Partners in Fieldwork: Connecting With Nature in the Classroom—and Beyond

The school year is in full swing. High school students are immersed in the learning process, getting to know their teachers, learning how best get around high school hallways, filling their Chromebooks with new texts and notes about upcoming assignments, and figuring out how to integrate their personal and academic lives as best they can. These are formative years for many teens, who will take what they learn both in and out of their classrooms and apply them to the rest of their lives.

For a lucky few, the academic year will include something a touch out of the ordinary, offering a unique experience in science education. This is Partners in Fieldwork, a special program that teaches scientific inquiry in a hands-on way. It’s taking place now at schools across the Chicago area.

Budding Researchers

PIF teaches science students in grades 9–12 how to conduct research while connecting them with nature, helping them learn about Chicago wildlife, and exploring conservation issues. Lincoln Park Zoo provides resources to teachers (through two workshops in the fall and winter) and students, including supplies, expertise, field trips, and an end-of-school-year expo showcasing exciting real research projects the teens have created.

High school students visiting Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo. Photo courtesy of Rosie Arnold.

For students who want to make a difference or build a future in conservation, it can be a life-changing experience. And even for those who aren’t planning careers in science, PIF can be valuable in teaching what research and the scientific process actually looks like as well as understanding the wildlife in their neighborhood ecosystems.

Teachers also benefit by gaining experience on how to use inquiry in science classrooms and developing confidence in connecting curriculum to real-world phenomena. They receive a small stipend and teaching credits for completing the program. And PIF is free for schools that are accepted into the program each year.

“PIF provides such an important learning experience for students and teachers in Chicago,” says Rosie Arnold, Senior Manager of Formal Programs at Lincoln Park Zoo. “I think the program’s ability to help students connect science concepts to real things they can experience and observe is key to its success. My favorite day of the year is when students get to showcase their research, which is completely driven by their own questions about the wildlife in our ecosystem.”

Observation and Exploration

Each spring, teachers apply to join the program. In August, they meet for the first time to learn how the program will work. During the school year, students start by coming to the zoo to experience urban wildlife like the animals they’ll study over the course of the year. Another optional field trip later on takes them to a local natural area to collect additional data.

Student & Teacher Programs Facilitator Niki Melnick talks to students at Kenwood Academy as part of the PIF program.

Then, the students spend at least two to four hours per month working on PIF in their schools. Zoo experts provide support through four classroom visits that take place from September to April. The visits focus on observation, data collection and analysis, and dissemination, as well as conservation topics. The zoo representative explains the work and helps classrooms collect observational data throughout the school year. This involves putting up wildlife cameras at each school, going birdwatching, sampling water sources, and setting up equipment to record bats. So, classroom sessions may include instruction or identifying and verifying animals that have been caught on the wildlife cameras or teaching teens how to examine data and create graphs. In the spring, all the collected data is organized into a database that includes other sites, such as the ones at other schools in the program.

Once that data is collated, students split into small groups and decide on a research project that will utilize the data collected. For example, they may ask questions about how often animals are seen or which species of birds are in the area. They might correlate the data with statistics such as local income or population diversity. Then, they sort through the data to answer the questions, make research posters, and create a presentation for their fellow students. Each May, teachers also choose a select number of these students to present at an expo held at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Emilia de la Torre from Evanston Township High School gives a presentation at the PIF Conservation Expo.

A Stepping Stone for Scientists

Former PIF participant Sophia Speller, a South Shore native who is majoring in Biology and Chemistry at Xavier University, explained that her project explored how roadways impacted the wildlife in her region; she and her partner wanted to discover if there was a correlation between traffic and biodiversity.

“Some schools were really close to I-55, and some closer to DuSable Lake Shore Drive or I-90/94, so we were able to compare data. We found a traffic database, compared it to animal density, and basically found that the more traffic, the less biodiversity. But with Lake Shore Drive, there was less of a correlation because there are green areas and beaches and plant biodiversity nearby which you don’t necessarily get elsewhere, so other factors were in play,” she explained.

For Speller, the program was valuable because it allowed her to learn what it’s like to do real research in natural ecosystems, which are so interconnected. And being chosen to give her presentation at Lincoln Park Zoo yielded additional benefits. “It was a really good boost in confidence,” she said. “The expo itself forced me to get good at networking, talking to adults and people my age, and getting out of my comfort zone. It made me more motivated to continue going into this field.”

Former PIF student Sophia Speller, pictured at her Cornell University internship from summer 2025. Image courtesy of Sophia Speller.

She hopes in the future to work in environmental science or plant science with a focus on climate change—and her experience in PIF has helped her with skills she’ll need for that career.

Kerry Maxwell, a Chicago Public Schools teacher who has participated in PIF as part of different schools over her 22-year career, now teaches at Lindblom Math and Science Academy in the Englewood neighborhood. Her middle school students, who are taking ninth-grade level Biology classes, are in this year’s program. She says, “Students don’t always know very much about the wildlife around them—they don’t really pay attention to it. So they’re getting a knowledge of the urban wildlife that’s around them. They’re gaining an appreciation for it and learning what leads to a healthy, sustainable ecosystem for both wildlife and humans. They start to appreciate more how these can work together in a city. They also gain empathy and maybe learn to care a bit more.”

Maxwell adds that she reaps benefits as well. She definitely pays more attention to the birds around her, as do her co-teachers. “There’s a thread between what we do as science teachers and what’s happening with scientists, all tied together with a theme of conservation—the benefits of green spaces, ecosystems working together,” she says. “It’s important, no matter who you are. People in neighborhoods deserve these types of spaces, and wildlife deserve these types of spaces. So when you’re paying attention to stuff that’s right around you, you can kind of expand out. It becomes part of what you’re thinking about all the time.”

Lindblom Math and Science Academy students at the 2024–2025 PIF Conservation Expo. Photo courtesy of Kerry Maxwell.

For more information on Partners in Fieldwork, visit the webpage. And if you’re a teacher, make plans to sign up next year! Applications will open in the spring.