CAVES AND SPIDERS

Along with catching up in their courses, students participated in a variety of interesting summer field studies with our learning partner the PAST Foundation. Many of the field studies provided college credit and Battelle helped students with scholarships to pay for the trips.

This one really creeps me out, but the kids who went loved it. One of our graduate teaching assistants from OSU who works with our biology teacher is doing her Ph.D. research in spider webs. She helped design this “Web of Life” field study for our students to explore caves in Kentucky and help with her research. The description on the PAST website said students would study the “ecology of specific caves and the spider colonies in the region." -- Um, excuse me, did you say COLONIES??

Seven girls and eight boys spent a week crawling through mud and some pretty tight spaces to do their work. An excerpt from a team’s daily journal:

Laurel Cave was a lot bigger than Horn Hollow and Cobble Crawl. We got to climb and crawl and get crazy dirty. When they said we would be getting muddy, they took it to a whole new level. Laurel was really fun, being a larger cave; there were a lot more crickets and spiders.

Lovely. I prefer a nice beach, myself! To see more photos and read their journals go to: www.pastfoundation.org/2008Caves

Cassie and Ronny counting spiders.