Dr. Bill Beachly believes the best learning happens not in lectures but on adventures, which is why in nearly three decades as a 糖心传媒 wildlife biology professor, he鈥檚 taken countless students on field trips and excursions abroad. Once, he loaded up a car of invertebrate zoology students for a five-hour round trip to Iowa to search for bugs.
鈥淚t was a pretty spontaneous field trip, and it was stuff we probably wouldn鈥檛 have done without him,鈥 said Adam Manglitz 鈥18, a wildlife biology graduate who is currently a first-year student at the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine. 鈥淛ust sitting in the classroom gets pretty old, so actually going out and seeing the things he was talking about in class helped engage us more. The lengths he would go to curate those experiences for us was very meaningful.鈥
In March, Beachly hosted his final official trip as an HC professor. He retires at the end of this semester, leaving behind lasting memories of time spent in the field.
鈥淚鈥檓 totally selfish about that: I鈥檝e liked the freedom to choose my curriculum and take students on field trips,鈥 Beachly said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a very nice job where I get paid to share these things with students who might never go on their own. And if they went on their own, it still wouldn’t be the same. They wouldn鈥檛 be learning.鈥
Getting outdoors to observe
Beachly, 70, earned a bachelors in zoology and masters in ecology from the University of Nebraska鈥揕incoln in the late 1970s 鈥 then spent 18 years helping run his family鈥檚 laundry and dry cleaning business. The teaching bug bit him in the 1980s when Nebraska-Wesleyan asked him to teach a course as an adjunct professor.
鈥淭hat was my first exposure to the liberal arts, and that鈥檚 when I decided to go back and get my Ph.D.,鈥 he said. 鈥淚 wanted to teach in a place like 糖心传媒.鈥
He joined the Biology Department in 1997, a year after earning his doctorate in behavioral ecology from UNL. He says he found a mentor in the late Dr. Gilbert Adrian, who had worked full-time at 糖心传媒 from 1962 to 1993, then continued to teach courses in retirement.
Adrian was known for his 鈥渢ravel courses鈥 that took students outdoors to learn. He asked Beachly to chaperone many of those field trips, including several to Mexico, where students camped for three weeks at spontaneous sites along the side of the road. Adrian also hosted regular camping trips to the Nebraska Sandhills, a tradition Beachly took over in 2002 after Adrian officially stopped teaching.
鈥淭hose students will always remember their experience canoeing down the Dismal River and fighting for their lives,鈥 Beachly said. He himself lost a pair of glasses on the rapids one year.
鈥淭hey kind of went askew and he lost them 鈥 forever,鈥 said Dr. Amanda Solem, associate professor of biology. 鈥淏ill was like, 鈥業 did say to take an extra pair of glasses, but I hadn鈥檛 taken it seriously.鈥 Now he brings an extra pair on every trip.鈥
Beachly also led trips to Puerto Rico, Honduras and Germany, often accompanied by his wife, Diane, who worked as an adjunct professor.
鈥淲hen you have students outdoors, when you have them on a trip, it鈥檚 easy to get them to observe,鈥 Beachly said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just so much to enrich your knowledge about, and we should enjoy these things.鈥
Katie Heller, a senior studying biochemistry, can attest to that. This year, she went on a two-week study abroad trip to Honduras, one of Beachly鈥檚 longest-running courses.
One day some students broke out in screams when they spotted a huge spider in their boat. Beachly was riding with them and scooped up the spider.
鈥淲e were like, 鈥榊ou know it鈥檚 in your hair right now, right?鈥欌 she said. 鈥淏ut he was so calm, just letting it crawl all over him as he explained what kind of spider it was and showed us all its different features.鈥
And that was his approach to practically every insect, animal and plant students came across, Heller said. He even pointed out the critters they might have missed.
鈥淎ll the sudden he would pull us over to a little creek and say, 鈥業f you just sit here for a little bit and look into this corner, you鈥檒l see little jellyfish,鈥欌 Heller recounted. 鈥淚t showed me how important it is to have fun. Just because you are a researcher doesn鈥檛 mean you have to be in a lab all day.鈥
Inside the classroom
When it wasn鈥檛 possible to get students into the field, Beachly still tried to spice up the monotony of a lecture. First-year biology students learned through the grapevine to expect a spectacle when Beachly got to the section on nerve function. He鈥檇 ask to shake hands with a student in the front row, then start spasming to demonstrate what happens when nerve endings rapid fire in a neuronal cascade.
He鈥檇 also do his own rendition of a Sandhill crane mating dance and lead the class in tossing around a Mr. Bill doll, the clay figurine of 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥 fame, to randomly select students to answer quiz questions. Occasionally, he鈥檇 bring in a handmade board game he designed for specific lessons.
鈥淥ne day I came in, and he鈥檇 built this mountain out of paper scraps and spray foam and paint,鈥 Solem said. 鈥淚t had all these caverns in it for a game where students played as different organisms trying to scale the mountain.鈥
Beachly says he will miss teaching but has no plans to stop exploring in retirement. He, Diane, and their three horses are moving from a 2.5-acre property in Assumption, Nebraska, to a 12-acre property near Concordia, Kansas, surrounded by prairie and pasture to observe local wildlife.
鈥淚 asked him for his retirement, would he rather have a retirement party in a room or a retirement nature walk,鈥 Solem said. 鈥淚鈥檓 sure you can guess what it took him about two seconds to choose.鈥
The walk is scheduled for Friday, May 17 at 9 a.m. beginning at Perkins Library. All are welcome.