The mission of the Raystown Field Station is to serve the mission of Juniata College by providing a locale and facilities for experiences integrating theory and application, especially through environmental research, research training and education.

The following goals address the implementation of this mission:

1. Provide an educational climate that results in successful teaching and learning opportunities throughout the year.
2. Provide a research climate that results in fundamental discoveries about the environment.
3. Provide a climate in which students can develop to their full potential, as contributors to society, informed citizens, and caring and responsible adults.
4. Integrate undergraduate research training with research activities.
5. Build and maintain a site-specific monitoring database.
6. Establish mechanisms to communicate field science to the general public.
7. Serve the larger community through environmental education, meeting facilities and other outreach activities.

We can attain these goals for RFS in the following ways:

1. Undergraduate Curriculum:

A number of approaches are suggested to make RFS an integral part of Juniata College. These approaches will require creativity in logistics and advance planning. In two of these plans (Semester-At-The-Field Station, and Summer Specialty Courses) students would live at RFS and take all of their classes at RFS. These plans will be fully costed (Appendix : Financial Section), so that their curriculum has its own funding stream. The RFS dormitories will have year-round use (Appendix : Facilities Section), increasing the number of beds available on the main campus, thereby permitting increased enrollments at the College and therefore a tuition stream supporting RFS.

The goals of the Semester at the Field Station are to provide students an immersion experience in a natural environment as well as a small-group intensive-study experience. Students would live at the station and take an entire semester course load at RFS. Courses from across the disciplines (courses normally taught at the College) could be taught at RFS. These might NOT just be science courses. Politics, philosophy, art … many courses not needing specialized equipment could be taught at the Field Station, on a rotating basis.

We will begin the Semester-at-the-Field Station incrementally, starting with a curriculum naturally fits the facilities and environment of RFS (ESS, Biology and, Geology) (Appendix : Undergraduate Curriculum). Once we have some experience with logistics of this new curricular concept, we plan to expand to other disciplinary areas (Appendix : Undergraduate Curriculum), so all College faculty have the opportunity to teach in a small-group, immersion setting that the expanded RFS will provide.

We would creatively design the ensemble of courses available, a number of years in advance, based on faculty and student interests, so students could plan when they need to take FISHN requirements or POE requirements. An example of this design is included in the Appendix.

FISHN courses might not be available at the Station; they could be available via teleconferencing, connecting campus-based classes to RFS classes. The opportunity to occasionally teach at the Station would be open to a majority of faculty, on a rotating basis (Appendix : Undergraduate Curriculum). Note that this will be designed to fit the needs of each faculty member, department and program, rather than try to force a scheduling design onto faculty.

Within the sciences, many faculty do not have time in their teaching load to teach specialty courses (e.g., fish ecology, ornithology, entomology). We envision summer school at RFS for these types of special courses. These courses would be taught based on faculty interest in teaching summer school specialty courses, as they would be additions to normal teaching load. These courses would include additional salary stipend. Non-science faculty at JC may have a desire to teach summer specialty courses in the setting of Raystown Lake. Specialty courses would be attractive both to Juniata College students and to students from other colleges and universities. Juniata College plans to form a Consortium of undergraduate institutions who have similar curricular interests for summer specialty courses. The Consortium could supply instructors as well as students.

In this approach, faculty schedule an event at RFS, as part of their regular Juniata curriculum. This could be a seminar, laboratory, discussion or some other class-related event. This approach is currently taken by a number of faculty on campus, primarily in Biology, Geology and ESS. With expanded classroom facilities, more departments might make use of RFS.

A consortial arrangement with other colleges and universities, both domestic and international, has great potential to support the curricula at RFS. First, the Consortium will provide a funding stream to staff RFS. Second, it will provide students for enrollment, especially valuable during the Summer Specialty Courses. Third, it will provide a more diverse student body, especially valuable for the immersion experiences. Fourth, the Consortium might be a supply of faculty to teach Summer Specialty Courses or as research mentors.

The expanded RFS is an opportunity for additional research training for Juniata College students, via research conducted by both Juniata College faculty and by external researchers. The external researchers could mimic the Von Liebig model of a senior visiting research scientist (if such an endowment was available) or could be a visiting scientist who comes for a season, a semester or a year. In this latter category, these researchers would pay for their use of the facility through grants (e.g., NSF). There will be some residential space for these visiting scientists, which they will pay for themselves. These researchers could utilize Juniata College undergraduates as research assistants, both in the summer and during the semester. These researchers might provide seminars to the College or act as research mentors for JC students.

We are interested in research at the station fulfilling a role in research training of undergraduates. The presence of graduate students from other institutions, working on a research team that includes Juniata College students, is of value to the College mission, providing excellent research training to our students. Therefore we do envision graduate students using these facilities.

We also see a role for research at RFS to tie together goals of community service and of curriculum development. For example, watershed research, including a database of environmental parameters, could partner with the Juniata Watershed Partnership and other community groups with watershed concerns.

It would be desirable to have an endowed position of resident research scientist. This would provide a central point for RFS research and research training.

