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2012-13 Undergraduate Index A-Z
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Environmental Studies [clear]
| Title | Offering | Standing | Credits | Credits | When | F | W | S | Su | Description | Preparatory | Faculty | Days | Multiple Standings | Start Quarters | Open Quarters |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Bret Weinstein
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | Bret Weinstein | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||||
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Dylan Fischer, Abir Biswas, Lin Nelson, Erik Thuesen, Alison Styring and Gerardo Chin-Leo
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Rigorous quantitative and qualitative research is an important component of academic learning in Environmental Studies. This independent learning opportunity is designed to allow advanced students to delve into real-world research with faculty who are currently engaged in specific projects. The program will help students develop vital skills in research design, data acquisition and interpretation, written and oral communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills—all of which are of particular value for students who are pursuing a graduate degree, as well as for graduates who are already in the job market. studies in nutrient and toxic trace metal cycles in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems. Potential projects could include studies of mineral weathering, wildfires and mercury cycling in ecosystems. Students could pursue these interests at the laboratory-scale or through field-scale biogeochemistry studies taking advantage of the Evergreen Ecological Observation Network (EEON), a long-term ecological study area. Students with backgrounds in a combination of geology, biology or chemistry could gain skills in soil, vegetation and water collection and learn methods of sample preparation and analysis for major and trace elements. studies marine phytoplankton and bacteria. His research interests include understanding the factors that control seasonal changes in the biomass and species composition of Puget Sound phytoplankton. In addition, he is investigating the role of marine bacteria in the geochemistry of estuaries and hypoxic fjords. studies plant ecology and physiology in the Intermountain West and southwest Washington. This work includes image analysis of tree roots, genes to ecosystems approaches, plant physiology, carbon balance, species interactions, community analysis and restoration ecology. He also manages the EEON project (academic.evergreen.edu/projects/EEON). See more about his lab's work at: academic.evergreen.edu/f/fischerd/E3.htm. studies and is involved with advocacy efforts on the linkages between environment, health, community and social justice. Students can become involved in researching environmental health in Northwest communities and Washington policy on phasing out persistent, bio-accumulative toxins. One major project students can work on is the impact of the Asarco smelter in Tacoma, examining public policy and regional health. studies birds. Current activity in her lab includes avian bioacoustics, natural history collections and bird research in the EEON. Bioacoustic research includes editing and identifying avian songs and calls from an extensive collection of sounds from Bornean rainforests. Work with the natural history collections includes bird specimen preparation and specimen-based research, including specimens from Evergreen's Natural History Collections and other collections in the region. Work with EEON includes observational and acoustic surveys of permanent ecological monitoring plots in The Evergreen State College campus forest. conducts research on the ecological physiology of marine animals. He and his students are currently investigating the physiological, behavioral and biochemical adaptations of gelatinous zooplankton to environmental stress and climate change. Other research is focused on the biodiversity of marine zooplankton. Students working in his lab typically have backgrounds in different aspects of marine science, ecology, physiology and biochemistry. Please go to the catalog view for specific information about each option. | botany, ecology, education, entomology, environmental studies, environmental health, geology, land use planning, marine science, urban agriculture, taxonomy and zoology. | Dylan Fischer Abir Biswas Lin Nelson Erik Thuesen Alison Styring Gerardo Chin-Leo | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||
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Alison Styring
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Alison Styring | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||||
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Dylan Fischer
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | plant ecology and physiology, field ecology, restoration ecology | Dylan Fischer | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | |||
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Gerardo Chin-Leo
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Gerardo Chin-Leo | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||||
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Lin Nelson
Signature Required:
Fall Winter Spring
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Lin Nelson | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||||
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Abir Biswas and Clarissa Dirks
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | This program is designed for students who have a strong background in biology or geology and would like to do advanced work around either topic as it applies to arid ecosystems in the Southwestern U.S. or Eastern Washington State, though there may be opportunities for students to contrast arid systems with more temperate forest ecosystems in Western Washington State. There will be an emphasis on student- and faculty-derived research projects throughout and students will meet regularly with faculty to discuss progress and receive feedback. Students with prior backgrounds or analytical experience in biology and/or geology, seeking to join the program in the spring to conduct field- and/or lab-based research projects are encouraged to contact the faculty early. Students will need to develop their research proposals in the first 2 weeks of the quarter while studying the primary literature. Students will then be conducting their proposed field work and/or laboratory work in weeks 3-6. Students will spend the rest of the quarter completing their analyses in preparation for presenting their work at the end of the program. The expectations and workload will be based on advanced work for upper division credit. In part, the content and themes of this program will be merged with another ongoing program offered by the faculty. Students continuing from that program will have developed group research proposals that will be the basis of their spring research project component. The work of those students is not advanced and the expectations are different. These two groups will meet together only for certain lectures or other activities whereby both will learn more about the faculty research projects and arid/southwest ecosystems. Advanced research students could potentially join the Grand Canyon river trip to conduct research studying Southwestern ecosystems but would need to contact the faculty as soon as possible (prior to Spring quarter registration). Students could also conduct comparative field work in arid or temperate ecosystems in Washington State that will be the basis of their quarter-long research project. | Abir Biswas Clarissa Dirks | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Alison Styring
Signature Required:
Summer
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day, Evening and Weekend | Su 13Summer Full | Alison Styring | Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||||
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Alison Styring
Signature Required:
Summer
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Research | JR–SRJunior - Senior | V | V | Day, Evening and Weekend | Su 13Summer Full | Alison Styring | Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||||
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Michael Paros and Steven Scheuerell
Signature Required:
Winter
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | "The question of all questions for humanity, the problem which lies behind all others and is more interesting than any of them, is that of the determination of man's place in nature and his relation to the cosmos." - T.H. HuxleyCrop agriculture and animal production dominate human-managed ecosystems. Both provide forms of human sustenance yet simultaneously disrupt natural ecological functions. Tensions often exist between nature conservationists and agricultural communities. How do we balance biodiversity conservation and modern agricultural production? Is it possible to have both? Should public policy emphasize agricultural intensification to spare land for wildlife areas and keep conservation areas separate from human production activities? Can our planet afford to preserve culturally and biologically diverse agricultural systems? Are traditional agricultural practices vital to our sustainable future?Faculty and students will challenge and develop their own personal ethical framework in an attempt to address the many questions that arise when we alter natural systems through agriculture. This will be accomplished through experiential field trips, reading, writing, scientific analysis and open discussion. Students will visit a variety of Washington and Oregon farming operations and conservation areas that illustrate the agricultural and environmental ethical dilemmas that society currently faces. Multiple perspectives from land stakeholders will be presented. Fall quarter will focus on the fundamental principles of conservation biology and ethical theory, while familiarizing students with basic agronomic practices. In winter quarter, students will develop a personal land ethic while analyzing tensions between agriculture and conservation specific to a particular locale.This program will interest students who are open-minded and want to think critically about the agricultural sciences, conservation biology, and ethics. | Michael Paros Steven Scheuerell | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
