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July 3, 2003 | Calvin
Gets $91,000 Grant | ||||
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 $91,000 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 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 substantial numbers of 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, the Frey Foundation donated $82,500 and the DTE Energy Foundation contributed $50,000. 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 fox 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:
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! |
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Contact Phil
de Haan |