genetic, and ecological concepts that motivate our research. You can contribute to the scientific understanding of the ecology and evolutionary biology of Echinacea angustifolia, another prairie plant species, or plant-associated insects.
More information: This opportunity comes with a $540 per week stipend plus partial-to-full reimbursement for commuting. Commuting reimbursements can be paid to the student or the student’s parent or guardian. Participants must provide their own transportation to and from the research base daily (M-F). Our study area comprises 6400 ha (25 square miles) and is based between Kensington & Hoffman. Housing is not included in the internship. The position will start in June and run for 9-10 weeks. If you are interested, please apply!
Qualifications: High school student who wants to work outdoors, is patient, has good hand-eye coordination, and has fine motor skills. You must be willing to work hard in all weather conditions and be interested in science.
How to apply: Fill out the application form (required) and send your resume (optional) to echinaceaproject@gmail.com. Also, ask one of your teachers to email a letter of recommendation on your behalf to the same email. The teacher should be someone who can speak to your character and academic performance; we would prefer that they be a science teacher, but anyone who knows you well is appropriate. Please submit your application by March 6, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST. To ensure that your application is thoroughly considered, submit by the deadline. However, we will review applications until positions are filled.
If you have any questions, contact us via e-mail (echinaceaproject@gmail.com).
Daytona (RAHSS participant 2022) measures the longest leaf of an Echinacea plant. Photo credit: Geena Z
Alexa (RAHSS participant 2023) collects pollen from an Echinacea plant
This week, I have decided on my independent project for the rest of my internship! I will be working with Lilium philadelphicum, wood lily and investigating questions surrounding its pollination and reproduction. I felt more informed on the past research by the Echinacea Project after hearing presentations from Stuart and Jared. Jared further taught me the benefits of fire on prairie ecosystems. Prairie plants are fire dependent and thrive after burns. This is due to the natural landscape and indigenous traditions. It was very interesting to learn about the natural history of our region and how plants grew before impacts of modernization. Results from past research in the lab has shown benefits from prescribed burns on the reproduction of echinacea. This applied conservation method could potentially benefit other fire dependent prairie plants as well! I hope to observe patterns and variation of pollination success in L. philadelphicum. I am currently developing a hypothesis for this project. Later on I will analyze the data set collected by Jared over the summer.
We have already completed inventory of the data set and started on the cleaning process of L. philadelphicum. The fruits of L. philadelphicum can be seen in the picture below. It contains many seeds, some of which are large and dark, others small and lighter in color. We hope to find interesting information through the variation of these seeds. Stay tuned for next week, as I will be working on developing the protocol for cleaning, scanning and counting these seeds.
The fruit/pod of wood lily contains three separate chambers stacked with seeds.
Ideal position for graduates and soon-to-be-graduates interested in plant population biology, evolution, or conservation ecology.
The Echinacea Project is looking for an enthusiastic graduate or soon-to-be graduate for a 12-month paid internship starting in June 2022. We are looking to assemble a team of research interns with diverse skills and interests, and we encourage individuals with a bachelor’s degree in biology, botany, entomology, statistics, computer science, or a related major to apply. This internship is a great opportunity for aspiring ecologists, conservation biologists, and evolutionary biologists to gain research experience and learn about the ecology and evolution of plants in fragmented prairies. Read more general information about our field season!
Mia (research intern 2020-2022) and the field crew finish measuring experimental plot p1!
Job description
As a research intern, you will contribute to ongoing research on the conservation genetics, reproductive biology, and demography of the prairie plant Echinacea angustifolia. Summer fieldwork occurs in western Minnesota, and greenhouse and lab activities are at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Interns will have the opportunity to conduct an independent research project. This project may involve field research, germinating seeds in the lab, organizing and analyzing a dataset, developing computer software, or other activities depending on the intern’s goals and interests. Potential project topics include: flowering phenology, fire ecology, mating compatibility, plant-aphid-ant interactions, plant quantitative genetics, and plant-pollinator interactions.
