Ultimate field trip - Biology class takes close look at ecology in Alaska

DECATUR -- The best way to study ecology is up close and personal.

So say nine Millikin University students who spent two and a half weeks in southern Alaska this summer as part of an Ecological Journeys course taught by Judy Parrish, associate professor of biology.

"I learned more than in any other biology class I have taken," said Lydia Lindemann, a senior elementary education major from Morton.

Parrish, who also has taken students to Costa Rica over spring break for the same reason, took other classes in 2001 and 2004 after the students spent some time studying its ecosystems in the spring. This time, however, students spent two intensive days on campus in June learning about the organisms they might see and then headed north.

"It was a total immersion in the subject," Parrish said. "Students better understand how an ecological system works if they see it rather than just talk about it."

Elizabeth Mueller of Argenta, a junior biology major, said her favorite part of the trip was watching and hearing the Aialik Glacier "calve" icebergs into the bay in Kenai Fjords National Park.

"We shut off the motor on our boat so we could hear it speak," Mueller said. "It was a huge sound and really, really moving."

The Matanuska Glacier, one of the few safe enough to walk on, offered yet another perspective.

"We saw rocks and stuff in the ice below us," Mueller said.

"You can see water moving through it, too," added Krystina Meyer, a junior elementary education major from Decatur. "I didn't realize glaciers make the water coming off it change channels or braid."

Parrish said the group also got to see firsthand how a glacier carves a valley into a

U-shape, unlike the V made by a river, as well as the countryside at the height of flowering. "Everywhere we went, there were flowers and plants," Meyer said.

Other highlights included riding a summer dogsled mushed by Raime Reddington, son of Iditarod founder Joe Reddington, and seeing caribou, bald eagles, moose with young calves, snowshoe hares, families of ptarmigan, pikas, hoary marmots, puffins, sea otters, Arctic ground squirrels and grizzly bears.

While sleeping in tents, the group had to keep even their toothbrushes and toothpaste in a bear safe to avoid attracting the large mammals, put on eye masks to block the daylight that dimmed only to twilight between 12:30 and 3:20 a.m. and ran the risk of waking up in a puddle.

"It rained a lot, and the temperature ranged from the upper 40s at night up into the 70s during the day," Mueller said. "You learned to wear layers of clothing and always carry a raincoat."

Other students on the trip included Meghan Christ, a sophomore early childhood education major from Metamora; Corinne Cullina, a junior chemistry major from Burbank; senior biology majors Mark Liwanag of Darien and Katie Lynn of Normal; and Justin Thomas, a graduate interdepartmental major from Alsip.

Serving as teaching assistants for the course were recent graduates Lance Brooks of New Berlin and Justin Fiene of Elmhurst.

"I found Alaska to be breathtaking and full of wonder and surprises," said Meredith Christ, a senior elementary education major from Metamora. "Bears, moose and unexpected plants could be found right around the corner."