Course title:
Environmental problems in national parks
What gave birth to the concept for the course?
The University of Tennessee is a natural fit for this course, offering: Great Smoky Mountains National Park and all the educational opportunities it offers are only an hour’s drive away.
Although I didn’t create this course, I jumped at the chance to develop into its instructor. Growing up as a Boy Scout and later a merit badge advisor, I loved place-based education. I actually have all the time appreciated spending time outdoors to teach about theoretical concepts discussed within the classroom.
What does the course explore?
Each week of the semester we discuss a current environmental issue after which delve into an applied case study in a special national park. For example, in a single week students learn about fire regimes or fire patterns over time. Then in the following class we discuss how fire regimes apply Sequoia National Park naturally in California maintain the ecosystem the redwood groves there.
The highlight of the semester is a private field trip to Look Rock within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here, my students and I meet a park ranger who teaches them how trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and learn how to measure it. The group also enjoys the trip to Look on the Rock Tower to learn more about the realm and see the amazing views throughout.
Why is this course relevant now?
Number of visits to national parks continues to grow 12 months by 12 months. Most of my students have been to at the very least one or two national parks and have contact with them increasing presence on social media.
If this course had been titled “Environmental Issues,” I do not think it might have had the identical interest because it does now. Typically, the course fills to capability in the beginning of every semester.
Using parks as teaching tools not only keeps students engaged and entertained at school, but additionally provides them with real-life lessons about environmental issues. They have a front-row seat to learning about changing landscapes and the physical aspects that influence them, corresponding to climate, topography and vegetation.
What is crucial lesson from the course?
I tell my students again and again that the world is just not black and white. Environmental problems are complex and difficult to resolve.
For example, the bald eagle population within the US declined dramatically after World War II, and eventually did considered endangered. It was the results of poisoning with the insecticide DDT.
After some quick thought, it seems so DDT ban within the USA in 1972 was an obvious solution to avoid wasting the white-tailed eagle. They have been there ever since international efforts to ban DDT all over the world for environmental reasons. However, this ignores the context that DDT kills mosquitoes that transmit the deadly disease malaria. In other parts of the world, DDT saved, amongst others, an estimated 500 million people died for malaria within the Nineteen Seventies.
This example demonstrates the nuances which can be required when pondering about environmental issues and solutions. Sometimes there isn’t a obvious right answer, and students clearly have difficulty answering a lot of these ethical questions.
What materials does the course consist of?
I don’t use a central textbook and don’t share specific readings. Instead, students take part in group activities, watch illustrated lecture slideshows and YouTube videos, and work with online resources.
For one task, students use Google Earth and organize a guided tour of a national park of their selection. They play the role of a park ranger, describing tour stops. Students enjoy selecting which national park they need to visit and showcase to visitors.
What will the course prepare students for?
I would like students to develop into critical visitors to national parks and guarded areas after completing the course. I would like them to concentrate on the role they play in what happens in these spaces and the complexity of the issues that exist there. Examples include the continued overpopulation of national parks, the removal of indigenous people from these lands, or the history of discrimination against Black people in our parks.
Whether they’re battling strictly environmental issues or the larger political and social struggles related to national parks, I would like students to open their minds to latest perspectives. In a way, this course is an intervention that helps students understand that they’ll make a difference and help shape an ever-changing world.
