Program of Study

The Ecological Teaching and Learning Program is completed in a five semester sequence, beginning with a summer field study. The next two semesters are distance learning where students complete an investigation of their local Bioregion, and complete research on Pedagogy and Theory. In the second summer students complete a second field study an another region. The final semester is completed at a distance and includes a research project.

GINTD 6034
Ecological Perspectives of a Bioregion
The field immersion that underlies this coursework is the introduction to the Ecological Teaching and Learning program with an emphasis on the interdisciplinary learning of the principles of ecology as they apply to any ecosystem or place. Using a natural and wild bioregion as the classroom, this course will focus on the ecological understanding of a particular place. This field immersion experience will be deconstructed pedagogically in the fall and spring coursework. This course is presently offered in Cobscook Bay, Maine.

GINTD 6035
The Practice of Nature Journaling and Field Sketching
Scientists and naturalists throughout the ages have gone out with pencil, charcoal, pen, paper, paints, and colors recording and documenting their impressions of the landscape and its inhabitants. These nature journals and field sketchbooks have become the initial data for much of what we know about the natural world. This course provides students with the opportunity to journey into the realm of nature journaling as a way to record learning and observations.

GINTD 6013
Becoming a Critically Reflective Practitioner
Enduring change and effective integration of ecological concepts across the curriculum are possible only to the extent that practitioners are competent in their ecological literacy. Using their home environment, students will investigate and reflect on their ecological identity and literacy. This self-designed blend of reading, journaling, activity, and reflection combines to strengthen the understanding of ecology and what it means to be an ecological educator and a critically reflective practitioner.

GINTD 6014
Foundations of Ecological Literacy
Learning the language of ecology is a goal of this course. Literature and worldviews that define and describe ecological literacy will be the foundation for examining our teaching practice. The inclusion and integration of ecological principles into the curriculum addresses the need for educating an ecoliterate populace. Students will identify best practices for integrating new insights and methods from the summer field experience into effective, ecologically literate teaching.

GINTD 6036
The Pedagogy of Ecological Teaching and Learning
This course is an overview of applied theory, research, and pedagogy to inform the practice of ecological education. In this inquiry, the transdisciplinary nature of ecological education will be explored and analyzed. The online discussion will focus our inquiry while inviting our observations of educational theory in practice. Investigation of aspects of your teaching practice will be highlighted through cohort discussion moving toward a synthesis paper describing a successful implementation of a new pedagogical practice.

GINTD 6037
Leadership, Communication and Advocacy
This distance-learning course examines positivistic and post-positivistic worldviews to inform our personal, collaborative communication and leadership skills as it relates to ecological education pedagogy. Students equate ecologically literate teaching with practice skills that promote understanding and cooperation among and within diverse groups and within differing viewpoints and philosophies. In examining the relationship between education, advocacy, research, and science, students will understand and assess their identities as change agents, teacher researchers, and teacher activists/leaders.

GINTD 6038
Ecological Interactions in the Urban Ecosystem
The complexity of systems in urban dynamics is provoking a new field of study in urban ecology. This course is an investigation and inquiry into the ecological interactions in the urban ecosystem using a United States city as a focus of inquiry. Ecological research of the urban ecosystem requires a new approach that is participatory and involves urban citizenry in asking research questions, developing hypotheses, collecting data, and interpreting and utilizing the results for policymaking.

GINTD 6039
Teaching for Change: The Ecological Practice of Diversity
Diversity is an important function of ecological communities. Students focus on the human community and how values of ecological diversity are reflected in their teaching practice. The focus is on U.S. political ideology of democracy and how to teach about diversity as a value of democracy. In education, what is taught is as political as what is not taught. The concepts of civic democracy and environmental racism are particularly poignant to the urban ecology study.

GINTD 7004
Ecological Education in Action
This practicum is the terminal work of this degree and an opportunity to inquire into an ecological topic with depth while applying the concepts of action research. This research project will demonstrate ecological understanding in the local environment. Practical skills for critical thinking, inquiry-based learning, problem solving, and collaboration are essential. This project will result in new ecological knowledge, understanding on how to acquire it, the networks and interactions creating the knowledge, and how to analyze and draw conclusions from the knowledge. Note: Ecological Teaching and Learning students only.

GINTD 7005
Special Topic in Ecology/Action Research
This course is an opportunity to make a contribution to the growing body of literature describing how ecological literacy can be an organizing theme in any curriculum or program. The student will have a rich source of information to share from their work with the “Special Topic in Ecology: Action Research” course. By writing for publication and presenting publicly, each student will further their skills and abilities to characterize their work in writing, present professionally, and disseminate information about ecological education. Note: Ecological Teaching and Learning students only.