How does surfing in warm water adjacent to sandy beaches and a lush tropical jungle sound? How about hiking an active volcano, white water rafting or swimming in a blue pool beneath a waterfall?
Along with Associate Professor of Exercise & Sport Sciences Dr. Shane Scholten and his wife, Joy, 20 Augustana University students had the opportunity to experience all of these things over the course of 20 days in Costa Rica. These adventures were part of a January Interim (J-Term) course called “The Science of Exercise in Costa Rica.”
“I’ve got to come up with a better name,” joked Scholten.
While Scholten believes its name is a bit bland, the course was anything but.
“We had a lot of unique experiences that, most people who go to Costa Rica, are not going to do,” Scholten said. “My requirements (to take the class) were that the students needed to be physically in shape because we were going to be on long bike rides, a lot of hikes — lots of physical activity,” said Scholten.
While exhilarating, these activities had to be exhausting. Only intense exercise could teach students concepts such as lactic acid buildup in muscles and how long that buildup might last.
“We found a hill in San Jose,” said Augustana student and Becker, Minnesota, native Jamie Sommerdorf ‘22. “Some people were timing, some people were running and then some would prick your finger to test the lactic acid levels, or lactate levels, in your blood.
“For years, it was thought that ‘Oh, your muscles are sore because of lactic acid buildup,’ but the really interesting thing is, lactic acid goes away within an hour. We were able to test that and be there to watch that.”
For the senior biology major, who is also earning a medical humanities minor, the course was a perfect fit — catering to her love for nature and desire to learn more about the biomechanics behind movement as a future physician.
“It was the perfect amount of learning and classwork by doing the exercises,” said Sommerdorf. “It was very beautifully integrated.”
Spending time in Costa Rica’s blue pools provided the students a lesson about how cryotherapy, sometimes known as cold therapy, affects muscle recovery. Learning how to surf also meant learning about the coefficient of friction.
“If you look at surfboards — some beginner boards have a soft top, others are hard boards and then there are varying degrees of wax on them. If an instructor sees that someone is starting to slip, they rub on a little wax,” Scholten said. “Wax isn’t necessarily sticky, so how does that give you more friction on the board? We discuss those things and measure the coefficient of friction of all the different boards.”
“I’m a very hands-on and visual learner so, by doing the exercises and actually being there, it really helped me learn. I’m going to take this with me the rest of my life — how impactful it was to be outside of the classroom,” said Sommerdorf.
But, it’s not just the concepts of human anatomy and physiology, biomechanics and nutrition learned from physical activity that Scholten hoped the students took away from the course. Mostly, he wanted them to come away with life lessons that only being immersed in a different culture could provide.
“Really, what I got out of it was experiencing the students’ joy,“ said Scholten. “The takeaway (for students) is that they experienced a different country and how they live. I hope the one thing students takeaway is ‘pura vida,’ which means ‘love life, live life.’”
And, it appears Scholten was successful. Even though Sommerdorf didn’t know any of her classmates before going on the trip, she made new lifelong friends. She also got the experience she dreamed of when deciding to take a study away trip in college — coming away with a different perspective on life.
“That was one of the leading factors in choosing Augustana. The academics are amazing, but the university really cares about the students and wants them to have fun and get to experience the world, which I don’t think many other colleges have,” Sommerdorf said. “It was really eye opening to be able to experience another culture.”
Scholten will return to Costa Rica for his second J-Term trip in 2023 — this time with Augustana’s Swimming & Diving teams and other interested students.
To learn more about study away courses at Augustana, visit augie.edu/StudyAbroad.