Each Friday afternoon you will meet in groups to discuss plans for an undergraduate course that builds on the interdisciplinary approach undertaken in the institute. Some participants no doubt teach Leopold in environmental history and thought, sustainability, nature writing, philosophy and ethics, literature, and related subjects; and you may wish to design your project around those classes, whether Leopold is a major figure or not. Others may elect to build a course independent of Leopold, but one that uses the approach here – illustrating how a text can be examined from a variety of humanities disciplines. Participants might, for example, choose to build a course around Mary Austin’s Land of Little Rain, another “nature book” that inspires the same historical, philosophical, and literary reflection that one finds in A Sand County Almanac.

The goal is not to design an “environmental” course, but a humanities class – and not a course that advocates an ecological position, but one that helps students understand the position. For example, for a history class it is nearly impossible to tell the story of the West without talking about the land, and it’s next to impossible to talk about the land without referring to Aldo Leopold. Thus, he becomes central to most western history programs that survey the 20th century; but the same is also true of courses in philosophy, for instance, where environmental ethics continues to be a growing interest. Other figures share a similar position, and so the institute can serve as a template for related course development.

The proposed course design should include readings, strategies, and goals – a complete syllabus. Each professor will design his or her own program, to be distributed at the final Friday event. To encourage an interdisciplinary approach during the Friday group work, participants will meet first in small groups with others from their field – such as history professors working together. During the second half of the session, you will join with others representing different disciplines. You should work on laptops, and the museum’s new research facility is equipped with internet access. Everyone will file his or her work on the Blackboard site each Friday, so that others can review the course development – both fellow institute participants and institute faculty not in Prescott.

The final Thursday, participants will meet for a half-day to complete their course designs and plan for the Friday presentation. In addition to McGregor and Shilling, core faculty member Scott Sanders will be available for this planning, as will historian Susan Flader, who is keynoting the Friday public event. Flader and other faculty who arrive later in the month will be encouraged to follow course development on the Blackboard site so they are familiar with the progress before arriving. Each teacher will complete a report, outlining a course syllabus; the reports will be copied, collated, and bound into one volume, which will be distributed to educators Friday. 

At the final Friday public event, one representative of the 25 professors will describe the institute experience, and then explain the rationales for and outcomes of the course designs. In addition to providing a bound volume to educators at the public program, the participants may also submit their syllabi to the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, where course descriptions are available online. The syllabi will also be archived and indexed on the IHR website, which is linked to other Leopold and humanities education sites.