3 credits
Prerequisites: None
Satisfies requirements for: BS, PitE Practical Experience, Biology Lab, and EEB Field/Research
Meets: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Instructor: Marjorie Weber
Course Description:
Trees are highly charismatic, socially relevant organisms that have had significant importance in the world throughout their history. However, the information and tools at our disposal shape the ways in which we understand, view, and use trees. What is a tree, and how should we treat it? Ask a gardener, a farmer, a politician, a scientist, an economist, an artist: they will each give a different answer. In this art-science integration course, students will gain an introduction to the ecological, evolutionary, and cultural significance of trees as seen through the lenses of art, science, and society. Students will each pick a tree and use it as a model to practice critically observing the world around them through multiple lenses. Course activities include field illustration and writing, economic and societal explorations of trees, and a hands-on research project conducted with the goal of publishing a scientific paper with each student as a co-author. Students from all majors (humanities, arts, sciences) are welcome in this cross-disciplinary field course.
…the question is not what you look at–but how you look and whether you see. (Thoreau 1851)
