Facilities & Equipment
Facilities
The Biology Department at Waldorf College is housed in the Nilssen-Boe Hall of Science. This building is linked to the administration building, Thorson Hall, Voss Memorial Library, the AACE, and the Atrium.
The Department's two laboratories were designed and equipped to serve the needs of freshmen and sophomores. With the beginning of our bachelor's program, however, the labs were extensively renovated and modernized during the summer of 2006 to meet the needs of upper-division classes. In addition, plans are being made to build two additional laboratories, one to accommodate students pursuing advanced work in molecular biology and a second (a Geospatial Analysis lab) to facilitate advanced work and research in ecology and conservation biology. An adjacent preparatory laboratory also will be expanded and updated.
Equipment
The Department has been well equipped to support the ecological research of its faculty. Field equipment includes radio-telemetry equipment (radio transmitters and receivers), a Trimble Global Positioning System (GPS), and a variety of environmental sensors and data-loggers. Equipment for studying terrestrial environments includes Campbell Scientific CR10X data-logger and sensors, HOBO-Temps and Tidbits from Onsett Computer Corporation. Studies of water quality are completed with water analysis systems from HACH, Inc. (DR/2000 spectrophotometer, DataSonde5 data-logger) and from Millipore Corp. Data collected with this equipment are georeferenced, mapped and analyzed with ArcGIS, a geographic information system (GIS) produced by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).
Much of the teaching equipment used by the Department is aged. However, similar to its plans to renovate its labs, the Department is replacing nearly all of its teaching equipment with two major grants totaling $300,000. For example, the Department already has purchased all new microscopes and physiology equipment. Each lab is now equipped with 20 new Olympus CX31 compound microscopes and 10 Motic dissecting microscopes. Additional teaching microscopes include Olympus CX41 and microscopes equipped with digital cameras. In the coming years, the Department plans to replace its current and aged phase-contrast microscopes, purchase fluorescent microscopes for advanced study in cell biology, and purchase equipment necessary to complete studies in biotechnology.
