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ENVA 3003 Environmental Studies Field Course

Dates: August 23 & 24, 26-31

Pre-requisites: 30 degree credits, including ENVA 2000 and ENVA 2001, or equivalency

Instructors: Drs. Burton, France, and six other faculty professors

Present Calendar Description:

This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to pursue an integrated approach to solve real-world environmental problems, some with an agricultural focus. It will be of 8 full days’ duration and occur at the end of August. The course will be taught by selected faculty members and will involve students visiting environmentally significant locations near the Truro campus. Students will be expected to have read a series of online material accessible before the field course begins. A series of write-ups about the findings with appropriate recommendations regarding solutions to identified problems will be required during the course. There will be no carry-over of work into the autumn term.

Learning Outcomes:

The goal of this field course will be to instruct students in the techniques to quantify various aspects of managed ecosystems. The intent of the course is to provide students with a logical framework in which to quantify – analyse – interpret and manage soil, plant, air, and water resources and how this knowledge can be used toward making informed decisions about land-use management. Students will therefore learn the skills involved in the measurement, the analysis, as well as the managerial interpretations of a suite of environmental attributes pertaining to interlinked terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric biogeochemical ecosystems, in addition to selected aspects of their resident flora and fauna.

Course Elements:

Each topic covered will have:

1) Background reading material posted on Brightspace site to be read before the field trip

2) Hands-on work based on the measure à analyze à manage theory described in the learning outcomes; i.e. data obtained in the field, then analyzed and possibly interpreted there or back in the lab, followed by a wrap-up discussion (either informally or possibly through a formal presentation) on the management implications of the sampling and analysis

3) Any submitted work, such a brief write-up, which will be completed either by the end of day or at the latest handed in the following morning