Immersive Retreat

 

Retreat Information (this page is being updated weekly with information about the 2023 retreat, check back often)

Dates: August 18-20, 2023
Where: The Wilds (a Columbus Zoo & Aquarium property) and Friendly Hills Camp and Conference Center
Provided by Ohio State Newark: Transportation from Ohio State Newark to and from The Wilds and Friendly Hills; Lodging at Friendly Hills; Meals at The Wilds and Friendly Hills

What is an immersive retreat?
What is a research field station?
Why are we having an immersive retreat at a research field station?
Will the retreat impact when I can move into the dorms?

 



What is an immersive retreat?

A retreat is when you leave the routines of your usual days behind to spend time focused on something important. Outside distractions are minimized; you are immersed in your temporary environment and focused on your purpose for being there. Maybe you’re helping quantify pollutants in a public water supply or studying the habits of endangered species. Maybe you make some new friends, learn some new things, and have some fun in the process.

The Ohio Means Science (OHMS) Scholars Program immersive retreat is planned to be all the above and more. For three days just before the autumn semester, you and a group of other first-year STEM-oriented students in the OHMS Scholars program at Ohio State Newark will travel, work, and live together at a research field station along with STEM faculty and staff. You’ll participate in ongoing research projects with field station scientists in residence and Newark STEM faculty. In the very first week of your very first semester of college, you will meet and mix with enthusiastic scientists of multiple disciplines! back to top



What is a research field station?

Scientists often study organisms, phenomena, minerals, atmospheres, landscapes—whatever is their research interest—in the place where they occur, whether local or remote. Few of us will get to the most remote of all research field stations, the International Space Station, to study the upper atmosphere and near space, but you can experience a field station atmosphere more locally. Right here in Ohio we have several renowned field stations, including Stone Laboratory, located on Gibraltar Island in Lake Erie, just two and a half hours drive north of Ohio State Newark, and The Wilds, located in Cumberland, Ohio, just an hour from drive east of Ohio State Newark.

Stone Laboratory is a research and education focused field station where scientists study freshwater plants and fish, birds, invasive species, pollutants, algal blooms, glacial geology, reptiles, and amphibians, as well as Great Lakes environmental and economic issues. Lake Erie is a living laboratory that you will work in during the retreat, as you sample and catalog its organisms from macro- to microscopic. Here you will learn and practice scientific techniques in the field, where nature is your classroom. Laboratory and land-based investigations on Gibraltar Island, South Bass Island and Kelly’s Island will round out your Lake Erie island experience. Start your undergraduate career from a research vessel on Lake Erie, even before you start classes! back to top

The Wilds, one of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium properties and now open almost year round for tours, has a strong, public-facing tour program that you may be familiar with, but also has scientists and facilities conducting research oriented toward wildlife conservation and  habitat restoration. Most of the 9,000 acres that make up The Wilds were formerly a coal strip-mine and are all in some stage of recovery from mining damage. While The Wilds origins trace back to 1978, mining operations in the area lasted into the early 1990s when true habitat restoration began. Today, The Wilds is internationally recognized for the conservation of many endangered species from around the world! Check out their research and conservations efforts on YouTube.



Why are we having an immersive retreat at a research field station?

The thing that brings most of us to STEM is curiosity. So more than anything else, we want to feed your curiosity from the very beginning of your college experience. We want to introduce you to other first-year students and faculty who are always asking, “what IS that?” or “WHY is that?”

Scientists rarely work alone, but instead we form close collaborations with peers, students, and mentors. These collaborative relationships draw on the diverse perspectives and skillsets of the community to produce high quality data and discovery. This immersive retreat will help you to start building those relationships with your peers, faculty mentors, and key staff at Ohio State Newark.

We also will take some time to get you oriented to the way things work at Ohio State Newark. By the time we leave the field station, you’ll personally know a diverse group of people you can call on for academic and personal support when you need it, and likely a good handful of those people will become your friends for life. back to top



Will the retreat impact when I can move into the dorms?

For those scholars planning to live in student housing at Ohio State Newark, please reach out to Dr. Andrew Roberts, the Project Director, about move-in dates. Typically, Autumn dorm move-in is scheduled to begin on the Thursday of the week ahead of the start of classes, so you will be able to move in the day before departure for the retreat. back to top