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This course, BIOL 399D Biology Internship [SLN 10498 Term A] focuses on Environmental Interpretation, and offers hands-on training in practical interpretation and program delivery skills. For students who are interested in careers that interact with the public in the fields of natural and cultural history education, tourism and recreation, and communications. It combines both the theoretical foundations of the profession with practical skills in delivering quality interpretive programming to visitors.

Natural history interpretation can play a critical role in increasing public awareness about the environment. This interpretive course will  provide students with the skills and knowledge of communication methods that can promote environmental stewardship and instill a sense of wonder about the natural world by connecting diverse, multicultural audiences to resources and places.

The course touches on numerous topics including addressing different types of audiences, media choices, and communication techniques. A field trip is a part of this course.

Optional Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG): 

The course, in partnership with the National Association for Interpretation (NAI), offers professional certification that students can achieve in addition to course credit.

For questions or more information, email Celese Spencer at celese@uw.edu

Serve as a Peer Facilitator!

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The course, “Humans and the Environment in the Pacific Northwest,”
will introduce about 35 visiting students from Keio University in
Japan to topics ranging from forest ecology, water quality, and waste
to green building, restoration ecology and urban food sustainability.
Peer Facilitators will assist in leading activities (including field
trips to places like Mt. Rainier and the Bullitt Center and activities
like hiking and canoeing) as well as in mentoring Japanese students on
topic-based research projects.

Positions will be filled on a rolling basis in spring quarter 2014.
Please email course instructor Megan Horst at horstm@uw.edu with
questions. If interested in the position, please include in the email
your interest, your relevant knowledge and experience, and your
availability.

Summer Course: Reading the Elwha

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READING THE ELWHA: Tracing the Dynamics of Landscape Change
L ARCH 498A (SLN# 11964); L ARCH 598A (SLN# 11968); 4 credits

Planning Meeting July 24th, 2014, 5:00-7:00 pm, GLD 312
Camping Trip:  July 28th – August 1st, 2014

Located on the Olympic Peninsula, the Elwha Rivers flows north out of the Olympic Mountains in Olympic National Park before emptying into the Straits of Juan de Fuca. Historically the river supported diverse and viable populations of five species of salmonids, but for the last century two dams have blocked the river to migration and altered the biophysical processes of the watershed.

After three years of deconstruction, the dams will have been fully removed and the historic flows of the river will return. The removal marks the largest dam removal in U.S. history and establishes a precedent for the future management of rivers in the Pacific Northwest and the U.S.

This course is a five-day, four night (July 28th – August 1st, 2014) field intensive exploration of the watershed. Activities include moderate hiking in all areas of the watershed and discussions with the public agencies and tribes that have led and are studying the biophysical responses of the river. Aside from the week!

Please direct inquiries to Ken Yocom, kyocom@uw.edu.

New Summer Course! Anthropology of the Wilderness

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ANTH 269: Anthropology of the Wilderness (B-term)

In the US, the concept of the Wilderness is something that is often taken as a natural or a universal idea; however, the Wilderness is in fact full of contradictions, history, culture, and social values. This course is designed to more critically understand the Wilderness as an idea and a place. By examining its history, current practices and policies, and critiques, students will gain a complex social understanding of the Wilderness. The beginning of the course will trace Wilderness history, situating it within US colonial history and the American environmental movement. Further, we will explore more contemporary Wilderness practices and policies, and current issues. The middle of the course is dedicated to exploring different ways community members, scholars, and activists are challenging and/or reshaping the concept of the Wilderness. This portion of the course engages conversations not only directly addressing the Wilderness, but also voices of scholars who provide alternative land epistemologies. In the final portion of the class, students will use course knowledge to analyze different Wilderness institutions, practices, and discourses.  This course asks students not only to engage with scholarly text, but also policy, popular media, and personal experience. Students will leave the course with a more complex understanding of the Wilderness, its history, critiques, and current manifestations.
 
