Course code:
This three-credit interdisciplinary course will explore how coastal communities, especially around Frenchman Bay, have navigated and are navigating major changes in their communities, the Bay, and the ecology around them. This place-based course will use the Bay and surrounding towns to explore how history, geography, audio storytelling, and data science can illuminate, document and nurture community perspectives on their past, present and future. Students will undertake research projects focused on communities and their stories of adaptation and community members’ reflections on the dramatic changes they have witnessed in the last decades both onshore and at sea. The class will provide opportunities to learn about and use skills from data analysis and visualization, oral history and audio story-telling as well as community-based research rooted in both history and geography. This interdisciplinary approach will allow the class to grapple with how projects can be used to help facilitate community conversations about how their inhabitants have used different strategies to adapt in the past and present in ways that could inform their future. The course will involve field trips, overnight stays, and community work throughout the region, and the monster course format provides extended periods of time on the projects they undertake. The course will include time on the water and in communities, and students should expect to spend substantial time on and off campus for the class. Students will be evaluated on short assignments, team projects, and overall level of effort on coursework. This course is appropriate for students from a wide range of backgrounds and both academic and personal experiences, and there are no prerequisites. Given the immersive approach of the class the instructors would encourage students to reach out to the instructors prior to the class.
Prerequisites:
None.
Always visit the Registrar's Office for the official course catalog and schedules.
