The Sewanee Environmental Institute is pleased to announce its Pre-College Field Studies Experience, a summer outdoor program for talented students, who are passionate about the outdoors and interested in advancing their knowledge and skills in the study of the environment.

Led by full-time faculty at the University of the South and utilizing its 13,000-acre campus atop the ecologically diverse Cumberland Plateau, the program will provide an interdisciplinary introduction to environmental studies featuring the following areas of study:

• Ecology
• Botany
• Zoology
• Geology
• History
• Archaeology
• Conservation Policy
• Environmental Ethics

Students will spend two weeks exploring the diverse ecosystems of the Cumberland Plateau: its forests, coves, streams, lakes, wetlands, and caves.

Students will conduct ecological research with faculty mentors examining the plant and animal species that inhabit these ecosystems and use archaeological techniques along with GIS and GPS technology to study how people have used and changed these ecosystems over time.

Finally, students will learn how conservation strategies are currently being employed to protect the integrity of Plateau ecosystems into the future.

The experience will be conducted almost exclusively in the field, featuring overnight camping excursions, state-of-the-art field mapping equipment, digital photography, ecological assessment techniques and individual/group research projects.

As part of this experience, students will have the opportunity to take part in a number of outdoor recreational activities such as bouldering, canoeing, caving, and mountain biking.

SEI Pre-College Field Studies Experience

June 28 - July 11, 2009

Cost - $1700