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Sarah Williams and Donald Foran
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | "Poetry is good for neural development." You can buy a T-shirt that says so. This program will engage you experientially in understanding how and why the recycling of neurons informs poetry's transformative power. We'll explore how reading can be understood from an evolutionary perspective as an exaptation in which the ability to interpret animal tracks and bird flight was co-opted for the ciphering of lines and circles as letters and words. This exploration will include the scientific writing of Stanislas Dehaene as well as the poetry of Susan Howe, who in "Pythagorian Silence" writes: "age of earth and us all chattering/a sentence or character/ suddenly/steps out to seek for truth fails/falls into a stream of ink Sequence/trails off/ ... flocks of words flying together tense/as an order/cast off to crows." We'll recite, analyze, discuss, perform, and write poems about the mind's reflexivity.Our goal is a mindful recycling of neurons, one in which the neuroscience of poetry reveals a continuity with the neurology of our ancestors. Thus, we'll reflect on our experiences of flocks of words and tracks of letters as binding mechanisms for neural integration and ecological adaptation. Indeed, Frederick Turner refers to poetry as a "neural lyre." Urban spoken-word poets and indigenous healers produce what Eliot describes as "music heard so deeply it is not heard at all/ And you are the music while the music lasts." We're equally interested in how poetry can have the opposite effect on consciousness. We'll engage in contemplative practices to learn more about experiences of neural disintegration, such as the thumps and jolts of modern life. As Seamus Heaney put it, poetry is "a thump to the TV set to restore the picture" and "a jolt to the fibrillating heart." Throughout the year we'll be exploring the emergence of a new meta-field of scholarship in which poetry and neuroscience interact, remaking and renewing the meaning and impact of the poetic as words become flesh ... and vice-versa. Emily Dickinson's poetic rendering of this polarity provides one model of the neuro-phenomenological: "I felt a cleaving in my mind/As if my brain had split/I tried to match it, seam by seam/But could not make it fit. The thought behind, I strove to join/Unto the thought before/But Sequence ravelled out of sound/Like balls upon a floor." We'll experiment with this process of "sequence ravelling out of sound" as a transformation of a new archaic.Fall quarter's immersion in the scholarship of this meta-field will include group research projects: ethnographic studies of poetic jolts. When, where and from whom or from what do we hear poetry? Can we sense it in our own reading and writing? Our fall quarter nature retreat to the Hoh Rain Forest and the beaches of the Olympic Peninsula will introduce practices we'll use throughout the year for experiencing the reciprocity between specific forms of poetry and states of consciousness. During winter quarter we’ll experience and articulate specific forms of consciousness and language in relation to a particular passion. One of us might want to explore Gerard Manley Hopkins’ love of bluebells and windhovers in relationship to his poetry, or create a poetic world around a passion for sport or to experience how fantasy sports are a poetic world. One of us might immerse herself in the biodynamic rhythms of chocolate sustainably farmed, or listen for the resonance between silence and sound in YoYo Ma’s performance of Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G. The methodology of our field study will aspire to that of 18 C poet and civil engineer, Novalis for whom "knowledge and creation were united in a wondrous mutual tie.” Writing in response to our field studies will take the form of reciprocal creations such as in Melissa Kwasny’s . Spring quarter work will combine theory and practice. Students will engage in peer group community-based service projects that use poetry to "jolt fibrillating hearts.” Writing projects will accompany this work in order to illuminate the relationship between the growth of dendrites and the flourishing of both neurons and community. There will be a weekly film and poetry series that inspires "poetic jolts" and demonstrates their meaning for communal life. Throughout the year students will keep a creative journal, a field notebook, participate in poetry writing and recitation, and compile an anthology of program work. | Sarah Williams Donald Foran | Mon Tue Tue Tue Wed Wed Thu Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
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Frederica Bowcutt
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 13Winter | This program investigates people's relationships with plants for food, fiber, medicine and aesthetics. We will examine economic botany including agriculture, forestry, herbology and horticulture. We will also work through a botany textbook learning about plant anatomy, morphology and systematics. Lectures based on the textbook readings will be supplemented with laboratory work. Students will explore how present form and function informs us about the evolution of major groups of plants such as mosses, ferns, conifers and flowering plants. Students will get hands-on experience studying plants under microscopes and in the field. To support their work in the field and lab, students will learn how to maintain a detailed and illustrated nature journal. Students will write a major research paper on a plant of their choosing. Through a series of workshops, they will learn to search the scientific literature, manage bibliographic data, and interpret and synthesize information, including primary sources. | Frederica Bowcutt | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
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Rob Cole
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 13Winter | We will explore the causes of global climate change and study the many actions and social behaviors that we can take to minimize human contributions to it. We will examine the scientific evidence for global warming and the efforts to discredit that evidence. We will study the role of multinational corporations in global climate change and how they influence governmental policies and public opinion. We will focus on how to respond to global warming in a fashion that works toward sustainability and equity in the ecosystems that support life on the planet. We will pay particular attention to issues of justice between humans, and how humans interact with other species.In order to understand actions we can take, this program will explore sustainable lifestyle strategies as well as how to resist corporate influence on consumer consumption. We will study the approaches of biomimicry, sustainable architecture, equitable distribution of food and shelter, minimal-impact industrial processes, local food production, less toxic methods of producing, and a variety of low-impact lifestyles. We will examine the methods advocated by visionary groups like Second Nature, Climate Solutions, and Cradle-to-Cradle. We will study current federal energy policy and it connection to climate change, as well as the more proactive policies adopted by hundreds of cities. Students will complete a series of audits of their personal consumption and carbon-generation patterns. We will study methods of computing carbon dioxide budgets including carbon sequestration methods, the intricacies of carbon capping and offsetting strategies, and opportunities to reduce net carbon dioxide production. Students can expect to do research on emerging technologies and strategies that move us to carbon neutrality while fostering sustainability and justice.In addition to exploring how we can all lessen our impact on global climate change and move toward equity, students can expect to sharpen their critical reasoning, writing and speaking skills, as well as their ability to work with quantitative methods and to interpret quantitative data from a variety of sources.Students will be expected to make at least two small-group presentations on a climate solution of their own choosing, and complete a term research paper on a topic of their choice. | Rob Cole | Mon Wed Thu | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
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Gerardo Chin-Leo and Lucia Harrison
Signature Required:
Spring
