The Environmental Studies program at this comprehensive liberal arts college in a suburb of Chicago is comprised of faculty from many disciplines and the program requires students to take courses from a variety of disciplines. A freshman-level course, People and Nature is a “gateway” course in the Environmental Studies program and the course is also open to all students at the college as it is one option available to fulfill the humanities general education requirement.

The professor of the course was interested in implementing a pedagogical experiment through the incorporation of activities associated with High-Impact Practices in higher education.  The Association of American Colleges and Universities states that these kinds of teaching and learning practices are beneficial for college students from many backgrounds, especially historically underserved students, who often do not have equitable access to high-impact learning.  A number of the reading and writing assignments in this course required students to spend time outdoors and in nature. Some of the assignments were completed working alone (phenology/nature observation journal entries).  Other assignments had both group and individual components (parks and playground observation reports, technology interference activity, campus trees and wildlife reports, and the architectural analysis assignment).  At the end of the term, the college students were surveyed and asked to identify an assignment that had the most impact in each of the following areas: promoting their interactions with nature, facilitating their understanding of the impact of nature on people, and influencing the way they will interact with nature in the future.

The results of the survey will be shared with conference attendees along with samplings of students’ qualitative comments.  Additionally, descriptions of the activities and assignments will be shared as will conclusions regarding their effectiveness for use as part of High-Impact Practices in environmental studies courses.