Public Service and Outreach at The Odum School of Ecology
Solving pressing environmental issues in Georgia and beyond
The Odum School is committed to serving the state of Georgia—and the rest of the world—by using ecological expertise to develop practical solutions to pressing societal and environmental issues. The cutting-edge research conducted by our faculty, staff and students is motivated by a desire to address real-world problems in fields like human health, water supply, agriculture and conservation.
A trusted partner
We build collaborative relationships with government agencies, non-governmental organizations and local communities. Our goal is to be a trusted partner that can reliably deliver timely answers and useful solutions while simultaneously training students and advancing scientific understanding.
If you’re interested in partnering with the Odum School, contact Seth Wenger, Director of Public Service and Outreach, at [email protected].
Engaged students
Ecology undergraduate and graduate students are central to the school’s public service and outreach efforts. The student-run EcoReach program offers environmental educational activities in local K-12 classrooms and at community science events. Odum students provide lessons and hands-on activities on topics such as conservation, biodiversity and natural history.
The Odum School also engages both undergraduate and graduate students in service-learning courses that give students the opportunity to apply their ecological knowledge to real-world problems in collaboration with external partners.
Would you like to visit the Odum School with your K-12 class or have EcoReach volunteers come to your classroom? We’d love to connect with you! To start, please fill out this form: https://uga.questionpro.com/t/AcfiYZ75xR
Hub for broader connections
The Odum School is home to two centers that provide connections with the broader university community.
The River Basin Center connects water-related expertise at UGA to management and policy. It has more than 80 faculty affiliates from 20+ UGA units—including engineering, environmental design, geography, anthropology and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, among many others—addressing issues such as sustainable water supply, flood resilience, freshwater conservation and more.
The Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases seeks solutions to the ecological problems of disease transmission and evolution, developing innovative techniques and collaborative approaches that draw on numerous disciplines including agriculture, communications studies, data science, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, economics, machine learning, mathematics and sociology.
Service and Outreach News
-
EcoReach gets kids (and their parents) to connect with science
Odum School’s student-run outreach program embraces creepy, crawly, and sometimes gross themes to pique interest in ecology.
-
How much water is enough? UGA research helps balance needs for the Flint
The River Basin Center and American Rivers collaborate with local water utilities and others in South Metro Atlanta and Central Georgia to balance upstream needs for drinking water with downstream needs for wildlife, recreation and agriculture.
-
Wildlife cameras capture critters from suburb to farm to forest
Residents across Athens are getting a peek at the wildlife in their own backyards.