By Cherie Thunder
Wisconsin Fast Plants/ POSOH Intern
Sustainability Leadership Cohort 2013
Forest and Climate Leaders Retreat at Kemp Research Center
June 21-June 24
Woodruff, WI
With Memories of capture the flag, jumping from the high
dive, and midnight Sun Drop raids, how can we forget the time spent at UW-Madison’s
Kemp Research Center? High school students, community members, scientists,
undergraduate and graduate students all gathered for the Forest and Climate
Leaders Research Retreat in Woodruff, WI from June 21st to June 24th.
The four day event was a great way to explore different careers in the STEM
fields and to mutually learn from each other. Students and scientist alike were
given the chance to exchange ideas and explore other cultures.
Kemp Natural Resources Station is
a research and teaching facility operated by the College of Agricultural and
Life Sciences of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Located in the heart
of Wisconsin's Northwoods, Kemp Station's 235 acres support some of the last
remnants of old-growth forest in the Lake States as well as research by many of
the university’s scientists and students.
Dr. Ankur Desai with the
Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Department at UW-Madison brought several of
his graduate and undergraduate students to teach students about climate change
topics related to the forest. SDI Education Coordinator Kate Flick collaboratively designed the retreat with Ankur Desai. “Ankur and I had been talking about how to spark
students’ interests in science and decided to try exposing high school students
to what scientists really do and the career pathways of how they got to where
they are…shift their perspective that scientists just wear lab coats to something like they are
actually real people and fun to boot. What better way than to hang out and do real
science in the woods?” Kate said. In fact, the retreat was the first ever of its kind to
involve high school students at UW-Madison’s Kemp Research station.
The retreat gave students the opportunity to begin
understanding some of the impacts of climate change locally and globally and to
acquire new science skills such as, performing real scientific research and carrying
out experiments in the field. One of the experiments included setting off smoke bombs to
understand how air flows (or fluxes) through a forest and eventually ends up at a
flux tower. These giant towers continuously take measurements on important green house gases. Two days were
spent learning from the scientists and the of team graduate students in both the
classroom and in the field at research sites in the area. The students were able to do some soil and
water testing, tree coring, and learning about meteorology and lakes.
During the evening the students participated in nightly fires, talking
circles, medicine wheel teachings, and a climate change decision making
activity. The fire provided informal times to understand the stories of how
students and scientists found and followed their career pathways. By doing the decision making activity
students gained an understanding of why important climate change issues need to be discussed
and voted upon in order to find community consensus. We held a mock community
meeting where participants took on different roles of community stakeholder interests in whether to build a wind farm near the College or not. Stakeholders included College of Menominee nation
students and staff, Menominee Tribal Enterprise employees, near-by homeowners,
coal workers at a power plant, community interest groups, and scientists. The medicine wheel teachings provided a great way
to share the Menominee culture and remind everyone involved why we were
participating in the retreat in the first place. SDI food sovereignty intern Lloyd Frieson said,
“The medicine wheel is something that brings all our nations together." Dr. Ankur Desai also emphasized that science
had its own strong traditions rooted in curiosity.
Throughout the retreat everyone had responsibilities like cooking
meals, washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Being a community leader is one
of prominent goals of this cohort and was represented through doing chores
daily and giving back to your place or community. These duties helped bring the group together and teach the students to
be in charge of and responsible for their own actions.
Everyone was surprised at how well they were able to relate to one
another. The scientists, students, and interns all seemed to express and
appreciate that their knowledge of science and culture was expanded by the end
of the weekend. Overall the trip was a great success and we have high hopes for
the future forest and climate leaders of the Wisconsin area.