Alex (research intern 2021-2022) collects demographic data on an Echinacea plant
As an intern, you will engage in many aspects of scientific research, outreach, and mentoring. Tasks during the summer include database management, experimental plot management, preparing data to use in the field (such as GPS paths), and discussing science with other interns. At the Chicago Botanic Garden, you will participate in a variety of research and conservation-related activities, attend seminars, and interact closely with conservation scientists, graduate students, interns, researchers, and volunteers associated with Plant Conservation Science at the Chicago Botanic Garden and the graduate program in Plant Biology and Conservation at Northwestern. Interns will spend time managing Echinacea Project volunteers and mentoring students. Tasks with volunteers include teaching protocols, answering science-related questions, and preparing samples so volunteers can collect data. In collaboration with the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Echinacea Project hosts a number of high school and undergraduate interns over the fall, winter, and spring. Year-long interns will mentor these visiting interns on independent projects and engage them in lab activities.
Desired skills and experience for all applicants include: collecting and managing data, completing tasks independently and on time, conducting experiments, using maps, communicating clearly in writing, paying attention to detail, and working effectively with diverse people, including scientists, volunteers, students, and interns. Additionally, we will assemble a team including interns with complementary skills and interests above and beyond those listed above. Other valuable interests or experience include but are not limited to: performing outdoor physical work in adverse conditions, conducting statistical analyses, computer programming, using R, supervising citizen scientists, mentoring students, conducting artificial crosses, organizing and curating specimens, automating systems, conducting outreach, growing plants, and identifying insects. If you are interested, please apply and let us know what you can contribute!
Applications will be reviewed starting on 3 March 2022 at 12 pm (noon) CST. The salary starts at $15.75/h. Housing in Minnesota during the summer is included.
Send a cover letter, your resume, and a transcript (unofficial OK) in one email to echinaceaProject@gmail.com. Use the subject line: “12-month research intern application” and format your cover letter, resume, and transcript as pdf files. Begin each file name with your surname.
Review of applications will begin on 3 March 2022 at 12 pm (noon) CST. We’ll accept applications until the position is filled. Be sure to include an email address and phone number where you can be reached in March.
You are welcome to apply to multiple positions with the same application. Please indicate which positions you are interested in on the form you submit with your application.
Members of groups underrepresented in science are particularly encouraged to apply.
More information
First, read about our field season! If you have any questions, contact a team member via e-mail. Read about our lab and field activities on the flog and more about the project’s background. To learn more about fire and prairie plants, check out this video that we made.
Mia (research intern 2020-2022), Marty (volunteer), Allen (volunteer), and Stuart clean Echinacea seed heads at the lab
Stuart shows RAHSS participant Shea Issendorf (2019) how to collect pollen from a flowering Echinacea plant
Are you a high school junior or senior interested in gaining research experience? Do you like working outside and learning about plants? If so, then our research internship may be right for you!
The Echinacea Project has conducted research experiments on tallgrass prairie plants and insects in the Kensington-Hoffman area since 1995. Prairie used to cover this landscape, but it is now restricted to small patches. We focus our research on one plant, Echinacea angustifolia, the species of purple coneflower native to Minnesota, to gauge the health of native prairie plants in their current fragmented habitat. Plants in these small habitats face both ecological and genetic threats, and we conduct long-term cutting-edge research experiments to assess whether these populations will persist.
We’re seeking a high school student to participate in a paid, summer-long field biology internship (RAHSS). You will work with PhD scientists, graduate students, and college students to collect data on the ecology and evolution of the purple coneflower in prairie patches. You will participate in field research activities, gain experience in GPS and mapping techniques, learn to identify plants and insects, hand pollinate flowers, and measure plant traits. You will work on an independent project with guidance from Stuart Wagenius. Your project will contribute to our main research goals, and in the process, you will learn about the evolutionary, genetic, and ecological concepts that motivate our research. You can contribute to the scientific understanding of the ecology and evolutionary biology of Echinacea angustifolia, another prairie plant species, or plant-associated insects.