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | This program will examine marine environments and life (The Sea) from the perspectives of science and visual arts. This program is designed for beginning students in either discipline. The Sea accounts for a major portion of the biomass and diversity of life and plays a major role in global cycles. The Sea also is a source of inspiration for artists, and artwork provides insights into the relationships of humans to this environment. Currently, The Sea faces major crises caused by human activities such as habitat degradation and natural resource over-exploitation. Science and art can contribute to effective solutions to these major environmental problems by providing an understanding of natural phenomena and insights into how nature is perceived and valued by humans. We will examine how both visual artists and marine scientists use close observation to study The Sea and produce images to communicate the results of their work. We will also study how scientific findings can provide a foundation for expressive art and how art can effectively convey the implications of scientific findings to how humans relate with nature.Activities will develop concepts and skills of marine science and visual art and examine how each discipline informs the other. Lectures will teach concepts in marine science and aesthetics and develop a basic scientific and visual arts vocabulary. Labs and field trips to local Puget Sound beaches, the San Juan Islands and Olympic Peninsula will provide opportunities to experience The Sea and to apply the concepts/skills learned in class. Weekly workshops on drawing and watercolor painting will provide technical skills for keeping illustrated field journals and strategies for developing observations into polished expressive thematic drawings. Seminars will explore how scientific and artistic activities contribute to solving environmental issues. For example, we will study how the understanding of human relationships with The Sea can be combined with knowledge of the science underlying marine phenomena to promote effective political change (artists and scientists as activists). Other themes that explore the interaction of science and art will include the Sea as: a source of food, a metaphor for human experience, a place of work or medium of transportation, and a subject of inquiry. Most assignments will integrate science and art.In winter quarter, we will focus on marine habitats including estuaries such as the Nisqually River estuary, the inter-tidal zone and the deep sea. Spring quarter will focus on the diversity and adaptations of marine life. Both quarters will include week-long overnight field trips. This program will include an outreach component where students will contribute to environmental education by developing and presenting science and art curriculum to local schoolchildren. | visual arts, education, marine science, biology and ecology. | Gerardo Chin-Leo Lucia Harrison | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | |||
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Paul Pickett
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Course | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 2 | 02 | Day, Evening and Weekend | Su 13Summer Session I | Participate in a week of sustainability field studies in Central America. Students will be working to support local efforts to improve the living conditions of both the people and wildlife of Jiquilisco Bay, an important mangrove ecosystem on the Pacific coast of El Salvador. Students will help researchers catch turtles in the bay to study and participate in a beach walk looking for nesting turtles. We will also take boat rides on the bay looking for wildlife, visit local towns, and immerse ourselves in the culture, and visit community development projects. | Paul Pickett | Mon Tue Wed Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Andrew Brabban, Clyde Barlow and Kenneth Tabbutt
Signature Required:
Winter Spring
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." For scientists, beauty may be at the scale of the landscape, the organism, or the atomic level. In order to describe a system, scientists are required to collect quantitative data. This is a rigorous program that will focus on investigations in geology and biology supported with analytical chemistry. Instrumental techniques and chemical analysis skills will be developed in an advanced laboratory. The expectation is that students will learn how to conduct accurate chemical, ecological and hydrogeological measurements in order to define baseline assessments of natural ecosystems and determine environmental function and/or contamination. Quantitative analysis, quality control procedures, research design and technical writing will be emphasized.During fall and winter quarters, topics in physical geology, geochemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, freshwater ecology, genetics, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, GIS, and instrumental methods of chemical analysis will be addressed. Students will participate in group projects studying aqueous chemistry, hydrology, and the roles of biological organisms in the nutrient cycling processes of local watersheds. Analytical procedures based on EPA, USGS and other guidelines will be utilized to measure major and trace anion and cation concentrations. Molecular methods and biochemical assays will complement more classical procedures in determining biodiversity and the role of specific organisms within an ecosystem. Computers and statistical methods will be used extensively for data analysis and simulation and GIS will be used as a tool to assess spatial data. The program will start with a two-week field trip to Yellowstone National Park that will introduce students to regional geology of the Columbia River Plateau, Snake River, Rocky Mountains and the Yellowstone Hotspot. Issues of water quality, hydrothermal systems, extremophilic organisms and ecosystem diversity will also be studied during the trip.Spring quarter will be devoted to extensive project work continuing from fall and winter. There will be a 5-day field trip to eastern Washington. Presentation of project results in both oral and written form will conclude the year. | geology, hydrology, chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, ecology, chemical instrumentation, environmental analysis and environmental fieldwork. | Andrew Brabban Clyde Barlow Kenneth Tabbutt | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter Spring | ||
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Ted Whitesell
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 12 | 12 | Day | Su 13Summer Full | – | ecological restoration, sustainable agriculture, conservation, resource management, environmental health, climate impacts analysis, environmental justice, environmental advocacy, environmental education, and much more! | Ted Whitesell | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | |||
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Martha Henderson
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Course | JR–GRJunior - Graduate | 2, 4 | 02 04 | Day, Evening and Weekend | Su 13Summer | As the largest island in the Caribbean, with the highest percentage of environmental scientists and engineers and a long-standing commitment to policies that promote environmental protection and sustainable development, Cuba is uniquely positioned to provide leadership in enlightened environmental policy and practice in our shared ecosystem. The rationale and potential for mutual collaboration between US and Cuban environmentalists in this vital and shared ecosystem is considerable.This course will be joining for its biannual research program on environmental protection and sustainable development in Cuba, which includes an opportunity for interchange with participants in the IX International Conference on Environment and Development hosted by the . Trip dates are 7/5/13-7/14/13. Course requires separate registration in April through Eco Cuba Network; please contact Gail Wootan at wootang@evergreen.edu if interested in this course.For more information about the research program, please see . For more information on the conference in Cuba and conference schedule: Students may choose to take this course for two credits or four credits. Two credit students will be required to complete reading assignments and virtual meetings in June prior to leaving for Cuba. Two credit students are required to submit their field notebooks with a reflective essay by July 29. Four credit students are required to complete reading assignments, short paper assignment and all virtual class meeting times prior to leaving for Cuba. Upon returning from Cuba, four credit students are required to submit a 15 page paper based on field and archival work by July 29. All students are required to write a short autobiography and short essay on their trip expectations. They must also submit a resume. Students will ‘meet’ in the virtual classroom. A Moodle site will be set up for virtual class meetings.The cost of the Eco Cuba Network program, including flight from Cancun, Mexico is $2600. Students are responsible for purchasing airfare to Cancun. Students may also choose to arrive early or stay late for personal travel. If enough students are interested, a service project after 7/14/13 may be organized.NOTE: Students interested in this course must register through Eco Cuba Network separately sometime in April. Please contact Gail Wootan, Assistant Director of the Graduate Program on the Environment, at wootang@evergreen.edu if interested in this course. | Martha Henderson | Summer | Summer | ||||||
