Uni students from US on tour | Manawatu-Wanganui News | Local News in Manawatu-Wanganui

Starting tomorrow and for much of the next four months, the Wanganui District becomes an outdoor education classroom for 17 university students from the United States.

The young folk are in their second to fourth years at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, said their teacher, Corinne Deibel. They are studying subjects that range from geology to politics.

They arrive in Wanganui tomorrow, after a few days in Wellington. They spend most of January staying at the Quaker Settlement in Virginia Rd, with a canoe trip down the Whanganui River at the end of the month.

After that the students move to homestays, spend March in the South Island and return to Wanganui for April, leaving on the 23rd.

While there, they are working on three courses. One, on water resources and issues in New Zealand, is taught by Professor Deibel and her husband Mike. They are both environmental chemists.

Another on New Zealand environmental issues is taught by Wanganui scientist Peter Frost and Wanganui botanist and ecologist Colin Ogle. The third is on the country's cultural issues, and taught by Matthias Schellhorn of the University of Canterbury.

In the past the student groups that came from Earlham College each year spent January in Wanganui but most of their time based at Canterbury University in Christchurch. That changed after the February 22 earthquake last year, when the students returned to Wanganui and tutors were found for them.

They will be spending a day a week doing experiential learning with bodies like Enviro Schools and Horizons Regional Council. The students will keep journals and make sketches and they will sit two exams.