Environmental Treasure Hunt

 The new cohort of certificate students is up to all sorts of tricks!

A new semester under Corona-regulations is about to begin, but this time the new freshmen students have never met any of their fellows in real life. Everything will take place online, and getting to know people via a computer screen is simply not the same. To lesson the downheartedness, we decided to plan a Corona-compliant, in-person event: the Environmental Treasure Hunt.

Autumn colours

On Sunday, 1 November, the time had finally come! Despite rain and gray skies, almost everyone who registered showed up. Five groups started at different points in the English Garden and were tasked with finding seven stations set up with a series of challenges. Each group consisted of students from various faculties (with interdisiplinary constellations where possible). Posted at each stations was a student from a higher semester. These experienced students were then queried on the history of the English Garden or the RCC's namesake, Rachel Carson. Other station tasks involved taking a funny (and Corona-compliant) photo or finding objects with autumn colours. The goal was to collect letters after successfully completing each task. This was not so simple, as the track marshals had to first be discovered in very cunning hiding places near to their respective stations - for example in a dry riverbed.

The rain cannot stop us!

At the final destination, the letters had to be put together to form a solution word. Everyone got a surprise in the end, regardless of whether they found the solution. In a large circle, all treasure hunters took turns to retrieve a surprise from the box sheltered under an umbrella. Passers-by, unaware of what it was all about, looked quite confused. Hidden in the wrapping paper were seed bombs - handy balls made of soil, containing plant seeds. Seed bombs are used for example in the guerrilla gardening movement as a method of sowing, mainly in urban areas. Attached to each seed bomb was a question, as with fortune cookies, to be answered by each participant on returning to their place in the circle.

Ready for distribution!

Despite the social distance and the obligation to wear masks during the entire event, everyone had great fun and appreciats the valubale experience of meeting their fellow students at least once in real life.

We wish everyone a good start to the semester this week and hope very much that we will be able to organize excursions, place-based workshops, and trips in the summer semester as usual.

The Environmental Studies Certificate Program Team