Brian Donahue and Dan Perlman

Overview: The Environmental Field Semester is an integrated four-course offering from the Brandeis Environmental Studies program. About 12 students will enroll in a roster of courses that have been configured to be team taught in a single, coherent semester-long program that includes major blocks of guided field research. These courses are "Field Biology" with Dan Perlman, "Food and Farming in America" with Brian Donahue, and the double-credit "Geographic Information Systems and Field Methods: The New England Landscape" with Dan Perlman and Brian Donahue. All of these course credits count toward the Environmental Studies major. The EFS was offered for the first time in the fall of 2007.

The purpose of the EFS is to give students intensive experience in the conservation and stewardship of land, using Waltham, Weston and other local communities as our living laboratory. In the process students will gain an in-depth understanding of the history, ecology, laws and politics behind how land is used. They will also begin to master research, writing, Geographic Information System (GIS), presentation and management skills that make for effective environmental protection and sustainable engagement, at the local community level.

Academic Work: Environmental Field Semester classes will meet on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays; mornings will generally be devoted to classroom work and afternoons to field work. There will also be several multi-day field trips to other parts of New England throughout the semester, enabling us to gain a broad view of the region's ecology and environmental history. Throughout the semester students will engage in group projects of conservation and stewardship involving parcels of land in surrounding communities. We will work closely with local government and non-profit groups to select projects through which students become deeply involved in all the complexity of dealing with real-life situations.

Classroom and field exercises will teach students about the historical and ecological development of the landscape and communities surrounding Brandeis, current ecological features, environmental issues and challenges, and the legal and political context in which decisions about land are made. Particular attention will be paid to questions such as the shaping of these communities as part of the development of greater Boston, the impact of the Wetlands Protection Act and other environmental laws and regulations, protection of species and ecological services in a fragmented suburban environment, and sustainable local food production. Class will meet in the mornings for two one-and-a-half hour blocks, with many of these being team-taught or devoted to guest lectures, including several with Laura Goldin on environmental law issues.

Field Trips: Two afternoons each week will be devoted to field trips to local sites that illustrate particular aspects of ecology, conservation, land stewardship, and environmental health and justice issues. We will study a variety of local habitats; places involved in difficult wetland and pollution issues; sites that exemplify development conflicts and solutions; sites involved in water supply and waste disposal; local community farms; and areas with interesting ecological histories. These trips are essential to conveying the material in the course, and will also provide support and training for course projects. Some afternoon blocks, especially late in the semester, will be devoted to field and archival research for projects. Students will also have Tuesdays and Fridays available to pursue these projects on their own. A third afternoon each week will be spent helping out at Land's Sake community farm and forests in Weston, giving students direct experience in the actual tasks of land stewardship and sustainable food and wood production. Their activities will include maintaining trails, splitting and stacking firewood, and cultivating and harvesting crops.

The EFS will also feature several multi-day field trips. We will start with an overnight trip to Harvard Forest in central Massachusetts to kick off the semester, introducing students to the history of land use in New England. The second weekend of the semester we will take a field trip to western Massachusetts to study a range of regional biodiversity. About a month into the course we'll take a five day trip to northern Vermont to explore old-growth forests, relict glacial bogs and other unusual habitats, large-scale forest conservation and sustainable forestry, sustainable farming, and more land use history. Later we may have an overnight trip to Cape Cod to examine issues of coastal development and protection. In addition, we anticipate a number of day trips such as exploring the Charles River, walking from Weston to Walden Pond over conservation land, and visiting important urban and suburban environmental sites. These field trips are essential to give students a full grasp of the larger urban, rural, and natural contexts surrounding suburban conservation issues in New England. Finally, the EFS will include at least one group lunch a week, and one dinner a month, that feature local, seasonal foods.

Team Projects: Each semester we will choose one to three major group projects that involve teams of students in real conservation and stewardship issues; these will be the focus of the program. In many cases students will be able to make useful contributions and present their findings to town boards, land trusts, and other landowners and decision makers. For example, students could research the history of a parcel of conservation land, inventory and map its species and other ecological features, and prepare a stewardship plan. Students could also perform similar research on a piece of land being proposed for development. They would prepare alternative development plans that maximize protection of ecological values, while their teammates research the legal and political processes for accomplishing the proposed stewardship or alternative development plans, and develop a proposed implementation strategy. In pursuing these projects students will work in teams, but with individual assignments. They will learn and utilize research skills such as GIS mapping, ecological inventory techniques, and field and archival historical research, along with communication skills in effective writing, Web site creation, and public presentation.

Conclusion: Students in the EFS will receive three distinct grades, one for each course. The grades will be determined by enthusiastic and full participation, field quizzes, exams on course content and readings, but most of all by student preparation of their research findings in a variety of formats for effective presentation. Students will present their work in formats such as a technical research paper, a public summary report, a Web site, and an op-ed article. In addition, each student group will make oral presentations, sometimes before public audiences. The purpose of the EFS is not only to teach students how to come to a deep understanding of the natural and human communities surrounding Brandeis, but to develop a full range of skills for engaging with the future of places wherever they come to live.