Want a master's degree?

DeWolf/Kellogg Farm will host APU graduate students

July 10, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- A nature center and master's program in outdoor and environmental education are coming to the Valley, starting this fall.

Alaska Pacific University will offer master's-degree classes at its 700-acre DeWolf/Kellogg Farm just north of Palmer. The 36-credit program will emphasize APU's active learning model by having graduate students learn, then teach outdoor and environmental curriculum to local schools and groups, using the Kellogg Farm as a nature center.

Graduate students will take science electives along with core classes in curriculum design, assessment, and teaching methods in science. They also will be required to complete a thesis.

Paul Twardock, APU's director of outdoor studies, said the new program allows the university to better use the vast tract of land, which includes both farm fields and thick forests.

"We saw a need for a graduate-level program in the state," he said, "and this is a wonderful way to learn science in the outdoors -- it's very different from learning in the classroom."

The university is working with outdoor education organizations, such as Trailside Discovery and National Outdoor Leadership School, as it develops the nature center and refines the program. By spring of 2006, the university hopes the center will be used by elementary, middle and high schools in the Mat-Su for field trips and outdoor and environmental studies.

With a new nature center, Twardock said teachers won't have to take students to Eagle River or Anchorage for outdoor education.

"There is nothing like this in the Valley right now," he said. "We are hoping this will become a center for education in the Valley."

Unlike the Eagle River Nature Center or the Campbell Creek Science Center, the APU farm will not be open to the general public, at least not right away.

"It would be more for specific groups," Twardock said, adding that the program hopes to also cater to private schools and home-school groups as well as other organizations that want to use the facility and graduate students' expertise.

Will the center ever be open for the general public?

"That's a possibility," Twardock said. "I think one of the exciting parts to all of this is that the opportunities are boundless."

Developing trails and other outdoor facilities are also possibilities as the program matures.

When it starts this fall, the new master's program will be one of only a handful nationwide. Only 18 programs offer similar degree programs in outdoor-environmental education, and just six of those have residential or travel components.

The idea for the program began in October 2003 at an APU outdoor studies retreat attended by students and faculty. Currently, APU has 60 students enrolled in its outdoor studies undergraduate program.

Core classes for the master's program will be held at the APU farm, with electives available in Anchorage at APU's main campus. A maximum of 12 students can be admitted into the program, with the application deadline set for Aug. 1.

Limited student housing will be available on the farm. To find out more, people may visit the university's Web site, www.alaskapacific.edu.

"We are very excited that the university has taken this step," Twardock said. "The Valley is growing so fast -- that's where the ball is heading in many ways."

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266.