Collaborative for Socio-Ecological Engagement News
Category: Education
Beneath the Forest Floor: Discovering Mushrooms and Mycelium at Saint Edward State Park
Each fall, the forests at Saint Edward State Park come alive in quiet but fascinating ways. Beneath the leaves and fallen logs, networks of fungi are at work—breaking down organic matter, supporting plant life, and connecting entire ecosystems below the forest floor. During CoSEE’s second annual Mushroom Walk, students gathered at the Environmental Education and...
November 30, 2025
Learning from the Water: Environmental Exploration with the Alyssa Burnett Center
Students from the Alyssa Burnett Center visit the EERC to investigate watersheds, water quality, and macroinvertebrates through hands-on environmental learning. At the Environmental Education and Research Center (EERC), partnerships with community organizations are an essential part of how the Collaborative for Socio-Ecological Engagement (CoSEE) connects people to environmental learning. One of CoSEE’s longest-standing and most...
September 30, 2025
Community partnerships spawn salmon education for local park
Students, faculty and staff collaborate to bring new signage and geocaching tours to O.O. Denny Park in Kirkland, Washington. As any good outdoor enthusiast knows, the first rule of exploring nature is: “Leave no trace.” There are, however, the occasional exceptions to this principle — such as when small, human-made additions to wild places raise...
August 28, 2025
A passion for pollinators
In her capstone project, senior Katrina Briggs blends citizen science and a love of pollinators in “Bee Monitoring 101.” In healthy, functioning ecosystems, every species has a role to play. From the clams that filter ocean water to the predators that keep prey species in check, biodiversity is what makes life on Earth possible. And...
June 5, 2025
A more meaningful map
Student-led mapping effort in Saint Edward State Park forges deeper connections between the land and the communities — both human and non — that rely on it. On a soggy Saturday in March, more than 30 volunteers gathered in Kenmore’s Saint Edward State Park to help re-map the trails that wind through the popular green...
April 11, 2025
Stories that turn climate anxiety into hope
Students in a Discovery Core class harness the power of storytelling to teach ecology to the next generation. A bear named Bingo wanders the temperate rainforest of Cascadia, looking for his mother. As he moves through trees and along rivers and ponds, he encounters other local inhabitants: Olivia Owl, Frank the Frog and Seth the...
January 16, 2025
When a park becomes a classroom
In first-ever class at the Environmental Education and Research Center, students conduct research with an eye for conserving biodiversity in urban green spaces. Early in his career as an ecologist, Dr. David Stokes, like many at the time, wanted to understand how ecosystems functioned in pristine conditions away from human influence. In Patagonia, South America,...
April 12, 2024
From the forest to the lab: High schoolers get hands-on learning in environmental workshop
Students from UW Bothell and local high schools explore stream biology, geomorphology and more on campus and at the Environmental Education & Research Center. Gathering in labs, woods and creeks — and working alongside recent graduates from the University of Washington Bothell — local high school students spent two weeks this summer learning about science...
August 24, 2023
Our home in the forest
Our Home in the Forest, a Discovery Core class at the University of Washington Bothell this autumn quarter, stretches the boundaries of what constitutes a classroom. Not content to study nature at a distance, the faculty leaders and their students went from learning in a typical 900-square-foot room with white walls and carpet flooring to a 326-acre...
December 20, 2021
