Course Description
Multidisciplinary field course examining contemporary challenges in resource conservation, using Ossabaw Island, Georgia as the primary study site. Open to third-year students, fourth-year students and graduate students from all departments. All students are required to conduct two projects, and present their projects and findings to the class at end of session. Lab fee required.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be required to investigate their project
topics in a more in-depth fashion, relating it to their general
fields of study, and lead a discussion while in the field
regarding their projects.
Athena Title
SCI ART CONSERV
Non-Traditional Format
Primitive camping conditions, multidisciplinary lectures, and individual projects and reports. Maymester course: Students will spend 8-10 hours daily conducting coastal geomorphology, natural history sessions, field techniques in ecology, environmental design, historic reservation, history, botany, ornithology etc.i.e. several facets of landscape conservation interdisciplinary interactions between these variables. Students get daily lectures in all above, plus guest lectures from Dept. of Natural Resources personnel in Island Management inssues and conservation politics. Students also are responsible for completing two projects each while on the island, one in either Ecology or Natural History and one in Environmental Art. They also read and lead discusssions based upon various books examining contemporary conservation challenges.
Undergraduate Prerequisite
Permission of department
Graduate Prerequisite
Permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
- Identify complexities involved in resource conservation and management. - Analyze these issues using various disciplines. - Study an ecosystem that retains its wild integrity while bearing centuries of human activity. - Develop skills in the reading and interpretation of landscape, applying these to an independent project. - Utilize critical thinking and field experience in disciplines such as Ecology, Environmental Ethics, Archaeology, Geology, Geography, Human and Environmental History, Humanities and the Arts, and Historical Preservation. - Explore how these disciplines intersect and what effect that has on conservation issues.
Topical Outline
- Barrier island processes: Ecology and Geology - Historical inquiry into landscape uses throughout time - Department of Natural Resources (DNR) management issues - Humanities intersection with conservation and ethics - Preservation vs. conservation issues - Development of a "personal sense of place" as a means to deepen the understanding of our role in ecological processes.