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“Today’s students are demanding more opportunities for environmental education. In Arts & Sciences we bring a variety of disciplinary perspectives to bear on the human impacts of environmental change. The field station is a critical component of our work, allowing students and faculty to work side by side in nature to explore and understand the changes happening in our region—our home—and inform solutions that will preserve resources for future generations.”

Ken Petren, PhD Dean, College of Arts and Sciences

RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY

In a field near the UC Center for Field Studies main headquarters, biologist Patrick Guerra and undergraduate student Jered Nathan are on the hunt for monarch butterflies, in a quest to understand the keys to their epic, multigenerational annual migration from southern Canada to the mountains of central Mexico.

Nearby, biologist Josh Benoit and UC undergraduates Alicia Fieler, Benjamin Davies and Madisen Kimbrel drag flags made of fleece over bushes and meadows full of summer wildflowers to collect ticks for Benoit’s research lab. They are working to understand what makes these diseasespreading parasites able to withstand not just cold Midwest winters, but many pesticides used to control them.

REAL-WORLD IMPACT

At the C.V. Theis Groundwater Observatory, another partnership with Great Parks of Hamilton County in Miami Whitewater Forest, geologist David Nash is monitoring realtime data of the interaction between the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer, the sole source of drinking water for 2.3 million residents of Southwest Ohio, and the Great Miami River and its adjacent tributaries. To ensure the health of this critical water supply, experts in groundwater hydrology from the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering and Applied Science will use this data to understand the impacts of increasing urbanization and industrialization—and to mitigate their effects.

In a natural area adjacent to the Shaker Trace Trail, biologist Theresa Culley collects samples of the Bradford Pear, a nonnative tree introduced to Ohio by landscapers and nurseries that now threatens to systematically crowd out native oak, ash and elm trees. Culley’s work—and that of her colleagues at UC and across Ohio—has resulted in a ban on the sale of the Bradford Pear, as well as 38 other invasive species.

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS

UC’s 10-year partnership with the Great Parks of Hamilton County at the UC Center for Field Studies has transformed learning and research on the site of the historic White Water Shaker Village South Family, filling a critical need for hands-on engagement with nature to further our understanding of the interaction between humans and our environment.

From geological and biological discoveries to anthropological and environmental studies,

2008

First courses offered

this historic place has found new life as a multidisciplinary hub for UC students and faculty, local teachers and K-12 students, and researchers, scientists and scholars from across the globe.

Led by biologist David Lentz, the Center for Field Studies has achieved a number of milestones in its first 10 years.

2011 Farmhouse renovated into administrative and classroom space, becomes a host site for EPA’s volunteer water monitoring program

2012 NSF grant received to support sustainable facility improvements

2013

The John C. Court Archaeological Research Facility is completed and opened for research and classes

2014 Duke Energy Foundation grant to establish the Summer Teacher Training Program for regional K-12 teachers

2017

C.V. Theis Groundwater Observatory opens in partnership with Great Parks of Hamilton County and with funding from partners including Duke Energy Foundation, Terracon, The Kleingers Group, Scherzinger Drilling Company and others

“The teacher training program lit a fire in me that I didn’t know existed about outdoor education and its importance in every child’s life.”

DEANN O’TOOLE

2016 OHIO OUTSTANDING EARTH SCIENCE TEACHER

As a fourth-grade science teacher at Pattison Elementary in Milford, DeAnn O’Toole was working toward her master’s in Curriculum and Instruction at UC.

When her adviser emailed her about the STEM Teacher Training program—sponsored by the Duke Energy Foundation and offered exclusively at the Center for Field Studies—DeAnn immediately enrolled and was accepted into its first cohort in summer 2014.

DeAnn credits the classes she took as part of the program with her ability to teach science standards in new

and innovative ways. She takes her science students outside throughout the year to learn concepts only the great outdoors can provide, and she leads an archaeological dig with Pattison’s 100 fourth-graders to complement their studies of Ohio’s early peoples.

In applying all that she learned in the summer of 2014 to her own classroom, DeAnn was honored with the 2016 Ohio Outstanding Earth Science Teacher Award. Not only did the program offered at the Center for Field Studies change her approach to teaching—it also changed her life.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

As we celebrate our first 10 years in 2018, we look forward to achieving our next set of milestones and expanding our reach in the region and beyond.

With basic administrative, classroom and research space already developed on site, the most critical missing component is a facility where students, visiting researchers, and community groups can stay on the property while taking advantage of the natural beauty and educational opportunities we can offer. Our goals for these offerings include:

• Expansion of the annual 8-week Summer Teacher Training Program, funded by the Duke Energy Foundation, to serve an increased number of public school STEM teachers from across Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana.

• A full slate of credit-bearing short summer courses for UC undergraduate students.

• A robust schedule of public seminars and hands-on learning opportunities for adults and K-12 students in the region.

AN HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

Designated on the National Register of Historic Places, White Water Shaker Village South Family has relied on private philanthropy to retain its historical significance. In order to meet the demand for hands-on environmental learning and research, and having already preserved one irreplaceable structure on site, the university’s vision now is to breathe new life into the White Water Shaker Village Center Family Trustees’ Office.

At 6,500 square feet and four stories, the building is imbued with many architecturally significant features that have weathered the test of time. Our plan for renovation is truly a unique marriage of historic preservation and modern purpose.

With your help, we can continue to preserve White Water Shaker Village’s past while envisioning its bright future as the home to the UC Center for Field Studies.

Incorporating geothermal heating and solar power generation, the restored facility will include library and seminar spaces to support delivery of educational programs, and kitchen, dining, lounge, bathroom and sleeping quarters designed for the comfort of up to 25 guests. The university will pursue LEED certification for the project.

MAKE AN IMPACT

The caring generosity of friends like you will maintain the historical integrity of the Trustees’ Office while also expanding the impact of the UC Center for Field Studies. To realize our full educational vision for this center, the university must identify and raise a minimum of $1 million in private support. Matching opportunities in the form of state and federal historic tax credits and foundation grants are possible, elevating the impact and reach of private funds.

Naming opportunities for the facility as a whole, as well as for spaces within, will be available.