Environmental History -- First Class of the Term

We had our first class of Environmental History (ERST-CAST-HIST 4670H) yesterday.  We previewed the topics we'll be discussing during the term, the assigned work, and other essential details.

This course attracts a diverse array of students: environmental studies and environmental science, as well as history, Canadian studies, biology, and a few other fields.  For some students, it's their first history course (but they will have taken perhaps a dozen other environmental courses); for other students, it's their first environmental course (but they may have taken many other history courses). Having such a range of students can be really interesting -- one of the many benefits of teaching in an interdisciplinary program!  The class is a little bigger this year -- about 57 students.

So I started by introducing the course:

 Then, we turned to small groups discussions, and the students shared some of what they already know about environmental history -- just to establish some common ground:

The students then volunteered some ideas, and I recorded them on the board.  As it turns out, they know quite a lot!  Here's the record:

We covered a lot of ground in this discussion: from colonization to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; national parks to the Canadian Pacific Railway; St. Francis of Assisi to species extinction.  For each of the topics students suggested, I gave a short overview of how they relate to environmental history.

Next, we had a short discussion of the environmental history of our own Trent campus, as suggested by a series of photos of the signs of past human activities:

And we wrapped up the class in the way we'll be doing it every week this term, with small group discussions of the key ideas from that class, which are then recorded, and I collect.  It's really interesting to see what students take away from the class experience.

And on to next week!