Help Equip the Next Generation of Scientists

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When many of us think back to our science classrooms, we picture that room full of test tubes, beakers and Bunsen burners.

But what if your classroom was a coastline where you — waist-deep in your waders — would learn about water quality right in the waters surrounding you? Or what if your classroom was a research vessel where you’d discover biology firsthand as you pull up nets full of fish in the middle of Lake Erie?

For students who go to Stone Laboratory — The Ohio State University's island campus on Lake Erie — that amazing lake is their classroom and that amazing hands-on science experience is Stone Lab. 

Stone Laboratory in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) has been offering science classes to students from around the country since 1900. From aquatic biology and birds to water quality management and fish ecology, Stone Lab students are immersed in hands-on science every summer.  

For younger kids, the lab offers students in grades 5-12 an overnight field trip loaded with outdoor activities where they can learn firsthand what it takes to be a Lake Erie scientist.

These Stone Lab experiences have been the reason why so many of our students have become scientists.

Such an example is Alex Kushnir, an environmental science major in the CFAES School of Environment and Natural Resources, who received a full summer scholarship last year as a “Semester at Stone Lab” student and came back this summer with a research fellowship to lead cutting-edge science alongside top scientists. Now she wants to be the researcher who keeps our drinking water clean.

Or Dr. Aaron Wibberley whose Stone Lab research experience helped spark him to go to medical school and is now an emergency medicine physician in Chicago.

We want to bring more science to more students and we need your help to do it.

Please give today so more students like Alex can get the gear and scholarships they need and Stone Lab can continue to be a place where all students — no matter their background — can find their inspiration. 

Make your gift today and proudly say that you helped spark the next generation of scientists!