Nineteen juniors and seniors in Colgate’s environmental studies program got a taste of what it’s like to conduct a “real-world” environmental analysis this semester.

As part of their Interdisciplinary Investigation in the Environment capstone course, the undergrads spent the past several months studying Sauquoit Creek for the Utica-based Sauquoit Creek Intermunicipal Commission (SCIC).

They discussed their research on the creek’s environmental history, recreational development, flooding, biochemistry, and the use of the land around it, and offered recommendations directly to the SCIC at a special meeting Wednesday in the Oneida County offices.

The SCIC is made up of community leaders from towns along the Sauquoit Creek.

“It was a great opportunity for us to present to non-faculty members and non-students on a subject that may actually have some impact,” said senior Hilary Smith. “I think we all really wanted to do professional jobs because we truly care that the commission might like our proposals enough to initiate one or two.”

Smith and the rest of her classmates made more than an hour’s worth of presentations on everything from the creek’s sulfate concentration to the prices of homes along its banks to the types of industry bordering it over the years.

Then, they asked for questions from the audience.

The SCIC had none.

“I think this was a lot more in-depth than we all expected,” explained Donald Ryan, mayor of the village of New Hartford. He said he looked forward to reading the students’ complete findings in report form.

Other members of the SCIC seemed equally impressed.

“I’ve seen a lot of presentations before and everyone here did a top-notch job,” said John Kent, commissioner of the Oneida County Department of Planning. “Everything was really well done.”

Colgate’s involvement in the project began about a year ago, when Randy Fuller, professor of biology and head of the environmental studies department, received a letter from the SCIC about doing a study of the creek, which flows north from Paris Station (a town about 18 miles northeast of Hamilton) through Oneida County to the Mohawk River.

Fuller and environmental studies colleague Peter Klepeis, assistant professor of geography, jumped at the chance to provide the students in their team-taught course with a practical project — as well as the chance to do some good for the community.

“We wanted to make the capstone experience as close to real life as we could,” explained Fuller. “For the students, it gave them a sense of what it would really be like to work for an environmental firm or as a consultant. It was a really good fit, in terms of a project.”

After traveling to the creek a few times in the fall for various assessments, Fuller and Klepeis had their pupils form teams.

They assigned them specific aspects of the creek on which to focus, and turned them loose for the semester.

The students — who are environmental biology, environmental geology, environmental geography, or environmental economics majors — spent the subsequent months wading through the creek gathering samples, attending town meetings, speaking with community leaders, and culling through town archives for historical data.

After compiling all their information, they did shortened, trial runs of their final SCIC presentations at a Colgate geochemistry class and a brown bag lunch last week.

Senior Mia Mabanta, who spoke for the land use/land change team, said that she and her group had immersed themselves in their project during the semester, so she had been well-prepared for the commission meeting.

“I think I really had the material down, so I felt pretty relaxed going into it,” she said.

Mabanta added that she developed a lot of new skills during the class, but found that simply conducting the analysis was a learning process in and of itself.

“They gave us our task and it was up to us to figure out a way to complete it,” she explained. “We tried a number of different approaches, some of which were less successful than others, so it was incredibly frustrating at times. But when the project started to come together for us, it really came together, and we ultimately produced something that I think is pretty professional.”

Fellow senior Chris Ross felt he learned new things as well. He discovered a lot about the tiny organisms living in the creek, he said, but also about “the more general experience of working with a group on a large project for a public entity.”

For Fuller and Klepeis, then, it was mission accomplished.

“In many ways, the class was about service learning as much as about engaging in research,” said Klepeis. “Because of this component, students gained a greater appreciation for the communities along the Sauquoit Creek, the range of social and environmental issues affecting them, and the degree to which they should try to participate in problem-solving within their own communities after they graduate from Colgate.”

He said that there aren’t any immediate plans for future work on the creek, but hoped that students could continue to conduct research in the coming semesters.

 “I suspect this isn’t the end of Colgate’s relationship with the SCIC,” said Fuller.