Field Work + Outdoor Learning

We start the year with a bang: an orientation week filled with field trips, which offers a concentrated introduction to the program and the class. Working intensively on field activities helps us get to know each other and learn about how natural and social systems work. Not only do working relationships get forged, but we also start to develop a shared vocabulary and common places of reference.

Then, throughout the year, one afternoon a week is typically devoted to field work, which provides opportunities to leave campus to see new places and meet new people. Trips range from a snowshoe trek through a boreal forest with an ecologist to a sketching exercise amidst industrial ruins guided by an urban planner.

Clockwise from top: Field trips to study the local ecology take place yearround. Credit: Aitan Mizrahi ’15 | Trips to the outdoors provide an opportunity to learn about wildlife habitat for endangered species like this diamondback terrapin. Credit: Hillary Collins ’15 | Natural systems in cities, such as this green roof in Hartford, provide important learning opportunities. | The High Line: a disused railway in lower Manhattan re-purposed as a public park. | Cities like Providence, Rhode Island, provide an opportunity to study stormwater management, traffic and pedestrian flow, and urban sustainability.