* Water Resources
* Hydrology, Hydrogeology and Hydrometerology

* Water Quality Analysis and Monitoring (Biological and Geochemical)
* Stream Corridor Restoration
* Watershed Management
* Population and Community Ecology
* Soil Biology
* Terrestrial Vertebrate Population Ecology
* Aquatic Community Ecology
* Life History Biology
* Physiological Ecology
* Ecological Aspects of Management Practices
* Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Long-Term Data Collection
* Database Development and Management
* Spatial Correlation Analysis
* Visual Presentation

These are areas that fit with the interests of current uses and users. Funding for research (equipment, supplies and personnel) will be crucial for the successful implementation of these plans. We have identified potential funding sources and potential research partners (Appendix : Research Plan). External research funding is an expected. The design of the research facilities will take place with input from a selection of current users.

Outreach programs are important agents for communicating scientific findings and transmission of embodied values to non-science students and the general public. Everything from educational programming for the non-Juniata community to alumni activities and conference facilities serve the outreach mission of RFS.

Past and current outreach functions (Appendix : Outreach) have included the following:

* Retreats and Student Club Activities
* K-12 Environmental Education
* Alumni Activities
* General Environmental Education for Raystown Lake visitors
* Conferences for Professional Organizations

Future outreach programming could include the following:

* Summer program for gifted high school students
* Governor's School for Environmental Science
* GLOBE teacher training in environmental monitoring
* Friends of RFS programming for alumni
* Public Seminar Series

Any increase in outreach activities will be based upon the availability of facilities after meeting the needs of undergraduates and research programs. Outreach activities will be self-supporting, through grants, user fees, donations or revenue generators.

The outreach mission is an important one, as it also serves the outreach mission of the Raytown Lake Army Corps of Engineers. RFS could be a model watershed for watershed education at all levels.

Provost Lakso

Vice-President for Finance Alexander

Vice-President for Development Hille

Professors:

Demarest (Biology)

Glazier (Biology)

Hague (Politics)

Johnson (ESS)

Martin (ESS)

Mutti

Raystown Field Station Director Yohn

Students:

Ann Parry

Jennifer Bergman

Facilities at RFS to Support the Mission

A Facilities Committee will be created in March 2000. The task of this Committee will be to develop the design concept and implementation. The design concept will be sent out to architectural firms, asking for responses. From the respondents, architects will be selected. The Facilities Committee will aid in architect selection. It will also aid in choosing field stations to visit to conduct on-site assessments of design components and architects. An NSF planning grant has been written to help fund the field station visits and some aspects of the facilities planning stage.

The following is a draft list of components to be considered in the facilities design:

* Green Technology; facilities themselves as teaching tools.
Laboratories
* Aquatic rearing with lake water feed (both whole and filtered water).
* General lab for ecology, environmental science
* Water and Soil Biogeochemical Analysis lab
*Classrooms
For up to 60, that break down to smaller rooms, that can also be used for conferences and workshops.
* Data Collection Systems, with sensors over the watershed.
* Computer facilities
* Fiber-optic line or other high-speed computer connection between RFS and Juniata's computer network.
* Temporary desk/office space for faculty teaching at RFS.
* Conference capability (consideration when designing bedrooms, bathrooms, and air-conditioning); useful in our Outreach Mission, as well are for our Curricular and Research Missions. Could be a potential funding stream.
* Year-round residence (for 30-40 students and 5 faculty/visiting scientists/staff) therefore
* Water, electric, sewerage, heating…year-round utilities.
* Year-round transport to and from Huntingdon.
* Road maintenance (snow and ice removal)
* Hospitality Services
* Dining
* Laundry
* Summer residence (for approximately 60 students) therefore
* Small, summer-only cottages scattered over landscape (connected by nature trails)

Financial Section: Cost-Determination, Marketing and Planning Needs
It is necessary to conduct a cost determination for the Academic Plan, to answer some of the questions listed below. An NSF planning grant has been written to help fund a portion of this cost-accounting.

* What is cost of Semester-at-the Field Station?

* What is the appropriate summer tuition?
* Consortium for Summer Specialty School and Semester-At-The-Field Station
Domestic partners
International partners (DOE Title VIA funding potential)

Template of Curriculum for Four Semesters at the Field Station
We have designed a model-template for four semesters. Two semesters would be for ESS, Biology and Geology students; these would be the initial format, to test out the logistics of the concept with courses that naturally fit the facility. At the start, FISHN courses might be eliminated, until the logistics of the system works out. Later we plan to expand to semesters for other social science students. This is a only model at this point. We do not yet have faculty commitments to this teaching schedule. The presence of a course in the templates below does not signify the agreement of the faculty to teach at RFS.

Some courses would be offered concurrently, so that ideally, half of the students will take one and half will take the other. The average student will take ~15 credits. Independent study opportunities will be an option. This design requires facilities of two laboratories and two classrooms (see Facilities Section).Various course-schedule blocking ideas are possible. For example, the traditional blocking pattern of a 55-minute lecture three-days per week could be replaced by the course meeting for a half-day, once per week. The schedule block will be chosen by the faculty teaching that semester, to maximize efficiency of their teaching load both at RFS and on the Juniata campus. Faculty teaching at RFS will have temporary office facilities, including networked computer access. The Semester-at-the-Field-Station concept will require more advance planning than our current planning.

Appendix : Undergraduate Curriuclum (CONTINUED)
TEMPLATE ONE

TEMPLATE TWO: