State University of New York at Oneonta
AC-5: Immersive Experience

Environmental History paired with Environmental Ethics: students enroll in both courses and throughout the semester engage in overlapping topics to broaden their understanding of environmental sustainability (includes all 3 dimensions listed above). The students also participate in a week-long field trip the week before classes begin in the fall semester. The faculty arrange for a low-impact trip during which the group camps along the Hudson River. The field course starts in the Adirondacks and follows the Hudson River down to NYC, showing the students the progressively changing environments from “wild” to dense urban development. Field Courses: The GES Department offers sustainability-focused field courses conducted in locations outside of Oneonta, NY. One is focused on water resources in an impoverished underdeveloped area in Guatemala during which students test water quality and work with the locals to develop strategies for improving water quality. They also work to understand the complexities of the situation which includes social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Another course is focused on wetlands restoration in an extremely vulnerable and unhealthy deltaic wetlands ecosystem impacted by urban development, industry, climate change, and natural hazards. Students work with a grassroots non-profit in New Orleans to strengthen and rebuild the wetlands and learn about the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability in a stressed ecosystem.