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Instructors for the Bio-Speleology course were Dr. Charles
Cicciarella and Dr.
John Wakeman. Class enrollment was held to a small number because of
the difficulty of taking larger groups together through a cave.
A total of seven students enrolled in the Bio-Speleology course
for the Spring 2002 Quarter. Each student was required to supply their own caving gear,
including helmets, head-lamp, knee pads, etc.
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 | In addition to weekly lectures, class members
participated in three weekend activities.
 | The first activity involved a simulated caving expedition under the Memorial Gym
building on the Louisiana Tech University campus. Here students experienced what it was
like to be in total darkness, crawl under low overhangs, climb up and down steep slippery
embankments. and do a short chimney climb.
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| The second activity for the class was to explore and map a small erosion cave in
Louisiana. This involved crawling through water in a low narrow passageway with
water on the floor. The exploration revealed that a previous map of this cave (done
more that 20 years ago) was quite inaccurate. Thus this activity resulted in
significant new information about Louisiana caves. Cave life observed during this
trip included cave crickets, dark brown fungi growing from the roots in the roof of the
cave, daddy longlegs, and spiders. A bluish-colored crayfish about 5 inches long,
was also observed deep in this cave.
 
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The third activity was an exploration of Alexander cave in northern
Arkansas. This cavern is very extensive and one could easily get lost in its
labyrinth of rooms and passageways. The group was guided through this cave by Dave
Epperson (pictured at left), an experienced caver who has spend considerable time during
the past 10 years surveying and mapping this cave. The group remained in
Alexander cave for about 7 hours, during which time the class experienced many different
situations that can be encountered in cave exploration. For example, there was a
formidable chimney climb, rock shelves and walls that had to be negotiated, vertical
climbs, a crawl through a water-filled passageway with only a foot or two of head room
above the water.
Cave life observed during this trip included bats, a cave salamander, cave crickets,
and a cave beetle. Needless to say, it was a very dirty and very tired group that
emerged from Alexander Cave at the end of the day!
Click here to view a slide show of our trip thru this cave
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Each student prepared a page for this website giving their
impressions of their experiences during this course. Student pages can be accessed
by clicking on their names listed below.
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