A mandatory field trip on a sunny afternoon is probably unlikely to induce enthusiastic gasps of amazement among a group of average college students these days.
But this was exactly what happened last week when instructor Laura Florand took her two French 2 classes to the Primate Center. Florand's students took specialized, behind-the-scenes tours Thursday and Friday, courtesy of Primate Center assistant director Dean Gibson and tour and education director Heather Thomas.
Although the connection between the Primate Center's resources and the French 2 curriculum might not be immediately clear to most, this excursion was designed for a very specific reason: to introduce students to Madagascar, a Francophone country that, Florand said, is often overlooked by students of French.
The idea for this immersion experience was born out of a collaboration between Gibson and Florand that began last year when Gibson--who lived in Madagascar for three years before coming to Duke--wanted to improve her French. After auditing Florand's French 2 class, she and Florand discussed the option of bringing the class to the Primate Center to make the introduction to Madagascar's culture tangible to the students.
Florand embraced the idea immediately because, she noted, the "cultural acquisition" in most French classrooms "remains almost exclusively focused on France. We're shortchanging our students on the richness of other cultures that the French language opens to them."
Gibson kicked off the afternoon's activities with a slide show to introduce students to Madagascar's climate and its particular species of flora and fauna. Gibson also stressed the biological richness of Madagascar.
Thomas then led students through an interior section of cages normally off limits to the public. The lemurs and the student visitors examined each other with equal curiosity as Thomas fed a primate named Witherspoon--named after actress Reese Witherspoon for its blue eyes--raisins and discussed the breeding and "minimally invasive" research conducted on the animals at the Primate Center.
Freshman Lauren Guenther said she was surprised how much she enjoyed the trip. Guenther also expressed concern for the potential closure of the Primate Center, a sentiment shared among both student visitors and employees.
The Primate Center's director, William Hylander, is currently writing a midterm review evaluating the center's progress and outlining a "strategic plan for the center's future" to be submitted to Provost Peter Lange at the end of this week. Lange's evaluation of the review will determine how much additional funding the University will funnel into the center's growth.
Although the future of the Primate Center is on an indefinite timetable, Hylander explained, it is not likely to be closed soon. In view of the center's "tremendous progress," Hylander maintains high hopes that the Primate Center will continue to accrue the funding that will allow for its survival.
Florand's classes' trip is an example of a potential continuing collaboration between the Primate Center and the French department. Hylander is now contemplating the launch of a Duke in Madagascar study abroad program. Florand hopes that her involvement will serve as proof of the center's utility at Duke so she will be able to continue this program with future French 2 classes.
"I've been very pleased with the way this has worked so far, and, in fact, am looking to ways we can expand it in such a way that students will take a greater curiosity about and interest in the world with them when they leave Duke," Florand said.
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