Contact the instructor, Ava Holliday, with any questions at avaholliday@gmail.com
**Just added to the P&E list for PoE majors under Human and Social/Policy and Decision-making!**

[news]: UW Today: Decline of natural history troubling for science, society

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[news]: UW Today: Decline of natural history troubling for science, society

http://www.washington.edu/news/2014/03/26/decline-of-natural-history-troubling-for-science-society/

Find out more about what ENVIR 280 teachers Josh Tewksbury and Tim Billo have been up to! ENVIR 280 is an introductory natural history course, and is offered annually in spring quarter. This year we will be offering another section of this popular course in autumn 2014.

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— 2014 SUMMER 3-CREDIT FIELD COURSES —


Caribbean Ecosystem Field Studies  (June 4-20)
      Study, SCUBA dive, & snorkel on the Mexican Caribbean Coast.

Colorado Ecosystem Field Studies (July 13-29, Aug 7-23)
        Study, hike, & camp in the the Rocky Mountains.

 

* Gain valuable career skills in hands-on ecosystem field research.

* Earn 3 undergraduate semester transfer credits.
* Apply your classroom/textbook learning while immersed in an

            incredible & active ecosystem setting!


* Accredited by the University of Montana at Missoula 
         Environmental Studies Program *

* Conducted by Ecosystem Field Studies*

For detailed course info visit: www.ecofs.org

For any questions email Steve Johnson, Course Director at steve@ecofs.org

[course]: POL S 401 SPR/14: Environmental Political Theory

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Spring 2014

Pol S 401, Advanced Seminar in Political Theory
 Topic: Environmental Political Theory
 Instructor: Jason Lambacher
 Time: TTh 1230-220pm
 5 Credits, I&S Credit
 SLN: 18408

Description: This course surveys the intersection of environmental ideas and political theory. Political theory is a normative enterprise that evokes reflection on ideas central to political life. Environmental political thought calls for a similar kind of reflection but includes environmental themes in its imagination. This class critically investigate concepts such as nature, individualism, society, justice, consumption, wilderness, bioregionalism, phenomenology, sacrifice, and utopianism from political and environmental points of view. An examination of why different schools of political thought interpret environmental problems from their own unique, often richly historical, perspectives helps to accomplish this task. Further, environmental political theory is not equivalent to environmental politics or environmental policy, though many of the ideas encountered in course texts animate the motivations of activists and politicians and support certain principles of legislation. Environmental political thought is concerned, above all, with meaning and is particularly attuned to perennial controversies about “the good life” and the significance of living in a world that is alive.

Student learning goals: Critical engagement with environmental texts, open discussion, and committed writing.

Method of Instruction: Seminar discussion and short lectures.

Class assignments and grading: Papers and exams

ENV H 417 Children’s Environmental Health

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ENV H 417 Children’s Environmental Health: 3 credits
SLN: 13814 Tuesday and Thursdays 1:30 – 2:50
open to sophomores, juniors and seniors in all majors.

*Did you know…

  • Each year around three million children under the age of five die due to environment-related diseases.
  • Acute respiratory infections annually kill an estimated 1.6 million children under the age of five. As much as 60 percent of acute respiratory infections worldwide are related to environmental conditions.
  • Diarrheal diseases claim the lives of nearly 1.5 million children every year. Eighty to 90 percent of these diarrhea cases are related to environmental conditions, in particular, contaminated water and inadequate sanitation.
  • Nearly 1 million children under the age of five died of malaria in 2008. Up to 90 percent of malaria cases are attributed to environmental factors.

*From The World Health Organization

Instructor: Thomas Burbacher, Ph.D. 

Discussion of environmental health issues as they pertain to children’s health. Topics include historical perspective of public health research and policies directed at protecting children’s health, and emerging scientific and public health issues such as the risks and benefits of seafood consumption during pregnancy; the use of pesticides on food and in the home; air pollution and childhood asthma, and childhood injuries and the built environment.