Lincoln (Neb.) - Oct. 15, 1999 - The University of Nebraska- Lincoln School of Biological Sciences will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Cedar Point Biological Station with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 21 at the Wick Alumni Center, 1520 R St.
Cedar Point, located on the south side of Lake Ogallala in Keith County, has been a hub of research and teaching activity in the biological sciences since its founding in 1975 by a group of NU professors, including John Janovy, Brent Nickol and Gary Hergenrader. Janovy and other former directors of the station will be on hand at the reception to discuss the station's history.
"There are a lot of wonderful stories, most of which I don't know because I've only been going out there the last four years," said NU biology professor Alan Kamil, who succeeded Janovy last month to become the sixth director of Cedar Point.
"There are a lot of faculty and students who put up with a lot of hardship to take an old Girl Scout camp that wasn't in very good condition and turn it into the wonderful thing it is today. They started with very little and turned it into something that's very valuable to the university. The main point of the celebration is to recognize those people."
Cedar Point comprises 695 acres and its faculty and staff also manage Arapaho Prairie, a 1,280-acre parcel of the Sandhills owned by the Nature Conservancy. Cedar Point draws students and faculty from around the world to its unique habitat and excellent research facilities. The site is near four types of prairie and many kinds of aquatic environments, and includes the zone of overlap between eastern and western U.S. plant and animal species.
Facilities at Cedar Point have expanded as the site has drawn increasing research interest. Since 1985, added facilities have included a 40- by 20-foot research lab, several heated and air-conditioned cabins for visiting researchers, and a large research building with three wet laboratories, four dry labs, and a multi-use garage and storage area.
Now, Kamil said, hopes are to secure grant funding to expand the station even more and to broaden its mission as a key part of undergraduate education in biological sciences.
"Over the next four or five years, we hope to take Cedar Point and broaden it and strengthen it," he said. "It's great now, but we want to make it even better. So many things are happening right now in environmental biology, in terms of both education and research, that Cedar Point can become even more important for the university."
A significant first step in that process is the development of the Cedar Point Learning Community on campus in Lincoln, scheduled to start in the 2000-2001 academic year. The community will be open to 24 to 30 incoming freshman biology majors each year. The students will live on the same residence hall floor, be able to take at least two classes together and be able to take part in field trips and laboratory tours led by some of NU's top biologists. The year will be capped off with a three- or four-day experience at Cedar Point immediately following the spring semester.
At present, Kamil said, Cedar Point's activities are geared toward upperclassmen, graduate students and faculty, but he said he hopes expanded facilities and the Learning Community will open up opportunities for younger students.
"A biological field station is an ideal context for
integrating education and research," he said. "One of the great
things that happens when students go to Cedar Point is they take
courses taught by active researchers and they live in a community
with a lot of active research going on - and they learn a lot.
Properly set up, an enriching research environment can also
enrich the educational environment."
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