Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - On May 22, University of Wisconsin-Platteville professors of biology, Beth Frieders and Jeff Huebschman, along with 16 students, headed west with dreams of desert destinations and firsthand experiences. For 20 days, professors and students camped in the deserts of southwest America while becoming familiar with the plants and animals of desert habitats, and collecting data for research projects. The trip is part of a 3-credit desert ecology course, attracting students from the teaching education program, biology majors wanting field experience, and those hoping to go on to graduate school.

Frieders said, "The off-campus courses are a great experience for students because they travel to a part of the world they may not have seen, or to which they may not consider going on their own. The full-time hands-on intensity of the course allows students to learn and retain more information in general, to see, smell, touch and hear the live plants and animals rather than just read about them and see dead specimens."

Frieders, Huebschman and students traveled through Tulsa, Okla.; Fort Stockton, Texas; Big Bend National Park, Texas; Carlsbad National Park, N.M.; White's City, N.M.; Alamogordo, N.M.; Portal, Ariz.; Mosca, Colo.; and Omaha, Neb., with extensive stays at Big Bend National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, and Southwestern Research Station.

The Southwestern Research Station (SWRS) in Portal, Ariz., hosts a biological field station where biologists, geologists and anthropologists study among the Chiricahua Mountains throughout the year. Students on the biology trip had the opportunity to meet some of these professionals as they analyzed the data they had collected along the trip and prepared presentations as part of the coursework.

McKenzie Herbst, a student on the trip, said to Frieders, "Thanks for a great trip. I could never have learned that in a classroom setting and would recommend it to everyone. It really broadens one's horizons."

During the trip, students learned how to catch bats and lizards, and identified all of the animals and plants they caught or found.

Huebschman, a terrestrial vertebrate (rats, bats and birds) specialist, said, "As a field biologist, it's good to see students get excited about live biology."

The trip included short visits to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Mosca, Colo., and the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Neb.

Dane Goddard, a student who graduated two weeks before the trip, said, "The trip for me was a way to experience the U.S. before going into the 'real world.' But after the trip, it turned out to be a whole lot more. It was a great experience because I met new people and over the three weeks, I got to know them very well. I would recommend this trip to anyone, even non-biology majors."

Frieders confirms, "The living and learning environment provides an opportunity for strong relationships to build among students and between students and staff - we really get to know each other much more than in a traditional classroom setting."

The biology department regularly offers study tours. Kris Wright, professor of biology, and J. Elmo Rawling, professor of geography, will be leading a tour to the Pacific Northwest during the 2007 winterim. To inquire about this upcoming course, contact Wright at wrightk@uwplatt.edu or (608) 342-1689, or Rawling at rawlingj@uwplatt.edu or (608) 342-1680. To find out more about the recent desert ecology course, contact Frieders or frieders@uwplatt.edu

Contact: Jeff Huebschman, UWP Biology Department, (608) 342-1742, huebschj@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: April Schmidt, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, schmidap@uwplatt.edu