The search committee for Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College has named Dr. Jason Martin as Merry Lea’s new executive director. He brings over 10 years of programmatic leadership across environmental services and environmental education programs.
Along with our colleagues at Goshen College, most of the Merry Lea Team is hunkered down and working from home due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Greetings from the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.
It’s been nearly two months since the seventh cohort of undergraduates completed Merry Lea’s Sustainability Leadership Semester (SLS). Between mid-August and mid-December, they shared classes, meals, field trips, hikes, social activities and a weeklong canoeing adventure.
The Winter 2020 Merry Leaflet follows students in last fall's Sustainability Leadership Semester as they explore gravel pits, learn about food councils, talk with government officials and make pizzas in a wood-fired oven. You'll also accompany our nature preschoolers as they encounter a dead deer and watch ibises in flight in the Bahamas.
What happens when children’s interests drive education? Merry Lea’s Nature Preschool could offer plenty of examples. In one case, it all began with dinosaurs.
For Dani Tippmann, corn is part of the family. Historically, the kernels were ground into flour, the cobs were used to make jelly and the corn silk could be smoked or made into a tea that is cleansing for the kidneys.
According to Maria Tice who coordinates the generous contributions of labor, those hours are worth $29,463. She based this calculation on statistics from the Independent Sector, which values a volunteer hour in the State of Indiana at $24.13.
Meet the new Merry Lea team members!
Four days a week at noon, a small caravan leaves from the Farmstead Barn. There are two wagons, three teachers and a gaggle of 14 preschoolers wearing matching backpacks and rubber boots. The children take turns pulling the wagons which carry supplies for the day.
