"Discovering Beringia" is a course with an interesting history, and perhaps an even more interesting future. Right now it is "interdisciplinary." Next year it maybecome "intercontinental." Students deserve to know what Dave Norton expects them to get out of this learning experience, and how those expectations fit within undergraduate educational exepectations.

COURSE GOALS:
A. General
1. Acquaint students with the historical developments by which broad scientific consensus on the previous existence(s) of land bridges vs. marine transections of these bridges has been achieved and extended;
2. Develop a trans-disciplinary forum for discussion of the persuasiveness of ecological, paleontological, geologic, and other discipline-specific evidence;
3. Familiarity with several methods and styles of undergraduate instruction and discourse;
4. Experience connections between cutting-edge scientific investigations, instructional curricula in the sciences, and what makes Alaska, adjacent Canadian Territories, and western Siberia interesting to visitors.
B. Student Learning Outcomes:
1. Mastery of this regional (Western Arctic) interdisciplinary theme, which is fundamental to the development of high-latitude earth and biological sciences, and to interpreting human geography;
2. Practice the observational and communications skills that scientists have applied in the late 20th and early 21st centuries to the building of this unifying theme;
3. Learn how geological, paleontological, biological, anthropological and other scientific disciplines marshal evidence when contributing to a unifying theme in sciences;
4. In anticipation of choosing a major field of undergraduate concentration, evaluate the appeal of the several disciplines illustrated by this course, without penalty and before completing some of the usual disciplinary gatekeeper courses (“introductory,” pre-requisites);
5. Understand the relationship of reconstructed Beringian ecosystems to those of the world in general, and the bases for assigning ages to geologic and biological events throughout the Cenozoic.
Instructional Methods: These may include regular lectures, guest lectures, audioconferences, ERes, Internet searches, and field trips.
General Course Calendar* {brackets denote Field trips or Lab exercises for RAHI students}:
Week One: Earth’s changing climate; Early notions of Asia’s and Alaska’s floral and faunal similarities; Personalities in Beringia studies; Key Earth Processes; High Latitude Seasonality; Water and carbon cycles; Orbital scale climate changes; {Campus walkabout, UA Museum: Blue Babe, Mammoth, Boulder Patch—Tues. 6th June}.
Week Two: Beringian Paradoxes of the Quaternary; Evidence of Beringia around us; Paleogeography; Beringia’s changes through the Pleistocene; Evidence from Glacial and Periglacial Environments. {Permafrost Tunnel Tues. 13th June}
Week Three: A Review of Radiocarbon and other Dating methods; Grouping, segmenting and naming intervals in the flow of time; Review of Proxy Data and hypothesised mechanisms. {Southern-exposed semi-arid bluff Tues 20th June}
Week Four: Beringia’s communities and ecosystems reconstructed; Beringia’s significance in “peopling of the Americas” debates; Late Pleistocene, Holocene changes in Beringia; Significance of Beringia research to projected climate changes; {Open field trip: Tues. 27th June}
Week Five: Quaternary studies centers and examples of programs in and outside of Beringia; Review of rural Alaska natural history resources. {Gold Hill tour—Thurs. 6th July—note change of weekday.

Looking at the different minerals and sediments, obviously carolyns not paying attention.

Went on a field trip to see the differences between all kinds of landscapes.

Went to see different kinds of problems thats affecting the environment.

Went on another field trip to see the alaska pipline and to talk with Mr. Matthew Stern.

Top row, right to left: Keaunie, Charice, Carolyn, Leilani, Ben, Mattew, Sul-wha, Luava, Amanda, Dave

Bottom row, left to right: Candice, Mikki & Sirena

Challenge Yourself!

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This page was constructed by Mikki Diamond-Sue Foster and was last modified: July 5, 2007