More information: This opportunity comes with a $500 per week stipend plus partial-to-full reimbursement for commuting. Commuting reimbursements can be paid to the student or the student’s parent or guardian. Participants must provide their own transportation to and from the research base daily (M-F). Our study area comprises 6400 ha (25 square miles) and is based between Kensington & Hoffman. Housing is not included in the internship. The position will start in June and run for 9-10 weeks. If you are interested, please apply!
Qualifications: High school student who wants to work outdoors, is patient, has good hand-eye coordination, and has fine motor skills. You must be willing to work hard in all weather conditions and be interested in science.
How to apply: Fill out the application form (required) and send your resume (optional) to echinaceaproject@gmail.com. Also, ask one of teachers to email a letter of recommendation on your behalf to the same email. The teacher should be someone who can speak to your character and academic performance; we would prefer that they be a science teacher, but anyone who knows you well is appropriate. Please submit your application by March 10, 2022 at 12pm (noon) CST. We will start reviewing on March 10, 2022.
If you have any questions, contact us via e-mail (echinaceaproject@gmail.com).
2021 field crew members after flagging experimental plot p2. Left to right: Laura (RAHSS participant), Kennedy (RAHSS participant), John, Emma (RAHSS participant), and Wesley (REU participant)
It’s Emma Greenlee, reporting from Northfield, MN on my presentation at the Winchell Undergraduate Research Symposium! This is a research symposium for students in STEM at Minnesota colleges to present their research, and I presented my work from my independent project with the Echinacea Project last summer (see this flog post for more info!). The symposium was on zoom, naturally this year, and students presented in small groups for 10 minutes each. So pretty low stakes but a really good opportunity to practice presenting to an audience and it held me accountable to finish a few data analysis and visualization things I had been needing to do for my project. This e-conference made me think I could handle and enjoy the real thing, which is cool!
That’s all for me for now, just a month left at Carleton before I’ll be heading to Nevada on a Conservation and Land Management internship doing native seed collection with the Forest Service.
Peace out for now FLOG but I don’t think you’ve heard the last of me yet!
Stuart shows RAHSS participant Shea Issendorf (2019) how to collect pollen from a flowering Echinacea plant
Are you a high school junior or senior interested in gaining research experience? Do you like working outside and learning about plants? If so, then our research internship may be right for you!
The Echinacea Project has conducted research experiments on tallgrass praire plants and insects in the Kensington-Hoffman area since 1995. Prairie used to cover this landscape, but it is now restricted to small patches. We focus our research on one plant, Echinacea angustifolia, the species of purple coneflower native to Minnesota, to gauge the health of native prairie plants in their current fragmented habitat. Plants in these small habitats face both ecological and genetic threats and we conduct long-term cutting edge research experiments to assess whether these populations will persist.
We’re seeking a high school student to participate in a paid, summer-long field biology internship. You will work with PhD scientists, graduate students, and college students to collect data on the ecology and evolution of the purple coneflower in prairie patches. You will participate in field research activities, gain experience in GPS and mapping techniques, learn to identify plants and insects, hand pollinate flowers, and measure plant traits. You will work on an independent project with guidance from Stuart Wagenius. Your project will contribute to our main research goals and, in the process, you will learn about the evolutionary, genetic, and ecological concepts that motivate our research. You can contribute to the scientific understanding of the ecology and evolutionary biology of Echinacea angustifolia, another prairie plant species, or plant associated insects.
More information: This opportunity comes with a $500 per week stipend plus partial-to-full reimbursement for commuting. Commuting reimbursements can be paid to the student or the student’s parent or guardian. Participants must provide their own transportation to and from the research base daily (M – F). Our study area comprises 6400 ha (25 square miles) and is based between Kensington & Hoffman. Housing is not included in the internship. The position will start in mid-June and run for 10 weeks. If you are interested, please apply!
You can read more background information about the research project and what summer field work is like. Check out a recent episode of Prairie Yard & Garden that featured our site. It is called “Prairie Flora: History and Future” — here’s the link: http://goo.gl/qU4bcN
Qualifications: High school student who wants to work outdoors, is patient, and has good hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skill. You must be willing to work hard in all weather conditions, and be interested in science.
