The Fall

The fall is a busy time in every academic calendar, and here in Ithaca (where education is our main industry) it seems that the entire city, town, and county accelerate into the fast lane every autumn. When I arrived at PRI almost exactly 15 years ago, however, the fall was nothing special for us. We were largely invisible to the local schools and colleges. But as PRI (and the Museum of the Earth) have become more and more involved in education at all levels, the leaves are not the only things that change for us in the fall here on West Hill.

In the Museum we shift from a focus on individual and family visitors (which are highest for us in July and August) to school classes, whose yellow busses are now an almost daily sight in our parking lots. We see 5,000-10,000 K-12 students each year during such class visits, about half of whom come in September-November. We also welcome a rising number of students from Cornell and Ithaca College who increasingly come to the Museum as part of their class work, either with their professors or on independent assignments.

Beyond the Museum, three PRI staff members teach regular undergraduate classes at Cornell and Ithaca College and so Director of Collections Greg Dietl is in his first semester of teaching a seminar in Cornell's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) on paleoecology. Director of Education Rob Ross is teaching his History of Life course at IC. And I am teaching one third of Evolution of the Earth System in EAS at Cornell, as well as advising my two PhD students.

It's kind of reassuring to finally be an integral part of this vital ebb and flow in our local culture.

-Warren Allmon, Director