Cowling Arboretum is foremost an outdoor classroom for students of Carleton College.  Used by all disciplines and majors, it has been the subject of art field drawing classes, english natural history essays, ENTS capstones, philosophy senior comps papers, and the biological analyses of differing carbon accumulation rates between various aged prairie restorations.  In addition to student work, several Carleton faculty are engaged in ongoing studies of prairie restoration dynamics as compared to native, unplowed prairie remnants.