Greetings from northern Indiana … I hope you all are enjoying the fall weather as much as
I am! As some of you perhaps know, I am
now living in a small town in northern Indiana working on my Master’s degree in
environmental education at beautiful Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center, a
1,100+ acre nature sanctuary, which is part of Goshen College. It has been a whirlwind adventure thus far as
I just finished up my first round of classes ranging from principles of
education to natural history to research methods.
We have now moved into our fall teaching
schedule so we have been having fun
leading student explorers across the property focusing on the sustainable
working farm where they raise over 30 varieties of vegetables, plus chickens,
hogs, and turkeys. The Nature Center
includes an ecological field station incorporating energy from both a wind
turbine and solar panels. The project
was awarded LEED platinum certification in 2007. It has been a lot of fun teaching the
students about where their food comes from, as many these days don’t understand
this and the processing food has to go through to get on their plate. Not only do we have a class touring the sustainable
farm but also provide autumn adventures, exploring wetlands, and so much
more. For me it is just such a joy to
get students outside of the classroom and exploring nature – many for the first
time.
Although we have been focusing on
classes and teaching, I am also working on my yearlong project – working with an
urban community garden in a low income neighborhood in Fort Wayne, Indiana –
helping them develop curriculum to provide outreach to both students and adults
alike. We do have plenty of time to play though (mostly on the weekends) so
I have been active visiting the farmer’s market, hiking around Merry Lea and
local Chain O’ Lakes State Park and visiting fairs and festivals around the
region – so if you’re ever in northern
Indiana let me know!
Kaitlyn Bradley
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| Bird banding |
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| Gene Stratton Porter Historical Site |
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| Working a local fair booth. |
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| Beautiful sunrise |
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| Observing a local pow-wow in Michigan. |
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