The first semester includes a Foundational course in EE and a professional seminar that connects incoming students with their colleagues and provides advising on career direction and professional choices. This course lays the groundwork for deep thought and critical analysis of the environmental education field. Familiarity with the seminal questions that drive environmental education begin the course. Our work is all about forming an ecological identity. The historical and intellectual context of environmental and educational thought forms the structure of the course.
Personal reflection provides a mirror for major philosophical figures from the past and present.
The second half of the course introduces the various ways educational goals manifest themselves in practice. The wide array of educational possibilities fill each class, from residential programming to outdoor adventure, public school curriculum to informal settings like zoos and aquariums. The final project is a culminating philosophy paper that defines a guiding statement for each student to carry into the field. That is what connects people to the land. Part of my motivation is ethical.