by Kate Stoltzfus 1. Everything is cuter. I want to use the word quaint every twenty seconds, and this is coming from a girl who had used that word maybe five times in her life thus far. The crammed brick houses, with their red front doors, are quaint. The double decker buses are quaint. The winding … Keep reading »
Archives for May 2013
Research Projects Begin!
Today we went to the field in both the morning and afternoon for snorkeling in order for students to begin their independent research projects. On Monday evening each group presented their research proposals to the class and we were able to discuss, advise, and brainstorm the best methodologies for each experimental question. The research … Keep reading »
History of the Southwest: Native American Representations
Welcome to Southwest History! During this course, we’ll visit Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico to learn about the history of Native Americans in the Southwest over the past thousand years. We’ll also investigate a critical issue in public history: how a community is represented and who gets to decide what is represented. We will visit museums and heritage … Keep reading »
Arrival to Wilderness Wind and Environmental Ethics
The bus ride was long, but the students arrived in Ely, Minnesota without incident. After getting to the camp and taking a brief tour before dinner, we were ready to begin formal classes. We first received the syllabus, which included rubrics for various tasks, assignments and projects for each of the students. Each of us … Keep reading »
First Shots of London
After my first overseas flight, we finally landed at London’s Heathrow airport. Having no time to sit and rest we started tours led by our group leaders. We visited a variety of places, all preparing us to navigate the city on our own (which later came in handy after getting lost in the Liverpool … Keep reading »
The Greatness of Being
Hello from across the pond! Today marks the 6th day we’ve been away from the US and our 5th day in London. Once we arrived in the city we launched onto a tour of our immediate surroundings around the hotel, following that up the next day with a more full tour of London’s performing arts … Keep reading »
Canoeing Technique and Rescue
Today is the last day we will be in Goshen before driving to Minnesota in the morning. Everyone in the group met at noon today to have their gear checked. Our group leader, Val Hershberger, knows a great deal about different pieces of gear and clothing. Apart from the clothing for our time of service … Keep reading »
Am I Dreaming, or am I in London?
Arriving in a foreign country is always surreal. The magic of contemporary media gives us endless access to photos and videos from nearly anywhere in the world; but until you visit a place, those images will be about as a “real” to you as the CGI dragon at the end of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movie. … Keep reading »
Get the Gear!
I don’t get away from civilization terribly often, but I love to escape into nature whenever I get the chance. Especially as a college student, I find my time constantly consumed with assignments, technology, and plain old-fashioned busyness. The semester is over, and now is my chance for escape. For this year’s May Term, I … Keep reading »
Copepods, angel fish, and sponge crabs
Friday morning we explored the microscopic world of the marine system. After a lecture on the epipelagic zone we completed several plankton tows to better understand the base of the marine food chain. While not the megafauna that most tourists come to see in the Keys, without the copepods, diatoms, dinoflagellates, and other microscopic critters … Keep reading »