Featured NewsGetting our hands dirty and watching ideas grow in our first-year seminarErika Schielkeinfo@skidmore.edu11/20/2025 08:59:00 AMdisplayTeaching Professor of Biology Erika Schielke reflects on her Scribner Seminar, Pollinators in Peril, and describes how hands-on learning helps first-year students cultivate the curiosity and confidence that will grow throughout their Skidmore experience.NewsA professor and a student inspecting an insect in a vial A group of students and a professor standing at the future site of their pollinator garden. Me (Teaching Professor of Biology Erika Schielke), right, and my first-year students at the site of the future pollinator garden that we planned and eventually planted on campus for our Scribner Seminar, Pollinators in Peril. My course is one of many creative seminars for first-year students, all of which introduce important academic skills and ease students’ transition to life at Skidmore.