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Ralph Murphy and Zoe Van Schyndel
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | Ralph Murphy Zoe Van Schyndel | Tue Tue Wed Thu Fri Fri | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Laurance Geri and Peter Dorman
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | In this program we will explore the interconnections between global finance, energy systems, and climate change. We will seek to understand the causes of the 2008 financial collapse, the complexity of energy systems and their relationship to changes in the climate, and the range of actions that would stabilize the national and global economies and reduce the risks associated with a warmer planet.The program will include an introduction to micro and macro economics, the study of energy systems, and the science of climate change. We will consider how international organizations influence national and global policies in the financial, energy and environmental spheres. Using these frameworks we will study the linkages between these phenomena and the actions we can take to speed the global energy transition and create a more stable and just international system.Program activities will include lectures, workshops, guest speakers, seminars on books and papers, films and possibly field trips. Credit may be awarded in micro and macro economics, international political economy, energy policy, and energy and climate change. | Laurance Geri Peter Dorman | Mon Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
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Karen Hogan and Emily Lardner
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 12 | 12 | Evening and Weekend | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Humans have always been interested in plants and our lives are interwoven with plants in myriad ways. This program is intended for students with an interest in plants, including students who are starting to notice plants for the first time. Through a mix of readings, workshops, field trips, and projects, we will investigate three major questions: • • • The overarching goal for this two quarter program is to help students develop their capacities as civic botanists. Winter quarter will focus primarily on developing an understanding of plant biology and ecology, and exploring several approaches to writing about nature in general and plants in particular. Spring quarter will focus on "civic botany"–the role plants play within human communities. We will focus particularly on urban agriculture, stormwater management, and the role of parks and open spaces. Students will keep field journals, assist with community agriculture projects, and develop a practice of writing that supports effective civic engagement. | Karen Hogan Emily Lardner | Mon Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | |||
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Jennifer Calkins
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day, Evening and Weekend | S 13Spring | This individual study opportunity will facilitate independent student molecular genomic lab and evolutionary ecological field work with animal species. Students may also have the opportunity to integrate creative writing and multimedia work into their studies. With faculty guidance, students will engage in integrative projects investigating the evolution of focal taxa by incorporating methods such as sequencing, bioinformatic analysis, niche analysis and vertebrate field ecology. All participants will also work as a cohesive lab group, meeting regularly to share and trouble-shoot projects and read and discuss research papers. They will also have the opportunity to interact with faculty, students and postdocs from other colleges such as the UW and Occidental College in Los Angeles. | Jennifer Calkins | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Ryo Imamura
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | This is an opportunity for sophomore, junior and senior students to create their own course of study and research, including internship, community service, and study abroad options. Before the beginning of spring quarter, interested students should submit an Individual Learning or Internship Contract to Ryo Imamura, which clearly states the work to be completed. Possible areas of study are Western psychology, Asian psychology, Buddhism, counseling, social work, cross-cultural studies, Asian-American studies, religious studies, nonprofit organizations, aging, death and dying, deep ecology and peace studies. Areas of study other than those listed above will be considered on a case-by-case basis. | Ryo Imamura | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Erik Thuesen
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | This is an opportunity for advanced students to create their own course of study and research in environmental studies. Prior to the beginning of spring quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor about their proposed projects. The faculty sponsor will support students to carry out studies in environmental fieldwork, ecology, zoology and marine science. Students wishing to conduct laboratory-based projects or carry out extensive fieldwork should have the appropriate skills needed to complete the project. | Erik Thuesen | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Abir Biswas
Signature Required:
Spring
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | In the fields of geology, geochemistry, earth science, hydrology, GIS and biogeochemistry, Abir Biswas offers opportunities for intermediate and advanced students to create their own course of study, creative practice and research, including internships, community service and study abroad options. Prior to the beginning of the quarter, interested individual students or small groups of students must describe the work to be completed in an Individual Learning or Internship Contract. The faculty sponsor will support students wishing to do work that has 1) skills that the student wishes to learn, 2) a question to be answered, 3) a time-line with expected deadlines, and 4) proposed deliverables. Areas of study other than those listed will be considered on a case-by-case basis. | Abir Biswas | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Cheri Lucas-Jennings
Signature Required:
Winter Spring
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day and Weekend | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Individual studies offers important opportunities for advanced students to create their own course of study and research. Prior to the beginning of the quarter, interested individuals or small groups of students must consult with the faculty sponsor to develop an outline of proposed projects to be described in an Individual Learning Contract. If students wish to gain internship experience they must secure the agreement and signature of a field supervisor prior to the initiation of the internship contract.This faculty wecomes internships and contracts in the areas of environmental health; health policy; public law; cultural studies; ethnic studies; the arts (including acrylic and oil painting, sculpture, or textiles); water policy and hydrolic systems; permaculture, economics of agriculture; toxins and brownfields; community planning, intranational relations.This opportunity is open to those who wish to continue with applied projects that seek to create social change in our community (as a result of work begun in fall 2010 and winter 2011 "Problems to Issues to Policies;" to those begining internship work at the State capitol who seek to expand their experience to public agencies and non-profit institutions; and to those interested in the study of low income populations and legal aid. | American studies, art, communications, community studies, cultural studies, environmental field studies, gender and women's health, history, law and government and public policy leadership | Cheri Lucas-Jennings | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | |||
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Peter Dorman
Signature Required:
Fall
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Contract | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | Peter Dorman will sponsor independent learning contracts that draw on economics and political economy, particularly in an international context. Proposals do not have to be restricted to economics-related questions, but should touch on them in some way. Introductory economics is best learned in a classroom setting, but the faculty is open to contracts in any area of advanced economics, political economy or econometrics. | Peter Dorman | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||||
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Jennifer Calkins
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 13Winter | Ecology, evolutionary biology | Jennifer Calkins | Mon Tue Thu | Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
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Peter Impara
