From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 03 2003 - 10:18:47 EDT
July 3, 2003 == MEDIA ADVISORY
A new interpretive center at the Calvin College Ecosystem Preserve will offer
year-round educational programming to local schoolchildren, taking advantage of
the 90-acre preserve's abundant natural resources. But now, thanks to a
$91,400 grant from the state of Michigan's Energy Office, the Vincent and Helen
Bunker Interpretive Center will become even more educational.
That's because Calvin plans to use the money to build a "large scale solar
photovoltaic demonstration project," a fancy way to describe solar energy.
Calvin plans to build the project on the roof of the 4,500-square-foot Bunker
Interpretive Center with interactive displays in the Center itself showing the
performance of the system and its ability to meet the power demands of the
building. There also will be a website dedicated to the system and its
performance, brochures for visitors to the Center explaining the basics of
photovoltaic power, and educational materials for local students and their
teachers on alternative energy sources.
Groundbreaking on the Center will take place later this summer.
Paulo Ribeiro, a professor of engineering, will lead the team putting the
project together. He will be joined in his work by a variety of Calvin staff
and by Calvin engineering major Jordan Hoogendam of Cobourg, Ontario.
Ribeiro says that the general public still is often unaware of the benefits of
solar energy and that many misconceptions abound about the expense and
efficiency of solar power. By integrating the demonstration project into the
new Bunker Interpretive Center, Calvin hopes to reach children, parents and
teachers with good, solid information about alternative energy.
The Ecosystem Preserve at Calvin gets some 2,000 local schoolchildren visiting
its fall and spring programs. The new Center will allow for year-round
programming and will greatly expand the number of visits. The $2 million
facility, complete with classroom, interactive displays and more, is named for
Grand Rapids resident Helen Bunker, who, with her deceased husband Vincent,
lived for 40 years near the Ecosystem Preserve. She donated $750,000 to the
project, while the Grand Rapids Community Foundation gave $100,000 to the
effort and the Frey Foundation donated $82,500. Numerous individuals also have
contributed to the effort.
The Preserve is home to over 50 species of birds, almost 30 species of
mammals, nine species of amphibians, six reptile species and three fish
species. A visit to the Preserve might turn up everything from deer to frogs to
snakes.
Calvin's Ecosystem Preserve has four goals: 1) to preserve the complex of
habitats (the ecosystem) on the site; 2) to provide a scientific resource for
study by regular college classes, as well as for individual research; 3) to
provide a passive recreational resource for the College community; and 4) to
provide an educational resource for the larger community of Grand Rapids.
It is this final goal that will be most enhanced by the new building.
The Bunker Interpretive Center will contain:
a classroom/auditorium with seating for 60 and a wall-to-wall windowed
overlook on the preserve
a classroom/laboratory for 24 students
a workroom/conference room for 14-16 volunteers
display spaces
The new Center will allow for hands-on learning (a key focus and need
according to local K-8 science teachers) from September through May. It also
will allow for expansion of Calvin's summer camps program in the Preserve. And
it will be the setting for a new two-week summer course in outdoor education
for local school teachers (to be led by Calvin faculty) that will run
concurrently with the summer camps.
Calvin also plans to reach out beyond its students in putting together a cadre
of Center volunteers. While it will continue to use students from such
disciplines as education, biology and environmental studies, it also will reach
out to adult volunteers, including seniors. The new Center will be the base of
operations for this new corps of volunteers.
Finally the new Interpretive Center will be a plus for casual visitors to the
Preserve with its educational and historical displays, its staffed information
station and its restrooms!
-end-
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Thu Jul 03 2003 - 10:18:56 EDT