Who can fail to at least hum along with the soundtrack of Julie Andrews singing "The hills are alive with the sound of . . . ." in the classic, Sound of Music? And here at the Field Station we know the world of Westminster is alive when students arrive on the main campus and some of the adventurous ones find their way to the Field Station. Even first year students are getting out to this haven of nature. The presence of students is our life-blood. It keeps us alive and makes even non-singers sing!

With only two weeks of the semester underway, the Field Station has become part of the lives of over 175 students enrolled in science lab courses. Those courses, with their respective professors, included Introduction to Environmental Studies (part of a new minor at Westminster), Environmental Science, Foundations of Biology and Community Ecology. In addition, there are student artists who come out to sketch and paint as requirements of art classes. Others come just for the joy of walking and running or they come with a friend "to see what's there." Some also came in evenings and in a meditative mood to walk the Sandy Edmiston Labyrinth. And student volunteers showed up this week! These are students who get neither money nor credit for doing green things. They came to help compost shredded paper and yard waste or simply to help clean up the place after a busy week of activity.

What do students in the Foundations of Biology course -- required of all biology and environmental science majors -- do when they come to the Field Station as part of a two-week lab activity? Their focus this year was the ubiquitous Tall Goldenrod, a plant that sometimes makes people sneeze? Students were, in this first week, to make initial qualitative and quantitative observations of the Goldenrod. Each pair of students worked independently of others because some people see things that others do not. Then they came together in the Nature Center to talk about what they had observed. Science is a community affair! The goal was to start asking questions that can be solved by science - the more observations, the better the science! After a week of thinking about the Goldenrod, they will return to make more field observations, test hypotheses, analyze data and draw conclusions. That is the way science works and the Goldenrod is simply a stop along the way for these students to become practicing scientists.

Westminster's 14th President, Richard Dorman, accepted an invitation for a "cook's tour" of the Field Station on September 3. As any new president ought to do, he came to ask questions, to talk about the history, present and future of this environmental facility of the College. He met and spoke with students who were moving around the fields with tape measurers, thermometers and other apparatus. He saw solid academic use of this resource. He listened to the dreams and plans that Dr. Throckmorton, the Associate Director, and I have for the Field Station. Dr. Dorman's departing words were, "I did not realize the full extent of everything that went on here."

And there is more. On Saturday, August 30, Westminster hosted the Fisher Invitational Cross Country meet for men and women of surrounding colleges. Part of the cross country course is in the bounds of the Field Station. Runners deserve a place that has fresh air, trees, green grass and where birds sing. The Field Station has certainly come alive with sounds!

Clarence Harms, Director
Field Station

Foundations of Biology students studying tall goldenrod

Volunteers emptying bags of shredded paper for composting

Student artist sketching sunflowers