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | At what scale should we manage or study an ecosystem or landscape? What is a natural landscape, and how do (or can) we manage it? Geographers and ecologists have pondered the question of scale in ecosystems, and how to apply scale issues to conservation and research. Many ecosystem and related studies have been conducted at fine spatial scales, yet many of the problems and issues of resource management and conservation are best approached at broader, landscape-level spatial scales. This program will investigate broader scale approaches to on-going conservation and management activities in important ecosystems and approaches of scientists regarding the issues of scale and the ecological patterns and processes used to define "natural systems."Scale, landscape analysis and pattern-process interactions will be addressed using computer labs in GIS and spatial analysis. Students will learn about landscape ecology concepts through lectures, field trips to nearby natural areas to observe pattern-process interactions, and through the design and implementation of a landscape ecology research project. Through class and field work students will learn about important ecological principles such as disturbance regimes, biotic diversity and species flow, nutrient and energy flows, and landscape change over time. Seminar readings will tie landscape ecology principles to on-going ecosystem management activities.Students will develop skills in ecological pattern and spatial analysis, natural history and field interpretation, and the generation of multiple research hypotheses and methods to address those hypotheses. | Peter Impara | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Anne de Marcken (Forbes) and Peter Impara
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | How do our landscapes shape us and how do we shape them? How can the endeavors of science and art inform our understanding of the changing planet—what can they tell us about its past, and how can they shape its future? Both stories and maps are ways of finding patterns and organizing information: they locate us in time and space and in relation to one another. In this program, using geography and creative writing as methods of inquiry, students will encounter the environment today, discover its past, and imagine its future. Using historical and present-day climate change as a framework, we will investigate the ways cultural and personal identity emerge from the natural landscape and the ways that people, in turn, shape the environment. We will the story of our physical environment in cultural, literary and geographic records and in the land itself. We will our own stories of place using maps and creative writing. Experiential learning is an important aspect of this program; in addition to other day trips, we will go on an extended field trip to Washington's Long Beach Peninsula, a 28-mile spit separating the Pacific Ocean from the Willapa Bay. There we will experience firsthand the interconnectedness of climate, landscape and culture. We will use the tools of geography, creative writing, and digital media to envision and even affect the future of this landscape and how we inhabit it, and will consider and experiment with the ways information and imagination influence our sense of connection to and responsibility for the physical world.In addition to generating research and creative writing in response to the program's themes, students will collaborate to create interactive tools for public engagement and will play an active role in producing Evergreen's 2013 TEDx conference on Climate Change Innovations.Students will develop science skills through interpretation of maps and spatial data, by making their own maps, and through site and landscape analysis. They will cultivate creative writing skills through independent practice and workshop-based critique with an emphasis on creative non-fiction and hybrid literary forms such as image-based essays and interactive texts. Scientific, literary and artistic perspectives, practices, and theories will inform lectures, readings and seminars. Students will use critical and technical skills as they learn to research, analyze and interpret environments through readings and seminars, in writing and computer workshops, and by using the landscape itself as a classroom. | ecology, environmental studies, geography, literature, natural history and writing. | Anne de Marcken (Forbes) Peter Impara | Tue Wed Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||
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Marja Eloheimo
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 6 | 06 | Weekend | S 13Spring | In this 6-credit course, students will gain an introduction to medicinal plants with a focus on plant identification and morphology (botany), medicinal concepts and practices (botanical medicine), botanical art, and working with plants in the Longhouse Ethnobotanical Garden. Students will also explore selected topics such as cultural approaches to herbalism, experience/research, medicine making, body systems, seasonal health, and nature journaling. Activities include lectures, workshops, reading, seminar, and projects. This course is appropriate for students with interests in botany, environmental studies, health, cultural studies, and botanical medicine. | botany and botanical medicine, education, environmental studies, cultural studies, health-related fields | Marja Eloheimo | Sat Sun | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||
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Jeff Antonelis-Lapp and Lucia Harrison
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | Mount Rainier, known locally as "the Mountain" or "Tahoma", dominates the landscape of the Puget Sound region and commands the attention, imagination and respect of its inhabitants. The relationship of people to the Mountain has varied widely: prized by Indigenous Peoples for a variety of activities; seen by European-American settlers as a potentially vast resource for timber and minerals; and visited as a wilderness and recreation destination for Puget Sound inhabitants and tourists from the world over.This 1-quarter program begins with a 3-day on-campus intensive that will provide instruction on keeping an illustrated field journal and thoroughly prepare students for a 9-day field trip to Mount Rainier National Park which immediately follows the orientation. Students must be prepared for primitive campground conditions, sleeping in tents and preparing meals outdoors without electricity. Students must also be fit for strenuous hikes and outdoor service learning work. Field trip activities will include studying the parks's natural history, hikes with and presentations by park service staff and conservation service learning.Once back on campus, we will place Mount Rainier in its historical context by studying the history of the National Park Service and Tahoma's precontact history that reaches back 8,000 years. Each student will select a species of interest to create a thematic series of expressive drawings, conduct a scientific literature review, and write a creative nonfiction essay. Drawing workshops will provide strategies for developing ideas visually and writing workshops will support all phases of the writing process.We will conclude the quarter with a week 10 4-day field trip returning to Mount Rainier (this time staying in cabins) during which students will share their species of interest portfolios. | Jeff Antonelis-Lapp Lucia Harrison | Tue Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
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Karen Gaul and Therese Saliba
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | From Yoga to Facebook, transnational cultural and economic practices and new information technologies are creating an increasingly interconnected world. A central question for this program is, how do highly mobile transnational relationships such as these affect the integrity, identity, and sustainability of local communities?We will examine how particular resources (such as oil, textiles, and food) as well as technologies, labor, and ideas, have propelled migrations, cultural transformations, and movements for sustainability and justice. Tourism, for example, generates the production and consumption of cultural heritage, eco-tourism, and yoga vacations that draw millions of people to new destinations around the world, and are major economic forces, raising urgent questions about cultural sustainability in the face of globalization. At the same time, Facebook has played an instrumental role for Arab youth in organizing revolutions, highlighting the ways people may use foreign technologies to fuel movements for political and social justice.Migrations of peoples, materials, and ideas have been around for millenia, often producing vibrant cultural practices based on adaptation and innovation. Yet colonization, empire, and capitalist globalization have also contributed to the systematic destruction of indigenous and non-Western cultures, inciting various forms of resistance. Focusing on South Asia and the Middle East, we will explore the ways communities and cultures are disproportionately affected by conditions and by-products of resource extraction, unjust labor conditions, pollutants, waste disposal and broader climate change. We will consider lessons that can be learned from their movements to create sustainable and just futures in a transnational world.Through the lenses of cultural studies, cultural anthropology and sustainability studies, we will explore the tensions between movement and rootedness, the familiar and unfamiliar, and how movements for justice are conditioned by both individual and systemic change. We will draw on yoga, both as an example of cultural exchange that has fueled debates about authenticity and appropriation, and as a practice of sustainability from the inside out. Through the writings of Gandhi, Alice Walker, and Arundhati Roy, and a range of cultural, feminist, and postcolonial theories, we will explore the connections between individual and social transformation, as we seek to build communities rooted in the concepts of sustainability and justice.In fall quarter we will develop an intentional learning community, and explore program themes through lectures, films, shared readings, field trips, and workshops. We will build skills in cultural analysis through critical reading, creative writing, ethnographic methods, visual literacy, and seminar discussions. In winter quarter, students will begin to frame projects focusing on program themes in particular cultural areas, which they will develop and research. | Karen Gaul Therese Saliba | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
