When a donor gifted land near Grafton to Doane in 2000 it gave the college an enviable outdoor classroom. Home to a colony of black-tailed prairie dogs, and possessing a unique mix of wetland and native prairie in Nebraska's rainwater basin, the site quickly became an outlet for student and faculty research and class field activities. The only thing missing was a place to take the outdoor classroom inside. This is Nebraska, which meant lessons would compete with heat, wind, rain, snow, cold and more wind.
Dr. Russ Souchek, associate professor of biology and geology, recalls a graduate science teaching methods class that involved taking samples of freshwater organisms. Collecting them was easy. Studying them was not. The group put a tarp on the uneven ground to process their find. "There we were, in the heat of the day, on a tarp, in the sun and wind," he said.
That problem was solved this fall with the completion of a 700-square foot Environmental Education and Research Building at the site. The post-frame building with concrete floor was constructed by faculty volunteers, Doane maintenance staff, and Building Tech Inc., of Beatrice.
It is a valuable addition to the site, according to Souchek and other faculty members, one that can make lessons more complete and immediate. "We have a place now to analyze data, to conduct a lesson out of the elements. Before we would gather data one week, then analyze it back at campus a week later," he said.
The building is a blank canvas now, but eventually may be outfitted with electricity, computers and other equipment, Souchek said, depending on need and funding. "This has been a gradual building process, responding to the needs of faculty and students doing projects at the site."
He is excited about the building partly because it advances research possibilities there. The Prairie Research Site has been used in classes such as Introductory Biology, Ecology, Wetlands Biology, Analytical Chemistry, and Animal Behavior. Along with prairie dogs and animal behavior, site research includes:
- Physics research, using digital logic to develop an infrared (IR) photogate detector array to provide a trigger for collecting data about the creatures that inhabit the system of trails between sections of the town.
- Information Science Technology, such as a virtual prairie dog simulation that uses genetic programming techniques.
- History, studying how the space arrived at the beginning of the 21st century as an intact prairie remnant.
- Biology, studying the genetic diversity of the prairie dogs living on the Grafton property.
The new building housed its first classes in October.