Jobs Pond was studied during spring 2009 by students in Environmental Geochemistry (E&ES 280). It was chosen because of unusual water level behavior and to provide background information to the Middletown YMCA. The YMCA Camp, Camp Ingersol, uses Jobs Pond for swimming.
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The Eightmile River Watershed is a relatively undeveloped region in south central, Connecticut with over 150 miles of rivers and streams. It is part of the Connecticut River watershed, entering the river through Hamburg Cove. As part of the study to be recognized as a national “Wild and Scenic Designation,” a completed management study was prepared by students in Environmental Geochemistry to help to ensure that the ecosystem is protected.
Geochemistry is taught every other year. It consists of a three hour lecture course (E&ES 280) and a three hour lab (E&ES 281). Since 2005 the lab has been taught as a service-learning course. Each year students in the lab study the geochemistry of a particular environment and at the end of the semester present their findings in a public form. Reports and presentations from those studies are available here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCkH13bgcp4[/youtube]
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In 2008 student s constructed a viewing platform at the Helen Carlson Wildl ife Sanctuary and Cranberry Bog named SplitFrame. It is a wildlife-viewing structure designed and constructed to maximize environmental exposure while minimizing impact. At the core of the project are two integral pieces – a floating Observatio n Deck and an elevated Viewing Station – connected via a hinged staircase, allowing the Observation Deck to rise and fall with the seasonal change in water levels. The project is situated at the end of a long berm, a vestige of the wildlife sanctuary’s former use as a commercial cranberry bog. This exis ting berm was integrated into the project as an access path, drawing visitors out over the water, under the Viewing Station, and onto a ramp to the Observation Deck.
Informed by research on sustainable construction technologies and building materials, design precedents, and the project’s 19-acre site, SplitFrame was
undertaken as a collaborative research/design/build project involving 15 undergraduate architecture students, the design studio instructor, two ornithology research scientists, and the Audubon Society client. Students learned ways to focus and apply design research, manage a limited budget, limited materials, and limited site access, while the client regained access to the sanctuary.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSKQyGypdcg[/youtube]
“Students Create Innovative Structure for Audubon Society” (9/23/08)
“Architectural Design, Creation by Students Draws Interest” (10/20/08)
“Student-Created ‘SplitFrame’ Wins National AIA Award” (8/03/10)
This course is a research-design-build studio focused on a single, semester-long project. The intent of this course is to further develop students’ awareness and understanding of the built environment through both the study of project-related historical and theoretical issues and hands-on design and fabrication. Working through an intensive sequence of research, design, and fabrication phases, the studio will undertake to identify, comprehend, and address the theoretical issues at stake in the semester-long project, develop design work that responds to these issues, and collectively work together toward the full-scale realization of the design work created by the studio. As the semester progresses, additional design, representation, and production tools will be introduced and used for developing work for the project, from graphics software to the laser cutter.
Architecture takes place at Wesleyan’s North Studio.
