New Connections In My Brain

Last night was my first Master Naturalist class. After we all signed in and had our "ice breaking activity," we learned that we are in the Master Naturalist class, not the naturist class. A naturalist is someone who studies or explains nature. A naturist is someone who likes to be outdoors without any clothes on-definitely not my style. So I'm glad I signed up for the right thing. The other 13 people in the class are very interesting. Some are already working on environmental jobs, others are in sales, city planning, aviation, pathology, epidemiology, law, etc. One guy is a student. The topics we covered were hard for me - continential glaciers versus alpine glaciers, Minnesota's three biomes, ecology, photosynthesis, plant respiration, the carbon cycle, the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle, food webs, how the deer and human population in MN has doubled since the 1930's, energy transferrence, the effect of climate on species diversity, invasive species, producers, primary consumers, tertiary consumers, how many acres of grass it takes to sustain one predator. We had an interesting discussion about buckthorn and why it is considered an invasive species versus a new plant coming into this biome and isn't that judgement call, etc. The two and a half hours just flew by. I have to study two 70+ page chapters by Wednesday. Much of what we learn will be on our own. I can just feel new electrical connections being made in my brain. I haven't studied these topics like this since the 1970's. Tonight I will watch "Lost" and let my brain relax into it's old shape for a night.