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Matthew Smith
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | Today as we move into the second decade of the 21 century, environmental issues are in the mainstream. Everything from the food we eat to climate change, from the philosophy of the nature to the nature of our communities, from economic policy to our understanding of earth and human history is being rethought. This program provides an opportunity for students to read and respond to some of the best new environmental writing and ideas in the context of classic texts in the field. We will trace the origins of nature writing, the twin traditions of exploration and romanticism as they emerge and develop in the early 19 and early 20 century. Authors including Thoreau, Emerson,; and Aldo Leopold, A will form the background for our reading of contemporary nature writing and environmental thinking. We will read contemporary writers including Gary Snyder, ; Freeman House, ; Terry Tempest Williams, ; John Vaillent, : Timothy Morton, and Barbara Kingsolver, . We will supplement our work with poetry, articles and essays. We will read and discuss each text carefully. We will maintain a reader’s journal in which we reflect upon the text and themes that have emerged in our reading. Students will be expected to write short formal essays, an extended piece of nature writing, and a research essay dealing with a particular topic, writer, or theme that has emerged from our work. Each student should anticipate becoming the resident expert in the work of at least one of our authors or one major issue.The program is designed to give students an opportunity to read a variety of important pieces of environmental literature and to work on their own writing. We will share our writing with peer and faculty support and will expect all students to participate regularly in all phases of the program. Our work will offer opportunities for serious conversation, focused research, and reflection on personal and collective understandings of environmental ethics and action. | Matthew Smith | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Jeff Antonelis-Lapp
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 13Winter | The Nisqually River originates high on the southern slopes of Mount Rainier and courses its way to the lowlands, entering Puget Sound just east of Olympia. The only U.S. river that begins in a national park and ends in a national wildlife refuge, it flows through a military base, an Indian reservation, public and private lands en route to its estuary at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.We will study the Nisqually River watershed in multiple contexts, including: the river's natural history, with a focus on learning 50 birds common to the watershed; the river's human history from precontact times to the present; the contemporary partnerships and projects that make the Nisqually River Council an international model of collaboration in watershed restoration and stewardship; and issues the river and local inhabitants face that relate to climate change. We will also partner with local schools, learning how students are engaged in watershed stewardship and assist them in conducting water quality monitoring tests throughout the watershed.A four-day field trip that includes a one-day float trip will introduce students to the upper reaches of the river and ongoing restoration projects on the middle sections of the river. Additional one-day field trips will allow students to study the watershed's birds in the field and learn about restoration efforts at the river's estuary. Students will also create and lead lessons that teach about some of the watershed's bird life. All students in the program will be required to participate in the Green Congress on Friday March, 22 (the final day of evaluation week) during which Evergreen will host 400 elementary school students for a day of Nisqually River watershed presentations and workshops. | Jeff Antonelis-Lapp | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | |||||
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Alison Styring and Dina Roberts
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | Birds are the most diverse vertebrates found on the earth. We will explore the causes of this incredible diversity through a well-rounded investigation of general bird biology, the evolution of flight (and its implications), and the complex ecological interactions of birds with their environments. This program has considerable field and lab components and students will be expected to develop strong bird identification skills, including Latin names, and extensive knowledge of avian anatomy and physiology. We will learn a variety of field and analytical techniques currently used in bird monitoring and research. We will take several day trips to field sites in the Puget Sound region throughout the quarter to hone our bird-watching skills and practice field-monitoring techniques. Students will keep field journals documenting their skill development in species identification and proficiency in a variety of field methodologies. Learning will also be assessed through exams, quizzes, field assignments, group work and participation. | Alison Styring Dina Roberts | Tue Wed Thu Fri | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | ||||
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Jennifer Gerend and Ralph Murphy
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | This program will provide an interdisciplinary, in-depth focus on how land has been viewed and treated by humans historically and in contemporary times. We will give special attention to the political, economic, social/cultural, environmental and justice contexts of land use. We will also look at land ethics, concepts of land ownership, and efforts to regulate land uses and protect lands that have been defined as valuable by society.To understand the context, role and purposes of land use policy and regulation, the following topics and social science disciplines will be used to evaluate human treatment of land primarily in the United States: history and theory of land use planning; economic and community development; the structure and function of American government and federalism; public policy formation and implementation; contemporary land use planning and growth management; elements of environmental and land use law; economics; fiscal analysis of state and local governments; and selected applications of qualitative and quantitative research methods, such as statistics and GIS. Taken together, these topics will help us examine the diversity of ideas, theories and skills required for developing an in-depth analysis of land issues. Our goal is to have students leave the program with a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of issues surrounding land use planning, restoration, urban redevelopment, stewardship and conservation.The program will include lectures, seminars, guest speakers, films, research methods workshops, field trips in western Washington and individual and group research projects and presentations. Fall quarter will focus on developing an understanding of the political and economic history that brought about the need for land use regulation. This will include understanding the political, legal, theoretical and economic context. Winter quarter will continue these themes into contemporary applications and the professional world of land use planning, such as the Washington Growth Management Act, historic preservation and shoreline management. Students will leave the program with the foundation to prepare them for internships or potential careers in land use policy and management. | land use and environmental planning, policy development and fiscal analysis, environmental and natural resource management, and community development. | Jennifer Gerend Ralph Murphy | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | |||
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Stephen Bramwell and David Muehleisen
Signature Required:
Summer
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Program | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | Su 13Summer Full | This is a spring, summer, fall program and is open only to students continuing from the spring. For the full program description, see . | Stephen Bramwell David Muehleisen | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | |||||
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EJ Zita
