Blackburn’s Biology Department features state-of-the-art indoor labs as well as access to thousands of acres on private and public land for hands-on experiences for our students. In addition, throughout your time at Blackburn, our faculty work side-by-side with students in the classroom, labs, outdoor learning environments and conducting research.

Faculty also provide field work experiences and opportunities off campus and around the region. Recent examples include participation in hands-on wildlife activities at the Illinois Chapter of The Wildlife Society Annual Meeting held at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, IL where students participated in two standout workshops: an in the field Rocket-Netting experience and a Duck Wing ID workshop. Another experience was an adventure to Principia College where students collaborated with Dr. Scott Eckert and Andrew Jesper on Timber rattlesnake research, scaling a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Students assisted in collecting data, handling venomous snakes under strict safety protocols, and releasing the animals back into the wild after implanting PIT tags and recording measurements. Another adventure took students to the Ozark River Field Station run by Missouri College of Science and Technology in Rolla Missouri, where students camped overnight and participated in many field data collection activities and learned several new in-the-field techniques.