The View From Here

Mud Room

Off the loading dock of the Phelps Science Center lies an unassuming, yet vital, utility room. Inside, racks of black rubber boots line concrete walls. Nets, rakes and shovels nestle in an aluminum trash can beside pruning loppers, shears and baskets of gardening gloves.

For Exeter science students, learning begins here, where they pull on boots and gather tools for a day of field work. “We’ve got several biology and chemistry electives using the room on a regular basis, making it a packed space some mornings,” Science Instructor Sydnee Goddard says.

Goddard took her marine biology class on nine field trips during spring term, each time meeting in the utility room to gear up for the adventure, whether it was exploring rocky intertidal habitats at Odiorne Point State Park, estuarine habitats edging Great Bay or the beaches and dunes along the Atlantic Ocean.

“When I ran field trips from Thompson Science 25 years ago, it took me many trips to lug all the equipment to a red dragon bus before heading out.
In ‘the old days’ students wore sneakers for our marine biology field trips. After carrying the students through mud flats, salt marshes and tide pools, the shoes were not worth keeping.”