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | W 13Winter | We are interested in symmetries in nature and the universe, and in human understanding and interaction with nature. We will read books and articles on astrophysics, cosmology and/or the environment to explore topics such as these. Physicists have discovered new puzzles which your generation will solve. Why is the expansion of the universe accelerating? What are dark matter and dark energy? Why is there matter, space, and time? Why do these take the forms that we observe?We will read about and discuss the beauty and importance of quantitative study of nature and our place in the natural world. Students will gain a deeper physical understanding of the universe, with little or no math.We will share our insights, ideas, and questions about the readings and our wonder about the universe. Students will write weekly short essays and many responses to peers' essays. Students will meet with their team (of 3 peers) at least one day before each class to complete pre-seminar assignments.Learning goals include deeper qualitative understanding of physics, related sciences and the scientific method; more sophisticated capabilities as science-literate citizens; and improved skills in writing, critical thinking, teamwork and communication.Program webpage: | EJ Zita | Tue Thu | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter | ||||
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Trisha Towanda
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | Studying climate change processes in the ocean frequently requires approaches that are unique to the marine environment. In this program, we will study the instruments and methods that allow us to conduct science beneath the sea. Lectures will cover marine topics in climate change and regional ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest.We will explore various marine ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest through a series of formal field exercises, including a multi-day field trip on the Olympic Coast. Students will maintain detailed field notebooks with observations, questions and hypotheses that will be the foundation of subsequent literature research. Working in groups, students will write formal scientific reports on each site to address effects of climate change. Students will also conduct a poster session on oceanographic instruments used to study various physical, geological, chemical and biological phenomena in the ocean. Weekly seminar sessions will allow each student opportunities to facilitate seminars on primary scientific literature. In addition, students will interpret scientific literature regarding effects of rapid global climate change on marine systems for non-scientist audiences though various media forms. Through final group presentations, students will convey the scientific research behind efforts to address the impacts of global climate change on marine environments. | Trisha Towanda | Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | |||||
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Karen Hogan
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 12 | 12 | Evening and Weekend | F 12 Fall | This program is an introduction to some of the central concepts in evolutionary theory. We’ll read works by and about Darwin and some of his contemporaries and learn about the scientific and cultural context of Darwin’s work. Darwin's work provided the foundations for evolutionary biology and ecology by developing the concept that ecological interactions can be best understood by looking at how adaptations of the organism (form, physiology, behavior) interact with its environment (physical conditions, competition, predation, etc.) to influence the organism's evolutionary fitness (reproductive success).We'll study the importance of sex in evolutionary biology. Why is sexual reproduction virtually ubiquitous in biology even though, in sexually reproducing organisms, only half of the individuals (females) produce offspring and the offspring only carry half of the genetic information from each parent? Why do few strictly asexual organisms exist? We will read works on the natural history of reproduction in animals and plants as we study evolutionary theory, genetics, and ecology.Students will be expected to approach the topics with rigor from a scientific perspective. Some upper division credit may be awarded for upper division work by arrangement with the faculty at the beginning of the quarter and ongoing communication with the faculty throughout the quarter. | environmental sciences, ecology, and evolutionary biology. | Karen Hogan | Mon Wed Sat | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Ralph Murphy
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Course | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | Su 13Summer Session I | This class covers key statistical concepts at the conceptual and computational level with an emphasis on how statistics is used in research in natural and social sciences. Important elements of research design are covered in the class. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests are covered including scales of data, measures of central tendency, normal distributions, probability, chi square, correlation and linear regression, tests of hypothesis, and Type I and Type II errors. Students will develop a clear understanding of introductory statistics and the ability to correctly interpret findings in journals, newspapers, and books. The class meets the statistics prerequisite for MES and MPA programs at Evergreen and most other graduate schools with a statistics prerequisite. | Ralph Murphy | Mon Wed | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Jeff Antonelis-Lapp
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SOS | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | S 13Spring | This program is intended for students wishing to dig deep as environmental educators, natural historians or in a related field. Students will work independently or in small teams, with faculty support, to develop a course of study or complete a prearranged internship. Students will propose, undertake and evaluate a quarter-long project that may draw widely from the fields of environmental education (in either formal or nonformal settings), natural history (including field work, journaling and writing), place-based education, sustainability studies, outdoor leadership or related fields. A few sample project ideas include internships with local environmental education organizations, Evergreen's (TOP), or Wildlife Department field work at Joint Base Lewis McChord. Although students are encouraged to design their own projects, a list of potential projects and internships will be posted on the program moodle site prior to week one. There are no special expenses associated with the program, but students should consider their transportation needs in planning internships. During week one, students will use a process similar to Evergreen's independent learning contracts to propose and plan their projects. Thereafter, weekly seminars and workshops will support student project work. Students will be expected to participate in all program activities, give regular project updates, receive feedback from and give feedback to their peers and submit weekly progress reports. Students will present their work during a week ten symposium at the end of spring quarter that will aim to locate themes and trends to guide their future studies and/or work in the field.Students will be evaluated on their project proposal, weekly participation and progress reports, final presentation, symposium participation and self-evaluation of their own learning. | Jeff Antonelis-Lapp | Tue Tue | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Spring | Spring | ||||
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Steven G. Herman
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 8 | 08 | Day, Evening and Weekend | Su 13Summer Session II | Summer Ornithology is a three week bird-banding course taught entirely in the field. We leave campus on the first day, travel through some of the best birding country in Oregon, then over the next few days find and set up camp in a place where we can net, process, and band a sufficient number of birds to provide all students with appropriate experience. We spend the next two weeks netting, processing, banding, and releasing several hundred birds of about 25 species. We focus on aspects of banding protocol, including net placement, removing birds from nets, identification, sexing, ageing, and record-keeping. We balance the in-hand work with field identification and behavioral observations, and during the last week we tour Steens Mountain and the Malheur area. This course has been taught for over 30 years, and more than 24,000 birds have been banded during that time. Lower or upper-division credit is awarded depending of the level of academic achievement demonstrated. A photo essay on this program is available through and a slide show is available through . | Steven G. Herman | Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Anne de Marcken (Forbes)
Signature Required:
Winter Spring
