Living in the Lab
Juniata Environmental Science Students Explore the Environment 24/7
If a group of students spends an entire semester taking classes in the woods, does it make an impression?
"We are learning beyond the walls of the classroom setting, but also bonding with the professors who teach us every day. We are eating with them, talking with them and doing research with them on a daily basis," says Adam Truax '09, a senior from Hagerstown, Md. studying environmental science. "No other college can top that."
Adam and eight other students are indeed exploring forests, navigating lakes and delving deep into the biodiversity of what could be one of the largest outdoor classroom in higher education - all as part of the College's newest science program "Semester at the Raystown Field Station." "Any students who are looking to do research or would just like a semester away from the College without going abroad could use this as an additional option," says Nicole McCloskey '09, a sophomore from Gallitzin, Pa.
Juniata's marketing efforts have long touted that few colleges have an 8,300-acre lake next to its campus, and Juniata is perhaps the only college or university (and certainly the only undergraduate program) in the country to offer students a chance to live in the great outdoors (well, actually in nicely appointed residence lodges) while studying courses specifically designed to take advantage of the spectacular surroundings of Raystown Lake.
For hands-on and experiential learning, education experts understand that, as in real estate, the most important thing is location, location, location. "If you take a class in biology, you often don't go beyond the classroom or laboratory door," says environmental scientist Dennis Johnson. "Our intent here is to present courses that are loosely interwoven in order for the students to realize not only the intricacies of the environment, but also their own place in the environment."
The curriculum for the semester-long experience includes four main courses as well as several electives or seminars, all taught using the natural habitat of the area around the lake. The students live at the field station in the newly constructed Davis and Robison lodges. Schedules are fluid. Some courses meet regularly two or three days a week for the entire semester, while others may meet for three- or four-hour sessions once a week for 10 weeks.
Johnson has adapted a seminar approach to his course, titled "A Sense of Place." A variety of faculty, or "guest stars" as Johnson calls them, will teach modules on how humans and nature have interacted over time in the Raystown area. For example, Sharon Yohn '99, co-director of the field station, illustrated how water quality affects the balance of the habitat, while geologist Larry Mutti illuminated how the landscape of the area was formed. Other topics discussed included biodiversity (biologist John Matter) and wildlife impacts (environmental scientist Uma Ramakrishnan). Specialists in forest management and literature also staff modules. Juniata alumnus Rob Kruchoski '04, a partner in Axis Research, an archaeology firm in James Creek, Pa., will teach a section on excavating rock shelters in the area that are thousands of years old. "Eventually, I would like to see us form partnerships with other institutions to bring in their faculty and also other students to be part of the semester," Johnson says.
"Studying all semester at the station is an incredibly unique opportunity that is not available at many other places."
"The field station is why I came to Juniata," says Alex Metcalf '01, now a doctoral student in forest management at Penn State University (he will teach a module on forest management). "Studying all semester at the station is an incredibly unique opportunity that is not available at many other places."
Paula Martin, assistant provost and professor of environmental science, will teach the "Sustainability" course. "We want students to realize that sustainability is not just a scientific method or political policy," she says. "We are taking a world view that goes beyond environmental impact and addresses social equity and economic welfare."
Martin illustrates how the students can see global impacts through examining local problems and showing how a water quality pollution problem could drastically harm Raystown Lake's fish population, which in turn would end the lake's popularity as a fishing mecca. The collapse of fishing would directly damage many local businesses-from bait shops to hotels to restaurants. She adds that students will also explore energy sustainability through field trips to a local solar energy cell plant, a nearby wind generation center, and a visit to a home that is "off the grid." The entire class also will attend a sustainability conference held at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa.
Martin plans to have the students buy their own deep-sea fishing fleets-actually, they will use a computer simulation game called Fishbanks, a module designed to give students insight into globalsustainability. Martin and other faculty also asked students to keep a journal of their time at the field station. The capstone for the sustainability experience will focus on a project tracing how a local, regional or global problem can move toward sustainability.
"It's really exciting to break the mold of how I've been teaching for 15 years to try new things," she explains.
No semester outdoors is complete without a Juniata student mapping something using the state-of-the-art Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and environmental scientist Neil Pelkey's "Geographic Methods" will go beyond previous College mapping opportunities. "Usually GIS classes go out and perform a single data-collection event that is always during the day," Pelkey explains. "The 'residence in the wild' will allow students to track animal movement at night, record seasonal changes on a daily basis, and have nature suggest hypotheses that would never arise within the four walls of a lecture hall."
Pelkey's course opens with three two-day GIS "camps" in which students get a crash course in mapping techniques within the first five weeks, followed by detailed individual projects. They also will tackle remote sensing, which uses satellites and other sensors to determine geographic characteristics, and close-range photogrammetry, that uses digital photography to model streams three-dimensionally.
In addition, Pelkey is teaching a course on environmetrics, which applies statistics to environmental studies. Both courses will use virtual network computing, allowing Pelkey and the students to see each other's computer anywhere on the College network. "It's energizing and a little scary, but it creates an interesting mix of education methods combining the up-close and-personal with the cyber campus," he says.
Personal interaction is what drives the fourth major course, "Learning Communities." Taught by Celia Cook-Huffman, professor of conflict resolution, and Lynn Cockett, assistant professor of communication, the course centers on a simple question: how do individuals exist and function within a community? Cook-Huffman and Cockett say getting the students away from the main campus will be an integral part of the educational experience. "They are a community whether they want to be one or not," Cook-Huffman says. "The fact is that they really are isolated from the campus. What's exciting for us is that we have no idea what's going to happen because students have never done this before. The expectation is that it will be a culture shock, but we don't know that."
The course will center on a series of group exercises and projects designed to foster group building and group communication. Students are asked to self-evaluate their role withein the group and analyze how the community functions. One mode of analysis uses films of group interaction, allowing students to analyze their own behavior. "It sort of sounds like (television reality show) 'Big Brother' but this is very exciting for us as teachers because we have worked with a number of established groups with a sense of belonging," Cook-Huffman says. "This community is starting from scratch. They're not walking into a history. In years to come there will be a story or traditions, but starting a group without an established identity is really interesting to me."
Certainly the stories and traditions carried back to campus from the inaugural Semester at the Field Station are likely to promote interest among freshmen and sophomores, but the educational lessons delivered via new methods and outside of a traditional classroom already have generated buzz beyond the campus. "One of the experiences you often don't get at the undergraduate level is that in the classroom everything looks good on paper, but when you get in the field it doesn't always work out neatly," says Chris Rosenberry '92, deer management section supervisor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. "To spend a semester out there at the field station is an experience I'm almost jealous of. To be in close proximity to the research and class work is invaluable experience, especially to employers."