News Archives
Rieth Village about to Buzz with May Term Activity
At least twenty-four Goshen College students will call Rieth Village home during the month of May, as they come to study either environmental education or ecology.
Paul
Steury’s Bio340 class attracts primarily elementary education majors
eager to learn to share outdoor experiences with their future classes. Bio340
students study natural history and assist in delivering school programs
such as Exploring Nature, Rock Cycle, Water Quality and Wetlands. Richard
Louv’s Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit
Disorder is a key text. The group will also consider the impact of No Child
Left Behind legislation on environmental education and become familiar with
corrective measures such as the No Child Left Inside Act.
Ryan Sensenig, chair of the environmental science department at Goshen
College, will teach the ecology 
course. His
ten ecology students will make good use of Merry Lea’s 1,150-acres.
Their fieldwork includes mist-netting for birds, water testing via canoe,
sampling tall-grass prairie vegetation and trapping small mammals. In one
behavioral ecology lab, they will test optimal foraging theory.
Each morning, the group will enjoy "Coffee & Nature Writing" discussions during which they will read and discuss poetry, short stories or natural history essays chosen and presented by a student. “I want to emphasize learning about the natural world in ways that speak to the spirit as well as the mind,” Sensenig says.
All students living at Rieth Village receive a tour of the buildings’ sustainable features and are challenged to think about lifestyle issues.
Merry Lea’s Eco-Career Day Demonstrates Job Options
How do people with degrees or interest in environmental science earn a living? About sixty high school juniors and seniors had a chance to research this question Friday, April 18 at Merry Lea’s annual Eco-Career Day.
The students, who hailed from Churubusco and Fort Wayne, IN, met a conservation officer, a forester, a water-testing professional from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, an environmental educator from the Indiana Dunes, a green architect, an agroecologist and a man who has honed his passion for primitive skills into a profession.
Later, participants chose between a bird banding workshop, a tour of Rieth Village or an opportunity to find macro-invertebrates and test the water quality at Merry Lea’s Kesling Wetland. Even those not planning on environmental careers appreciated the balmy day outside of a classroom.
Krista Daniels of the Elkhart County Parks system explains the effect of manure spreading and nutrient run-off on wetlands before turning her Eco-Career group loose with dip nets. (left)
Eric Vosteen, primitive skills instructor, demonstrates the effectiveness
of a stone axe. (below) 
Students visit the constructed wetlands below Rieth Village and learn about wastewater treatment. (below)
Full-time Recess Students Share Snake Stories
One highlight of Merry Lea’s weeklong day-camp for elementary children on spring break, March 31-April 4, was the chance to talk snakes with a herpetologist.
John
Rowe, post-doctoral researcher at Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, spent
a morning sharing his passion for reptiles with five first and second graders
from the Wolf Lake area. The children got a chance to hold Merry Lea’s
resident northern water snake and ask questions.
“How does a snake breathe underwater?” a child asked when the snake was returned to the pool in its tank. Rowe explained that the snake holds its breath like we do, but can stay underwater longer than we can.
The group observed that the snake looked prettier when wet, with the water
bringing out the rich striped pattern of its scales. The children also learned
that that snakes in northern climates like Indiana’s are usually dark
colored. This enables them to warm up more quickly
.
Later, Rowe told the group that snakes sometimes live in crayfish burrows and took the children outdoors to look for some burrows. It was too cold for snakes to be active, but the group was able to hear the comb sound of chorus frogs and the persistent chirp of spring peepers.
“So what is your favorite kind of snake?” Rowe asked as the group munched their cheese stick snacks sitting on the log seats near the Mary’s Meadow temporary pond. Not every adult could answer this question with a straight face, but the children took Rowe seriously.
“I like anacondas,” one boy replied thoughtfully. The girl next
to him had been won over by the northern water snake.
“I have three favorites,” another child confided, wavering between
cobras and pythons.
“It’s hard to decide, isn’t it?” Rowe agreed. “I
like them all.”