Uncoventional learning
Students learn, work outside the norm at Biosphere 2
By Alisha Brown
skiff staff
In the middle of the desert, through panes of glass you can see the ocean and the tall grasses of a savannah. You call main headquarters and relay to them how many people you’ve got coming in before entering an air-sealed hatch. You have 40 seconds to close the hatch behind you before the alarm goes off.
Enter Biosphere 2 — a representative environment of the world’s ecosystems where students such as senior biology majors Derrick Dollar and Zach Norris and senior geology major David Lanartowicz have been studying this semester.
The three TCU students are part of a program through Columbia University that has opened up the door, or hatch, of the Biosphere 2 for individual study after scientists lived in this bubble in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert for research.
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Special to the Skiff
Norris and Dollar study the world’s ecosystems. |
For one semester, students research in the Biosphere 2 but stay in an outside apartment. The conditions and atmosphere are nearly the same as when the scientists lived there.
“We’re studying ground water shortages, overpopulation and increased (carbon dioxide) levels in the atmosphere — all relevant issues,” Dollar said.
The Biosphere 2 has seven ecosystems inside, from a million gallon saltwater ocean to a coastal fog desert climate. Each ecosystem is separated by air-sealed hatches, Dollar said.
“(After you enter the Biosphere) you can go left to the rain forest biome and cross the overlook where you can see the ocean,” he said. “A lot of people do research in the canopy of the rain forest. You can rappel yourself over the tops of the trees. There are wind generators because they found that without movement of wind, the cell walls of plants became weak and began to collapse. The wind helps the plants to develop.”
What they are experiencing is work outside rather than in the classroom, in a desert rather than a suburb, that can be related to other classes.
“Our classes are very unconventional,” Norris said. “I’m learning all kinds of things, but mostly the interconnectedness of fields that have been traditionally thought to be unrelated — economics and ecology, sociology and geology, management and botany.
“It is all relevant to society because humans have changed the world in ways not understood yet, and in order to have effective planetary managers in the future, students must cross the boundaries of specialized discipline.”
Dollar said the work load is intense in the Biosphere.
“But being able to supply it hands on is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” he said.
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Special to the Skiff
Among the topics that Dollar and Norris study at Biosphere 2 are tidal pool and tidal flat ecology, halophyte diversity and the sociocultural dynamics of the region, said Michael Omiecinski, director of student admissions. |
The area attractions appeal to the students as well.
“There is so much to do,” Norris said. “I have climbed two mountains, hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, camped in the desert, gone to several concerts in Tucson, jumped off of 40-foot rocks into crystal clear mountain pools after a rain and (have taken) a weekend trip to San Diego.”
This week the students are on a field trip to Puerto Peñasco, Mexico in the Northern Sonoran Desert along the Sea of Cortez.
“Students are based at the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans,” said Michael Omiecinski, director of student admissions. “They study tidal pool and tidal flat ecology, investigate halophyte diversity, explore the dunes of the Pinacate volcanic region, help with an intertidal monitoring research program and examine the sociocultural dynamics of the region.”
Leading up to this semester, the students agreed that their science courses at TCU are what prepared them for the magnitude and level of study required for the Biosphere.
“The work load is very heavy, after all it is an Ivy League program, but the challenge is welcomed,” Norris said. “TCU helped me get here by being a partner with the program. All the credits transfer and the professors were very supportive of me coming to the Biosphere.
“It takes a certain type of person to really excel here, but for that type of person, and you know who you are, it will be the best experience of your college career.”
Alisha Brown
lishakat@aol.com
Students study environmental concerns by living in Biosphere
It rained in the desert biome today. That may seem insignificant to you, but to the residents of the Biosphere, it is a good reason to throw a party.
Of course, just about any reason is a good reason to throw a party here. It seems that the people here are into celebrating life, and what a grand celebration it is.
But the rain in the Biosphere desert biome wasn’t only significant because it gave us an excuse to dance in the mud of the world’s largest laboratory. The desert biome in the Biosphere hadn’t been allowed rain for over eight months. The researchers in the Biosphere are observing the changes in the plant life of the desert when faced with the droughts that are expected to occur as a result of global warming.
So, in typical biosphere fashion, while we partied, we learned. Columbia University’s Earth Semester at the Biosphere 2 Center consistently provides students with a good balance of work and play. The high Sonoran desert, where it is located, provides students with a plethora of activities, from hiking, camping and rock climbing to clubbing in Tucson. The Biosphere itself is a marvel of modern engineering and can provide hours of entertainment for the contemplative mind. The course work is challenging and stimulating, with a good balance of “hard science” and policy issues. But without a doubt, the best aspect of this experience for me has been the people.
Imagine a mosaic of people from all over the world, gathered in the middle of the Arizona desert because they share common interests.
Imagine the energy that results from a gathering of 80 students who wish to lead the push toward responsible planetary management with a faculty of established and accomplished environmentalists and conservationists. Imagine the insanity that results when those students decide they want to let off some steam. Imagine what happens when the faculty decides to join the students.
Don’t get me wrong, however. The class work is challenging, and when it rains at the Biosphere, it pours. The stress level around midterms was stifling. Students are confronted with some controversial issues, and often it seems as if the assignments are impossible. For example, I was given one week to devise and present a balanced and sustainable water budget for the city of Tucson, a task that the Tucson water managers have been unable to accomplish in 15 years. I completed the assignment, though, with a little help from the Biosphere 2 faculty.
The professors and teaching assistants here are amazing. Our relationships with the faculty are on a first-name basis, and they even sometimes surprise us by showing up at our parties. This is always a welcome treat, because the professors have so much life experience to teach from. Tony Burgess, the principle designer of the desert and thorn scrub ecosystems, is one of the most well known desert ecologists in the business. Rick Brusca literally wrote the book on invertebrate zoology. John Titus spent two years in the Peace Corps in the Philippines and studied plant succession and re-colonization after the Mount St. Helens eruption. There is no doubt that there are a lot of things to learn from people like them, the only constraint is the questions that you ask.
Tomorrow, we are going to Mexico. This will be our second major field trip of the semester. Our first was a week-long camping trip in the Grand Canyon, where we studied the geology of the canyon, the anthropology of the ancient Anasazi tribe that has inhabited the canyon area for the last thousand years and the policy issues regarding coal mining and water extraction in the region.
In Mexico, we will be studying sea life and water quality, and I will be studying the stars from a boat floating in the night waters of the Gulf of California. I plan to brush up on my Spanish and study the culture in the plaza of the town. I’ll let you know how my the results of my research turn out.
Zachary Norris is a senior biology major from Long Beach,
Calif. currently studying at Colombia University’s Biosphere 2 Center.
He can be reached at (znorris@bio2.edu).