Philosophy

The goal of the educational programs at the LCC is to provide university students opportunities to learn about the natural world through hands-on experience in the field.  Students are imtsructed in methods and conduct scientific research in relatively undisturbed ecosystems, yet near an urban center.  The station also provides the first opportunities for many urban students to examine the natural world first hand.  The field station has a long record of providing undergraduate students close collaborations with Fordham faculty members and opportunities to conduct their experimental studies to test ecological theory and learn about impacts of human disturbance on natural systems.

 Uses

The LCC serves as a focal point for undergraduate  education in several areas:

• Summer courses taught at the station
• Field Trips for undergraduate courses
• Calder Summer Undergraduate Research    (CSUR) 
• Honors theses and research tutorials

Students using mark and recapture sampling to estimate population
sizes of yellow long-horned beetles

 
Teaching lab in Calder Hall

 Educational Facilities

The station combines state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, teaching laboratories, classrooms,    ecology library and a variety of   biological communities for a broad education in field biology.

Students involoved in their own research projects work in the laboratories of the faculty at the station

 Field Trips

Courses offered by the Biological Sciences Department at Fordham University use the station in a variety of field-based exercises, such as biodiversity of meadow communities, animal abundance estimates, and experiments on freshwater plankton.  Local colleges such as Pace University, Columbia University, and Manhattanville College also bring their students to the station (with prior permission).

 
Students collecting plankton from Calder Lake

 
Presenting results at the annual CSUR symposium

 Calder Summer Undergraduate Research

The CSUR program offers undergraduate students opportunities to conduct their own independent research studies in the summer, with close instruction from Fordham faculty members.

The intellectual focus of the undergraduate research program has been grounded in indeoendent research, and is supported by direct faculty mentoring and short courses on experimental design, data analysis, and scientific presentation.

 
Student measuring carbon content of leaf samples