Science, Art and Sacred Places

This course is an integrative class. This concentrated class will meet all day for a two-and-a-half week period of time. Students will receive credits in both science and art. The course will be science-based, but it will also include historic and cultural perspectives of the environment. The class will emphasize field-based activities. A journal with daily entries and observations will be a large part of the coursework. Information about plants, insects, animals, ecology and geology will be combined to give students a broad introduction to environmental sciences. There will be one required overnight field trip. Students will need to be prepared to be outdoors and able to hike in various terrain. The Jeffers petroglyph site, the Boundary Waters Pictographs, daily visits to Itasca and other local areas are all being considered for site visits.
The primary goals for this course are for you to develop and document your observational skills in natural environments. This will lead to better scientific knowledge and appreciation of natural surroundings and a greater awareness of the visual information that has been left by the ancestors.