The purpose of this course is 2-fold: ① to explore the interactions between organisms and their environment, and ② to fully understand our dependence on the environment and gain an appreciation for the beauty, grandeur and complexity of nature. Emphasis will be on exploring local ecosystems as case studies to making smarter environmental decisions.

When I first imagined this class in 2009, I knew that I wanted it to be something special for my students. I wanted it to be a class that provided frequent, relevant and engaging hands-on opportunities in the field where you could actually step into the role of a naturalist, ecologist or limnologist. For this reason, I have centered the learning in this course around field trips that ask you to actually put into practice what we are learning in the classroom.