Stream Haydays and Extravaganzas!

After a fun and relaxing week of reading, it was time to put on our bathing suits and water shoes and venture into the unknown realm of Stream Ecology! To help teach this course, Dr. Mike Guebert joined the CCSP community from Taylor University and brought with him a wealth of knowledge of geology, hydrology and stream monitoring.

The week included two big field days, the “Mountain Pine Ridge Hayday” and the “Hummingbird Highway Extravaganza”, all with the purpose of comparing and contrasting streams in two very different geological settings - granite and limestone bedrock. At each stream site, the students assessed the stream, collected macroinvertebrates, and tested water quality in preparation for their presentations.

During the week, new and exciting things were discovered, like the kick seine twist, the monstrous Megaloptera, tufa dams, and a lot of the students’ favorite little macroinverebrate, the caddisfly with its home made of sand grains, twigs, or leaves stuck or twisted together!! Many tropical caddisfly larvae have not yet been associated with their adult forms and thus still taxonomic mysteries which makes investigating them this week all the more exciting!

On Thursday, we also were able to visit Five Blues National park where we hiked back to the duende caves. As the students made their way through the different passages and tunnels, they found cave crickets, crystal formations, and what Mike taught us about the night before, cave bacon!

The week ended with the students presenting on the differences they found between the streams they found in the Mountain Pine Ridge area versus the streams they monitored on the Hummingbird Highway. Overall, the week was full of fun and excitement and oh, of course, learning!

The grand finale of the week was a trip to TIKAL. We loaded up the van on Saturday morning and headed over the border into Guatemala to visit the ancient Mayan ruin of Tikal. Not only did we see ruins, but we saw monkeys, agoutis, toucans, aracaris and Jenna finally saw her Blue-crowned Mot Mot! The day ended with a nice relaxing dinner in the island city of Flores, Guatemala overlooking the lake and scheming up plans for FALL BREAK!

The students are all back, safe and sound from their fall breaks full of stories! Now, it's time to get back to studying and learning!

Environmental Literature Pt. 1/ Reading Week

Today marks the final day of reading week, and for those taking Environmental Literature, it was part one. It was like one long weekend… but with several books and articles to cover to prepare for the upcoming classes. To pry student’s faces away from books for just a quick breather break, the student life coordinators went into teaching mode. These “vive” events strive to provide life long hobbies that support sustainable lifestyles through craftiness and resourcefulness. After stocking up on yarn, we started the week off crocheting and knitting. Newcomers to the art picked it up surprisingly fast, while the old timers were done making scarves and hats within a couple days! The sight of balls of yarn with hooks, needles, and a half-knit scarf attached was a common occurrence around campus. Young or old, crochet and knitting is something we all can do our entire lives. Nothing says happy birthday like a hand-knit scarf!Later in the week we tried another life long hobby, yoga. With breathing exercises and “sun salutations”, we focused, energized and relaxed to the gentle rain on the metal classroom roof. Sun salutations were a great beginners start to yoga; a series of lunges and upward stretches to the ceiling. It works for both individual prayer time as well as a realization of the creation within and around us. (The large classroom windows have a very scenic view) Soon after our Vive sessions though, it was back to the sleep-eat-read schedule… with a little Frisbee and Cayo Twist ice cream thrown in on the side.