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Learning
Biology in Natural Context
Alexandra Webster presented a poster of her research
as part of the field station dedication (click on picture
for an enlarged view). |
A
speech presented by Alexandra Webster ’08 during the dedication
of the Ada and Archibald MacLeish Field Station, May 3.
Thank you. I am so happy to be here today and see the dedication
of this site for student research, although it does make
me feel like I jumped the gun a little bit. But in any case,
I am really happy just to get one more day out here.
In my four years at Smith studying biology and environmental
science, I have had fantastic opportunities to get hands-on
experience with ecological research in the field. I was incredibly
lucky to have spent my summers assisting research in the
forests and rivers of California and Washington, and even
gone so far as Tanzania to study the tropical forests there
in my junior year. But most recently it has been so good
to come back to Smith and be able to do my honors thesis
in ecohydrology right here in the forest behind us. All of
my field experiences have not only taught me more about scientific
investigation and the natural world than all my classroom
studies combined, but have also been essential to inspiring
my passion to learn and in reminding me how to stay grounded
throughout all the craziness of the defining years of my
life.
For these reasons, I came back to Smith as a senior, determined
to do more with my last year than sit in classrooms and write
reports about abstract concepts. Why, I asked myself and
my professors, should I have to wait for the summer to ask
my own questions and get my hands dirty when I know that
this is how I learn best? I remember the day last September
that I sat with my adviser in his office and he mentioned
this property and the plans to develop it for student research.
Although he warned that there was little infrastructure to
facilitate research here yet, I jumped on the chance to be
one of the first.
It was a fateful decision
and it defined my senior year. Tromping through the underbrush,
taking notes under the shelter of a tree in a rainstorm,
looking up from my measurements to see a bear wandering
among the trees—this is how
to learn not just about ecology, but about your place in
the world.
Although I greatly appreciate
the efforts of all my professors at Smith, I admit that—in this last year at least—I
have been the most dedicated student to these woods. They taught
me many lessons. It was immediately obvious when I left the
classroom and spent time in these woods that the narrow disciplines
we peg ourselves to have very little application to how forests
really work. I am a biology student, but in order to study
how water comes into this forest, as I did for my thesis,
I worked with faculty and students from the engineering,
biology, geology, and statistics departments at Smith, as
well as drawing upon the resources of the University of Massachusetts,
as the Five College consortium allows me to do.,
I anticipate that this field station will allow students,
as it allowed me, to see how what they learn in their varied
liberal arts education at Smith weaves together in the real
world. These connections, both the conceptual ones among
disciplines, and the physical ones among students and faculty
of various departments, are absolutely essential to understanding,
living, and working in the real world, especially conducting
scientific research.
Smith is a place for students
to think about big ideas, but for me, and I think for many
students, thinking only about big ideas all the time abstracted
my life and my sense of purpose. “Feeling lost” is a common theme
among students in higher education, and it is exacerbated
when students have no sense of place in the area where they
move to attend school. Being from California, I felt profoundly
disconnected from the physical place of Smith—I spent
my first three years knowing nothing about the ecology, history,
or industry of the Pioneer Valley. Studying these woods,
talking to the neighbors of the property, buying vegetables
from the farm stand down the road, gave me the sense of place
that I had lacked, contextualized what I was learning every
day, and profoundly deepened my appreciation of New England.
I would have never, before working here, considered staying
in New England after graduation. As it is, I have been thrilled
to take a research assistantship in the forest ecology lab
at nearby Boston University.
So, I really want to thank Smith and everyone I worked with
for allowing me to get to know these woods. I truly hope
that facilitating research here will give future students
access to all of the lessons about life and learning that
are present here. It is a great and inexhaustible resource,
and I wish them all the best of luck. |
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