Field Trips

Field Trips of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Field study is essential to environmental training, and many of our courses use field sites throughout New England to add a dimension of learning that lectures and labs cannot provide. The department also organizes longer field excursions each year, to the Grand Canyon, Pacific Northwest, Bahamas, Newfoundland, Florida Keys, and Iceland (see list below). Students who participate in these large-scale trips enroll in a 4 credit course that meets over a semester, and the field trip is the closing stage of learning in the course.

Study Abroad (including Sea Semester) and the Biology Department's Three Seas program (which involves 2 semesters' study in Massachusetts, Southern California, and Tahiti) provide additional opportunities to study the environment in other parts of the world.

Year Destination Miles Covered # Students
1988 Florida Keys 4000 miles 9
1989 Pacific Northwest 8000 miles 12
1990 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 14
1991 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 14
1991 Black Hills, South Dakota 5000 miles 10
1993 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 20
1994 Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon 7000 miles 14
1995 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 20
1996 Pacific Northwest 8000 miles 14
1997 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 22
1998 Iceland 5500 miles 20
1999 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 22
1999 Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon 7000 miles 22
2000 Iceland 5500 miles 20
2001 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 20
2001 Newfoundland, Canada 3500 miles 9
2003 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 15
2004 San Salvador, Bahamas 3700 miles 9
2005 Colorado Plateau/Grand Canyon 7000 miles 12
2006 San Savador, Bahamas 3700 miles 12
2007 Virginia, North Carolina and Florida Keys 4000 miles 12
Totals 101,500 miles 287