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The Nature Study Area and
Observatory on Moraine Valley Community College's campus serves as a
"living museum" of the earth for students and visitors. The 40-acre
reconstructed tall grass prairie is a relic of the days when it was inhabited
by Native Americans.
The area is home to great blue heron, colorful mallards,
schools of bass and bluegill, hundreds of plants and grasses, a
1.8-billion-year-old granite rock, and coyote. Moraine Valley's Nature Study Area is
geologically unique.
It is one of the only places in Cook County, Illinois, where visitors can see the
three beach levels of old Lake Chicago (which receded to what is now Lake
Michigan). Ten thousand years ago, Moraine Valley's campus would have been under
40 feet of water as the shores of Lake Chicago used to wash up on the beach where Kean Avenue is currently located.
The college's Nature Study Area also serves as an outdoor laboratory for
faculty to take their students for fieldwork in biology, botany, geology, earth
science, and environmental science. Students explore birds, animals and plant
life in their natural environment and learn firsthand about water and soil
testing. In addition to the prairie, the area contains two ponds and oak savanna
(with a 100-year-old bur oak tree). The pond, established in 1977, is 16-feet
deep at the center and is fed by 11 springs, one of which is Sullivan Spring.
Moraine Valley recently added an observatory to
the Nature Study Area. A 6 ½-foot Newtonian reflecting telescope, built and
donated by Tom McCague, retired associate professor and department chair of Biology, is housed in a dome on the G. Jack Bradley Observation
Deck. The college hosts monthly open viewing nights for the public
during the spring, summer and fall months. For a list of events, click
here.
Founded in 1974, the Moraine Valley Nature Study Area is
a vital resource for Natural Science, Earth Science, and Biological Science
courses. The site is maintained, and site improvements are supported by,
volunteer faculty team members Edward Devine, Janet Kotash, Scott Murdoch, Jana Svec, and Krista Syrup. Public tours for all age groups are conducted seasonally
by Janet Kotash, upon request at (708) 974-5246.
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