Facilities Facilitates Learning

Resident arborist Mark Scott assisted Professor Tom Arnold’s plant physiology class by operating one of the college’s cherry pickers to measure water rates.

Resident arborist Mark Scott assisted Professor Tom Arnold’s plant physiology class by operating one of the college’s cherry pickers to measure water rates.

Professor Tom Arnold wanted students to understand how water is dispersed through trees, even if that meant enlisting Dickinson Facilities Management (DFM) to suspend them 200 feet above the Benjamin Rush statue.

Last month, Arnold brought his plant physiology class to the academic quad where a few small teams ascended above the adirondack chairs with plastic tubes to measure the rates at which water may move from a trees roots, to its leaves.

Arnold enlisted Dickinson’s resident arborist, facilitie’s Mark Scott, to operate one of the college’s cherry pickers and to assist the students.

“Learning how to apply an otherwise boring equation to a real life situation made the experience special and the cherry picker really made the lab come to life,” said Katri Thiele ’15, a lab participant.

Scott seemed to be a vital part of the lab both as the resident arborist and as the mechanical expert, added Thiele. This is not the first time that Scott, or other members of DFM, have assisted students in accomplishing academic goals.

According to the GIS blog on the Dickinson website, Scott led an effort last November to catalogue and map all of the trees on campus.

As a result, the Dickinson community would have access to an interactive map holding data that included the trees location, species, height, and current condition, said the website. This map could be used by students, faculty, prospective families, and even visiting tree enthusiasts, the website added.

Scott’s efforts to help our community in its academic endeavors “is a testament to our commitment to the students” says Kristen Williams director of facilities reporting and budget management. But that commitment doesn’t stop there.

“Anyone in DFM would jump at the opportunity to contribute to one of the school’s academic or environmental goals,” she added.

Last year, the Idea Fund created the Dickinson Dog House, a place where students can live and train dogs to eventually be placed with special needs children.

According to Williams, the Student Handiwork for Organized Projects (SHOP), another idea fund, joined facilities management in a “skill share” program to build this Dog House.

The benefits of this “skill share” were highlighted in last year’s Dickinson College Fall Magazine. “SHOP worked with facilities management staff to build a bamboo fence for the college farm, make improvements to the idea fund office and renovate that North Street house to serve as the official dog house space.”

“I think it’s a testament to how dynamic this project is that there are so many elements needed to make it work,” said Lauren Holtz ‘15, one of the founders of the Dog House initiative.

Williams added that this was just tip of the ice berg. This semester DFM assisted Prof. Nicola Tynan’s first year seminar on water consumption to gather historical data and make possible recommendations for the campus to improve.

On a more frequent basis, “members of facilities give talks on sustainability and other relevant topics,” that can be helpful to students and professors alike. DFM personnel can often be found leading a class discussion, sitting in on lectures, and in the most recent case operating cherry pickers,” said Williams.

According to the Dickinson website, “DFM provides facilities-related services to the greater Dickinson community in support of the college’s programs, its mission and its vision.”

More importantly, says Scott, “Everybody in our department knows that we are here for the students,” says Scott. It is for that reason that, “we are willing to help when needed.”