Tuesday, May 7, 2019

"Bear Island" at Congaree: Part 2: Student Work and Presentations

So - it rained! it rained quite a bit, and it was muggy, and it was wet, and  - yet! Important Work Was Being Done!

Our intrepid campers drew, wrote, considered, learned to play the guitar (kind of), painted, interviewed each other, and in general had a look and saw what was there - and in the weeks after the trip, took their work into the post-production stage to get ready to present.


Now, remember: this is a single credit hour 199 course, either in Art or in Interdisciplinary Studies - we asked students to imagine and plan a project, work on it while we were at Congaree, and finish and present on it last week. Alyssa, I, and all students of the class were the audience of the presentations.

So, what was there?


Ashley Hogg (Computer Science) interviewed fellow campers about stress reduction in nature; her insight was that even among students who had never camped before (half the group), being in nature lowered stress levels.





Attiyah Shakir (Exercise Science) planned out a work-out routine with picnic benches, larger logs, and small logs, relying entirely on materials available at Congaree and around the campsite. Because everything was terribly soggy, the work remained somewhat theoretical.



Asante Rice (Interdisciplinary Studies, PSY/EDU) researched the possibilities for young children to enjoy the park on a field trip, drew connections between preschool development and learning, documented the existing park offerings for young children, and considered how one would go about planning such a trip for young children.


Clayton Chewning (Criminology) conducted guitar lessons and found out that even beginner students learn in many different ways - although the commonality he found was that every student wanted to master pretty much the same song.


Chelsea Larymore (English) revised her proposal quite a bit - rather than working with clay and drawing, she ended up doing a lot of journal writing, partly because the rain was so discouraging. Also, she realized she was not particularly interested in drawing very large trees - sometimes we find our calling through process of elimination.


Bailey Vereen (Interdisciplinary Studies: BIO/PSY) conducted a study about sleep - her main question was, did students, even inexperienced campers, get any sleep at all in a tent? It is possible that the results were skewed by the general use of Benadryl (which was more copiously available the first night), but there were charts! And, yes, students slept.




The Art projects were no less intriguing - although perhaps in some cases limited by students' concern that their sketch books might get wet.

We were shown some beautiful botanical drawings by Sydnee Nieves, who looked at some plant details - and kicked off an interesting discussion about how drawings, or art in general, is bound to depend on the experience of the artist - not only on the details of the plant that is the object.

Bryce Lail relied mostly on his camera, exploring the ways it could filter light differently to convey specific ways he saw the wooded landscape - his presentation focused on a clearer understanding of how he could manage settings on his camera.

Darius Lynard documented his first camping experience with drawings, photos, and journal notes, providing an overview of both the pleasures and the challenges of our three days in the woods: tents, guitar lessons, tarps, and all.

Abby Gillam worked in charcoal, water colors, and photo to take a closer look at the flora of Congaree - gnarly pine trees, seed pods, various leaves, and some branch structures all made into sketches and paintings.

Damion Dorch, finally, created a zine about his camping experience - it's a nifty little book, held together by two staples, chronicling the day-to-day experience of being out in the woods, with tents and tarps and fellow students, for the first time ever - and it depicts in utter clarity the confusion, resignation to fate, creativity, and some fun that defined the three days.