MESSAGES FROM THE FACULTY
Before Bruce Selleck left with the Wales study group he asked me if I would act as geology chair while he was gone. So this spring things have been hectic.
In addition to teaching geochemistry and a new course called environmental economic geology this semester (lots of fun, but lots of work), I've been administering Colgate's 5-year, $1,000,000 Howard Hughes Medical Institute grant for improving science education on campus and in the local public schools. There is a big push today for more hands-on science in the schools, even at the elementary levels down to kindergarten. The underlying philosophy is that all young children are natural scientists, driven by an innate curiosity and enjoyment of learning. If this is not encouraged from the very start of schooling the childrens' fascination and excitement with science quickly disappears, leading eventually to apathy - or worse yet, fear and distrust - in matters concerning science and technology. So I've been working the past few years with both public school teachers and Colgate faculty trying to develop strategies and workshops that promote and teach hands-on, inquiry- based science and innovative pedagogical skills.
In addition, the HHMI grant allowed Beth van Schaack (a favorite geology groupie, now in her second year at Yale Law School) and me to set into place a new Health Sciences Internship Program at Colgate involving 25 local and regional physicians and surgeons and Colgate junior/senior health science majors. The HSIP provides 25 students each semester with some first-hand experience in the medical profession before attending medical school and exposes them to the field of general medicine in a rural setting.
I've been teaching a first-year seminar called Geology Outdoors for the past few years and it has been wonderfully successful. Only a "van-on" worth of students (14) are allowed to take the course so that I can fit all of them into one 15-passenger vehicle for the weekly field trips to interesting geological features, like Howe Caverns, the Herkimer Diamond Mines, and the Adirondack Mountains. Quite a few excellent geology concentrators have emerged from these seminars, so we will continue to teach the course each year. It is great fun and one of the best ways to get to know the young students during their first semester at Colgate.
I've also gotten myself involved in the Environmental Studies (ENST) Program and have begun to team teach a new course, with biologist Randy Fuller and climatologist Adam Burnett, called Earth & Environmental Processes. The ENST Program still only offers a minor concentration, but for the past year a committee of about 10 faculty members, including myself, has been working on designing new major concentrations in environmental studies and environmental science. The plan is to keep the new concentrations rooted in the existing geology, biology and geography curricula so that students will be assured of a firm grounding in a traditional discipline. However, ENST majors will have the opportunity and flexibility to choose from an array of newly created, interdisciplinary, environmental core courses to round out their concentration program. It is an interesting concept and we hope to begin offering this option to students in the fall of 1997. I'm looking for good ideas from alumni familiar with ENST programs at other institutions or working in the environmental field, so if any of you have any thoughts about the design or quality of an environmental studies/science program, please send me your thoughts via letter or e-mail (rapril@mail.colgate.edu).
My research has recently taken me to the White Mountains of New Hampshire where I am working with a team of scientists at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest to try to understand nutrient cycling and chemical weathering in forest soils. Right now we are focusing on nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics, trying to understand the major sources, sinks, pathways and residence times for these elements as the forest grows and matures. I'm also still working in the Adirondack Mountains and in Sweden studying the effects of air pollution on surface water quality and forest health. This summer I hope to have five students working with me on projects involving the source of phosphorus in NH soils, the nature of the newly identified Sprout Brook bentonites (Devonian), the weathering of biotite in Swedish and Adirondack glacial deposits, and the cause of the 1993 Tully Valley landslide, the largest landslide in NY in 75 years (south of Syracuse). It looks like a busy time ahead, but I'm looking forward to it.
Finally, my daughter Ilana will be graduating from Hamilton High School this June and has decided to attend Connecticut College next fall. My son Ben will be a senior next year, and youngest daughter Jessica will be going into eighth grade. Carol is busy as the reading teacher at Hamilton Central School. I hope you are all happy and doing well. Some of you have dropped by this past year and it was great to see you. More of you should get back to the Gate and visit us. Until then, best wishes and keep in touch!