Environmental Studies

Marine Studies at Prescott College has a strong focus on ecology of the marine environment (physical oceanography and marine ecology) and on the relationships between humans and the marine environment. Students graduating with a competence in Marine Studies should have a foundation in life sciences, physical sciences, human ecology, conservation, and resource management, as well as a broad scope of supporting courses in literature, politics, economics, and humanities. Direct field experience further establishes a student's understanding and respect for the power and vastness of the world's ocean. Most Marine Studies students follow one of two main paths:1) Marine ecology/field research/natural history or 2) Marine conservation/resource management/policy. Many Marine Studies courses take place at the Prescott College Kino Bay Center for Cultural and Ecological Studies in Bahia Kino, Sonora, Mexico, on the coast of the Gulf of California. Marine Studies students are also encouraged to broaden their experience by participating in an EcoLeague exchange with either College of the Atlantic or Alaska Pacific University.

Students pursuing this emphasis explore both the theory and practice of EE, intertwined with empirical understandings from numerous observations, field experiences, and practicum opportunities. The Environmental Education emphasis is highly interdisciplinary and complementary as a breadth to students studying Education, Environmental Studies, Adventure Education, Social Justice, Sustainability, Human Development, Arts and Letters, Ecopsychology, and more.

Conservation Biology is an interdisciplinary field that has developed rapidly to respond to a global crisis confronting biological diversity and the cultural diversity that depends upon it. Practitioners of Conservation Biology attempt to guide society toward the maintenance of organisms, landscapes, ecological processes, and natural and cultural systems, and toward sustainable management of environmental, human, and evolutionary resources. Conservation Biology represents shifting sets of interactions among three realms: values, policy, and science. Students in this field will become competent to conduct relevant research, make balanced value judgments, and take effective action on behalf of nature and the environment.

Natural History and Ecology is an approach to learning how nature works, how organisms and their biotic and abiotic environments interrelate. Grounded in evolutionary principles, the field involves studying individuals and populations and how they are assembled into communities and ecosystems. Some students within this emphasis area will become naturalists who observe and interpret particular organisms and landscapes. Others may become field ecologists who build upon natural history by using the scientific method for examining questions generated by ecological theory. Ecological understanding informs and guides applied fields such as agroecology and conservation biology.