In The Know

• Jul 18, 2007 8:07 am US/Central
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  In The Know: Assignment Worth Taking A Day Off

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In The Know: Assignment Worth Taking A Day Off

(WCCO) Don Shelby was gone on Monday. He usually uses his days off to rest, but in this case he was on assignment at Lake Itasca -- one that suited him just fine. Now he talks about what he learned.

The U of M's College of Biological Science asked the brightest students, in-coming freshman, who want to save the world through chemistry and surgery and microbiological engineering, to spend a little time at camp ... up to their armpits in a swamp.

I was there. I could tell not many of them had ever been in a swamp. It's a little like boot camp, but Camp Nature of Life transcends the classroom.

Henry David Thoreau would be proud. They learn that bugs and flora aren't simply specimens under a microscope's slide. They are living things upon which other living things depend, upon which we depend. Our welfare is tied to things we don't even know about yet.

I came away learning, too. None of these young people will ever be able to look at a microbe or a bug the same way again. They will know we are standing on their wiggly microscopic shoulders, and soon we'll stand on the shoulders of the men and women these young people will become.

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