Thirty UCA students and two faculty members explored active volcanoes and toured a cloning lab as part of a study abroad trip to New Zealand.
The trip, led by Biology faculty member and New Zealand native Dr. J .D. Swanson, focused on the impact humans have on their environment. The group left for New Zealand May 8 for the 24-day study abroad trip.
This was UCA’s first trip to the South Pacific and the first College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics faculty led study abroad trip to a foreign country.
Visit UCA’s YouTube page to hear more about the trip.
âNew Zealand is an ideal study system as it is one of the last countries in the world to be populated by humans and has very unique flora and fauna,â said Swanson.
New Zealand is thought to have separated from Gondwanaland before the evolution of mammals, and thus birds, insects and some lizards were the predominant animals. The country has a rich geological history and unique landscape. Modern New Zealand is a great microcosm as it is a sum of its history and has had the foresight and opportunity to protect its biology from introduced species, Swanson said.
The group’s travels also took them to a penguin breeding colony and to the University of Waikato and Rurakura (a Crown Research Institute), where they learned about the medicinal uses of Manuka Honey and organisms living around deep water vents. The students also visited a wildlife center and met local conservationists.
Students received three credits toward their degree in biology, geography, sociology, or honors. They were required to keep daily journals of their thoughts and observations, read course materials, submit to a blog and take part in all activities and discussions.
âAs an educator, and firm believer in traditional classroom education, this trip taught them more than what I could hope,â Swanson said. âSure, they learned a lot about biology, conservation, geography, and more importantly they saw and experienced it firsthand. But to me it was the intrinsic things that they learned.â
âOne student would sit in the front of the bus and all you could see were her eyes sucking in every possible morsel of information she could. Another commented to me that they were no longer afraid to travel and now had the confidence to go to other countries on his own,â he continued. âFinally, just the appreciation that every student gained by observing another way of life, another culture, or even another way of doing things, was beyond measure, for it is only through these experiential learning experiences that we, as faculty, can prepare our students for life beyond UCA.â
Read the students’ blog about their adventure in New Zealand.
