Green Oaks Term has been described as a seamless web connecting academic life, solitude, group activity, and the practical challenges of daily living. Offered once every two years during spring term, the term offers 12 students the opportunity to reside at DeWitt Brown Research Center at Knox's Green Oaks Biological Field Station.

Studentsdescribee the 10-week experience as their "best term at Knox," and "a life changing experience" and emphasize its role in the growth and development of their world views. "I went out with few expectations and accomplished more than I thought I could have. I learned so much from my professors, peers, and nature," commented one student. "We learned, we interacted, we invented, we submersed ourselves in our studies. It was a full term. My only complaint is that it didn't seem long enough."

Green Oaks, which is located about a half hour's drive from Knox's main campus in Galesburg, is home to several different habitats, including tallgrass prairie, old growth oaks, second-growth oak-hickory forest, strip-mined lands, lakes, and streams, all of which offer students a natural and social setting as well as a context for artistic creativity.

During their ten weeks at Green Oaks, students are immersed in an interdisciplinary curriculum taught by Knox faculty from three different academic departments. Guest speakers and field trips are common supplements. Green Oaks alumni have applied their experiences at the Field Station to Knox honors projects, postgraduate studies in several academic disciplines, artistic projects, Peace Corps work, and employment in fields ranging from landscape design to public science education.