Bosque School students dive deeply into understanding the Rio Grande and its riverside forest, the bosque. Bosque School, in partnership with the University of New Mexico (UNM) Department of Biology, directs the
Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program (BEMP). This 20+ year collaboration provides Bosque School students with unparalleled opportunities for discovery in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM). Starting in 6th grade, Bosque students gather data from the forest that sits adjacent to the school. This student-collected data, published through BEMP’s UNM office, are used by natural resource management agencies to inform multi-million dollar decisions about bosque care and restoration. In BEMP, middle school students challenge expectations about how even students their age can make a difference in their community.
As students move into upper school, their research and contributions to BEMP become more complex. Several Bosque high school students illustrated and wrote BEMP
children’s books and zines that are now used throughout BEMP’s network of thousands of students to teach about environmental issues. Bosque upper school students routinely conduct original research in partnership with labs at UNM. Recently two students determined the genetic distinctness of a population of Rio Grande chub, a fish of ecological concern; another took hair samples from urban coyotes and used stable isotope analysis to look at the diet of that often misunderstood carnivore. A Bosque School education challenges students to take on meaningful and significant projects through opportunities like BEMP, and caring faculty provide the scaffolding necessary for student success.