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Research | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | V | V | Day, Evening and Weekend | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | This is an opportunity for students to work with faculty from a diverse set of disciplines on creative and scholarly projects. Students will come away with invaluable skills in library and archival research practices, visual arts studio practices, laboratory practices, film/media production practices, critical research and writing, and much more. Critical and Creative Practices is comprised of a diverse group of artists, theorists, scientists, mathematicians, writers, filmmakers and other cultural workers whose interdisciplinary fields of study sit at the crossroads between critical theoretical studies and creative engagement. uses creative writing and digital media production as methods of inquiry. Her process-based work results in short stories, personal essays, longer hybrid narratives, time-based forms of these things (films and videos), and sometimes web environments. Her current areas of inquiry include climate change and the interactions of place and identity, in particular as related to the idea of home. Students working with Anne will have opportunities to work on one or more literary projects in the early development phase. Activities will include concept development, research, preliminary structuring, proposal writing, grant writing, and critique of early draft creative writing. Students may also work with Anne to continue development of an internet-based project related to climate change. | Anne de Marcken (Forbes) | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Winter | Winter Spring | ||||
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Heather Heying and Jennifer Calkins
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Program | JR–SRJunior - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | S 13Spring | Evolution provides an explanation for the extraordinary biological diversity on this planet. In this program, we will focus on macroevolutionary processes, specifically speciation and the evidence it leaves behind. In doing so, we will address several philosophical questions, including: How do we make claims of knowledge in an historical science such as evolution? We will investigate questions that may seem simple at first--What is a species?--but turn out to have myriad, conflicting answers. This complexity, and our attempts to discern the pattern in that complexity, will be our focus.We will use the vertebrates as our model with which to study evolution, reviewing the morphological and genomic history and diversity of this clade. Innovations have marked the history of vertebrates, including the origins of cartilage, bone, brains, endothermy, and the amniotic egg, which allowed for the invasion of terrestrial habitats. The transformation of existing structures to take on new functions has been another notable feature of vertebrate evolution: from swim bladder into lungs, hands into wings, and scales into both feathers and hair. This vertebrate diversification involved genomic innovation, particularly that involving the variation in the regulation of gene expression and regular bouts of gene duplication and diversification.Classroom work will include workshops and lectures in which active participation by all students will facilitate an enriching learning community. The labs will involve studying the focal traits of the primary two approaches to studying vertebrate evolution: morphological and molecular.In the wet lab, we will study the comparative anatomy of vertebrate skulls and skeletons, and dissect cats and sharks. We will also sequence genes and portions of the genome of various vertebrates. In the computer lab, we will use analyze our genomic data. We will combine our morphological and molecular investigations using software designed for systematic character analysis and for testing the pattern of selection across traits. Using this software, students will generate and analyze molecular and morphological datasets. There will be two multi-day field trips. Students will present short lectures on topics in genomics, molecular evolution, anatomy or physiology (e.g. circulatory system, musclephysiology). Students will also conduct extensive research on a current unresolved topic in vertebrate evolution, and will present that research in both a paper and a talk. | Heather Heying Jennifer Calkins | Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall | |||
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Paul Pickett
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Course | SO–SRSophomore - Senior | 4 | 04 | Evening | Su 13Summer Session II | Water has been described as the "Oil of the 21st Century." The world’s limited supply of water faces huge challenges of human demand and contamination. This course explores the many dimensions of water resources and the critical problems of managing water for humans and the environment. An integrating focus for the course will be watersheds, where many dimensions of environmental function and human activity overlap. | Paul Pickett | Mon Wed | Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Summer | Summer | ||||
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Matthew Smith and Dylan Fischer
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Program | FR–SRFreshmen - Senior | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | “There are two ways to die in the desert, too much water and not enough.” In this two-quarter program, we will focus an interdisciplinary lens on the myriad ways we survive when water is scarce and when water is overwhelmingly present.Life and growth in the west has always been limited by availability of water. Human interactions with rivers, lakes, rainfall, snow pack, and ground water resources have been central themes of the western experience. Ownership of water and apportioning its use has been a constant dilemma and struggle among myriad users and claimants, human and natural. Climate change threatens different patterns of precipitation and more rapid evaporation. This will intensify these dilemmas and calls for new physical and policy responses, along with new adaptations and efficiencies in water use.Water has limited the spread of organisms in the American West for millions of years. We will examine how organisms have adapted to water scarcity in diverse and interesting ways. Understanding biological adaptations to water abundance and scarcity requires an understanding of general ecology that may provide analogies for solutions to the current water crises humans face in an era of climate change. Just as humans deal with what climate change means for the future of water availability, ecosystems have been adapting to changing water availability since the dawn of terrestrial life forms.This program will first explore what it’s like to live with water scarcity (in the fall), and then what it’s like to live in the presence of overabundance of water (in the winter). We will contrast wet and dry landscapes in the American west using water as a central theme. We will use a combination of modern environmental literature, classic environmental nonfiction, field trips, hands-on experiences, guest speakers and seminars to help us delve deep into the central theme of this program. | Matthew Smith Dylan Fischer | Freshmen FR Sophomore SO Junior JR Senior SR | Fall | Fall Winter | ||||
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Chico Herbison
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Program | FR ONLYFreshmen Only | 16 | 16 | Day | F 12 Fall | W 13Winter | "What then, is Earth to American people of color?" (Alison H. Deming and Lauret E. Savoy, ) This two quarter program explores nature writing by people of color in the United States. Deming and Savoy provide an eloquent and passionate starting point, as well as critical unifying themes and issues, for our exploration: "[if nature writing] examines human perceptions and experiences of nature, if an intimacy with and response to the larger-than-human world define who or what we are, if we as people are part of nature, then the experiences of all people on this land are necessary stories, even if some voices have been silent, silenced, or simply not recognized as nature writing."We will begin our quest by addressing the many meanings of "nature" and, by extension, "nature writing." Our journey's next phase will involve an introduction to, and brief overview of, the American nature writing tradition. Students will read selections from some of the country's best-known nature writers, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Muir, Mary Hunter Austin, Wendell Berry, Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard and Terry Tempest Williams. Fall quarter will conclude with introductory readings on the historical and cultural relationships between people of color and nature. Students will engage with program readings, not only to develop a stronger appreciation of, and respect for, nature writing, but also to strengthen their critical thinking, reading and academic writing skills. In winter quarter, our selection of texts will foreground major works of nature writing by people of color, including writings by Toni Morrison, Leslie Marmon Silko, Ruth Ozeki, Percival Everett, and by those anthologized in . Students will continue to hone their academic writing skills; however, they will have the opportunity to explore "the colors of nature" through a variety of other writing forms: fiction, poetry, music lyrics, and creative nonfiction, among others. By winter quarter's end, students will be equipped to respond, in a variety of ways, to that question posed above: "What then, is Earth to American people of color?" Only at that point can we begin to address the enduring question, "What then, is Earth to all people?" Program activities will include lectures, workshops, seminars, film screenings, guest presentations and field trips. Students should be prepared to devote at least twice as many hours outside of class, as those spent in class, to program readings, writing and other assignments. | the humanities, writing, education, and environmental studies. | Chico Herbison | Tue Thu Fri | Freshmen FR | Fall | Fall |
