News

Bustling Campus: Academic Program Update for 2011

May 24, 2011

On May 15, Au Sable’s Great Lakes and Costa Rica campuses went from the silent beauty of spring wildflowers to the low buzz of student and faculty activity. The spring and summer academic year commenced with students embarking on classes in field natural history, ornithology, and tropical agriculture and missions. These courses prelude the 19 classes to come during our summer session courses scheduled for this year. The complete lineup includes classes at four campuses: one course in India, one course in Costa Rica, four courses at Pacific Rim Institute, and 16 at the Great Lakes Campus. Currently, 81 students from 28 different colleges and universities will participate, filling 146 course slots.

While many of the same courses return from last year, there are a few course and personnel updates.

Tropical Agriculture Moves to Costa Rica

The ‘Tropical Agriculture and Missions’ course has moved to Costa Rica. Dr. Dave Unander and the class will learn at the cloud rainforest campus of the Association for Development through Education in Vara Blanca, Costa Rica. The campus itself is surrounded by remnant forest, boasting large oak trees draped with lianas and bromeliads (see photo above on right), while the surrounding area contains horticulture and dairy farms. This diversity of landscape will offer the class an opportunity to learn about the methods and types of agricultural production taking place in this region of the world while also exploring the complex interactions between farmers and ecosystems.  The course will also take advantage of opportunities to observe and talk with missionaries and local Christian organizations as they work in ministry with small landholder farmers.

ADE’s location in rural Vara Blanca, a town recovering from an earthquake in 2009, also affords the class opportunities to participate directly in recovery projects and interact with high school students through ADE’s programs. A strong science network of agricultural centers will allow students to learn from researchers in various areas of agriculture.  (See photos taken by Dr. Unander from the class)

New Faculty Member for Environmental Chemistry

‘Environmental Chemistry’ has been one of Au Sable’s most popular courses over the years, and one of the reasons is the excellent job done by Dr. Henry Brouwer from Redeemer University College. This year, the course undergoes a major personnel change. With Henry’s retirement, Dr. Scott Carr of Anderson University will take on the course for this year. Dr. Carr’s vision for education meshes well with Au Sable’s: “Au Sable’s mission of educating students and the public with an emphasis on stewardship and earthkeeping is to me the best way to address the future by dealing with our past. Preparing minds to critically consider the issues with facts and also know their responsibilities in the shared ownership of creation based on biblical principles seems the path which would be most effective to those of faith.”

Summer Research Program

One of the academic highlights for the past four summers has been the performance of students in the Au Sable research program. Not only is research a way to advance knowledge of God’s world, it is an important career building experience for participants. Many students use their Au Sable experience as a launching point for further work in graduate programs. This year, six students will spread out across the Grand Traverse Region doing research through the Institute on the Boardman River, Grand Traverse Bay, and surrounding dune communities.  Listed below are their planned topics:

• Jacob Boone (Spring Arbor University) and Michelle LaForge (Wheaton College) will perform a qualitative and quantitative study of the macroinvertebrate community of the Boardman River, comparing macroinvertebrates above and below a dam that will be removed this coming fall.
• Nathan Sather (Bethel University) will be performing a follow-up study on his research last year, focusing on macroinvertebrate community recovery after dam removal.
• Alexis de Sosa (Wheaton College) will study wetland plants of Grand Traverse Bay shoreline. She will assess wetland plants to get a handle of what a 'representative' community should look like as a reference for homeowners dealing with Phragmites (an invasive reed).
• Collin Whitsett (Southern Nazarene University) will be doing genetic analysis for Pitcher’s thistle taxonomy.  Pitcher’s thistle is an endangered species found in dune communities in Northern Lower Michigan.
• Will Miller (Messiah College) will perform a herpetological field study around the Great Lakes Campus.

Research students work for 10 weeks during the two summer sessions with a faculty researcher. At the same time, they take an Au Sable course that coincides with their area of research and also take a 1-credit research methods course during each summer session.  

Au Sable started the research program at the request of its participating colleges who found that even their best students needed more research experience to be attractive candidates for graduate school.