Resources

Supporting Success in Biology

Knox College's biology program gives you access to state-of-the-art facilities -- and hands-on use of them early in your Knox career -- to ensure success in graduate school and careers in biology.

Hunter Biology Wing
Located in Umbeck Science-Mathematics Center, (affectionately referred to as "SMAC" around campus), the 24,000 square foot Hunter Biology Wing is devoted entirely to extensive facilities for biology classes, lab sessions and student and faculty research projects.

In the Hunter Biology Wing, every biology class has dedicated laboratory space -- which means you can set up your lab projects and return to them without having to close up shop each time. You'll work with scanning electron microscopes and electron transmission microscopes, possibly as early as your first year at Knox -- an opportunity unrivaled by institutions of Knox's size.

Research Centers
Our special research centers provide students and faculty engaged in research access to state-of-the-art equipment.

• The Center for Microscopy is a complete microscopy lab that holds transmission and scanning electron microscopes, a time-lapse video/Nomarski microscope, a darkroom and host of specimen preparation equipment.
• The Center for Cell and Tissue Culture
• The Center for Cell and Molecular Biology

Other Resources
Knox students also have hands-on access to:

• The Ellen Browning Scripps Greenhouse, which contains an excellent collection of exotic plants used for teaching. It also offers space for student research projects.
• The Natural History Collection, consisting of The Knox College Herbarium, which holds plants that were present when Illinois' settlers arrived in the 1830's-1870's -- one of the best such collections in the state.
• The Hurd Museum, which contains more than 1,000 specimens of vertebrate animals from Illinois and around the world. The museum has an especially strong collection of local birds and mammals.
• And an aviary -- an excellent facility for behavioral research on birds, which consists of separate holding and testing rooms.

Green Oaks Field Station
One of the most unique educational resources at Knox is Green Oaks Field Station, a 700-acre preserve located just 18 miles from campus -- a distance derivable within one lab period.

Green Oaks includes several different habitats, from prairie to woodland to lakes and streams, and is ideal for both botanical and wildlife ecology. It is the site of one of the nation's oldest prairie restoration projects. Throughout the year, students conduct research projects at Green Oaks on everything from tree diversity to birds, coyotes, fish diversity, beavers, deer, and fungus -- it indeed becomes their "outdoor lab."