How to apply: Fill out the following form (required) and send your resume (optional) to echinaceaproject@gmail.com. Also, ask one of teachers to email a letter of recommendation on your behalf to the same email. The teacher should be someone who can speak to your character and academic performance; we would prefer that they be a science teacher, but anyone who knows you well is appropriate. Get your application & letter in soon. We will start reviewing on March 5, 2021.
If you have any questions, contact us via e-mail (echinaceaproject@gmail.com).
The 2019 field crew after planting Echinacea seedlings at a local high school Left to right: Riley, John (RET participant,) Julie (REU participant,) Shea (RAHSS participant,) Drake, Jay (REU participant) and Erin (above.)
Hi again, it’s Emma––it’s been three weeks already and I’ve finished the majority of data analysis for my independent project! I presented about it at our lab meeting this morning and it was good to show what I’ve learned to the team and to get some helpful feedback.
To summarize my experiment’s goal, I was investigating whether there are differences in microhabitat between areas with surviving Echinacea seedlings and areas where Echinacea seedlings established but have died. This involved collecting data on site characteristics like litter depth, vegetation cover, slope, aspect, distance to roads and fields, plant community composition, and floral neighborhood at circles where seedlings monitored in the Sling project sprouted between 2007-2013. After analyzing my data, I can report that I found no differences in microhabitat between living and dead seedlings, and that I did not find differences in survival by prairie remnant, either. This suggests that the microhabitat variables I collected data on are likely not the most important factors driving seedling survival and mortality in this long-lived prairie perennial plant. Instead I propose that other factors, like climate, soil moisture & nutrients, pesticide drift, light limitation, herbivory, and genetics, may have greater impact on whether seedlings establish or die. Luckily the Sling project is ongoing and members of Team Echinacea are working to find out what drives seedling fitness in fragmented Echinacea populations!
I learned a LOT about doing data analysis in R during this project. I’m super grateful to Mia and Stuart for all the help they gave me when I had questions about R during the internship! The highlights probably are learning about, and doing, some multivariate analysis and using the R package vegan. It was so cool getting to create my own NMDS and species accumulation graphs after seeing them in many ecology papers I’ve read. From here I plan to do a few final analyses and edits with the intention of presenting my project findings at an ecology conference next summer.
That’s all from me for now! Stay tuned for a groovy poster…
It’s Emma Greenlee back for part 2 of my independent project, data analysis! My project draws from the Sling project, in which Team Echinacea annually tracks the survival of Echinacea seedlings that originated between 2006-2013 for an extensive record of survival and mortality in these seedlings. During my internship with the Echinacea Project this past summer I collected data in the hopes of finding out whether Sling seedling survival varies with microhabitat characteristics. Now that Carleton is on our 6-week-long winter break, I’m analyzing that microhabitat data with the goal of putting together a poster to present at an ecology conference next summer.
After a week of working on this, starting from a fairly low level of R knowledge, I have learned a lot and feel like I’m still very early in the process. I started the week doing some R tutorials and lessons and checked in with Mia daily on Zoom to talk about any questions I had. She set up a nice outline to help me get started and has been really helpful, so shout out to Mia! I have spent most of my time cleaning my data, which is separated into two data sets, one containing microhabitat data on litter depth, vegetation cover, slope, aspect, distance to roads and fields, and plant community composition in each sling circle, and the other containing records of all flowering species and number of inflorescences at each sling circle. Once it’s formatted how I want I will start some exploratory data analysis, hopefully at the start of next week.
I also got to go to the Echinacea Project’s zoom lab meeting this morning, where the group discussed an outline for the introduction to the sling paper Lea is working on. It was nice to see everyone, and to hear about how the sling research will translate to papers and the kinds of decisions that are involved in thinking about how to set up a research paper. This morning there was also a seminar put on by the CBG where speakers representing Plants of Concern, restoration research at the garden, the Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie seedbank, and Budburst presented a little about their projects and how other collaborators can get involved. A common theme among the presenters was an emphasis on citizen science and even “community science,” a term I hadn’t heard before but thought was awesome.
Just looking at the vegan package for R made me feel like a real ecologist this week, looking forward to continuing to build on what I know next week.
