2005 was the second year students from Rensselaer's First Year Experience Program visited the Darrin Fresh Water Institute for their overnight experience. The First Year Experience Program is designed to foster lasting inter-personal relationships among students that they can build upon during their academic programs at Rensselaer.

    First Year Experience students foster inter-personal relationships through team-building and collaborative activities over a three day visit. Students plan their meals and all related tasks, participate in an outdoor astronomy exhibition, participate in an ongoing limnological pond study on Bolton's Conservation Pond, and search for various botanical and fungal species during the Tongue Mountain scavenger hunt.  Other free time activities include: visits to Bolton Landing, swimming in Northwest Bay, and making smores after dinner in the chiminea down on docks of the DFWI. In 2005, students were treated to a live demonstration of a timber rattlesnake by Dr. William Brown who has been working on a population study of timber rattle snakes at the DFWI for over 25 years.