Natural history of the Serengeti and surrounding ecosystems

A professor and his adventures with a group of ISU students

 

Dr. Marlin Rice, a professor of Entomology at Iowa State University, has led three groups of students on an overseas travel course to Tanzania. The travel course, Biology 394, fondly referred to by Dr. Rice as an “international field trip”, aims to expose students to four major ecosystems in Tanzania, including the Serengeti desert. The Serengeti is home to a variety of exotic wildlife most of us only get to see though the lense of National Geographic. This unique travel course gives students an opportunity to observe magnificent wild life up close and personal. Leopards, cheetahs, hippos and even lions on the hunt were just a few of the animals students have been able to observe first hand. Students learn about the various ecosystems in Tanzania from a variety of unique perspectives.

In summer 07, students participated in a bush walk, sailed in a hot air balloon over the Serengeti and hiked up a live volcano. Dr. Rice explained that he wanted the students to have a “life changing experience” and come away from the field trip looking at the world a little differently. He admitted that even though the students come to see wildlife, it is actually the interaction with the local people that leave the biggest impact on some students. The groups visited a Masai village and a small orphanage in the Serengeti, home to many children whose parents were the victims of AIDS. Dr. Rice said that he really felt like the students had learned something that couldn’t be taught in a classroom. At the end of the trip he had students fill out a written survey. He got the feeling that their experiences in Tanzania would be something that they would carry with them in a positive way for a very long time.

Dr. Rice hopes to be able to take another group of students back to Tanzania in 2010, and spend even more time at the orphanage developing a service-learning project there. When asked what he enjoyed most about the trips, Dr. Rice replied, "I like seeing the expressions of the students and the change this experience could potentially make in their lives."