Edmonds College
ER-12: Sustainability Immersive Experience

The Learn and Serve Environmental Anthropology Field (LEAF) School is a service-learning program anchored by three sequential courses in human ecology and two in archaeology. Students in the advanced courses serve as mentors to introductory students with whom they work collaboratively on field-based service-learning projects. The LEAF School engages students in the application of traditional ecological knowledge and modern science to help solve contemporary problems. The LEAF School partners with tribes, governments, non-profits and businesses to make our community more sustainable through wildlife tracking, habitat restoration, sustainable food production, archaeology and environmental stewardship. The LEAF School employs service-learning through hands-on archaeological projects and as a form of participant observation, the primary method of investigation in cultural anthropology. Students have the opportunity to participate in everyday activities of farmers, fishermen (and women), restoration ecologists, gardeners, entrepreneurs, citizen scientists, rangers, wildlife trackers, archaeologists and others while learning about the social and ecosystems of Western Washington.