Embedding field excursions in the classroom

An effective way to learn about environmental science is through field courses that convey the complexity of environmental problems. As not all students can join field courses, we contend that class-based learning can be greatly improved by bringing field course experiences into the classroom. We seek to build an archive of multimedia materials drawn from a field course in Scotland that will be used by students to understand and navigate wicked problems that typify natural resource conflicts. The archive will include short films that introduce case studies, interviews providing first hand stakeholder perspectives, raw digital material of the regional ecosystems, and 360-degree videos in virtual reality to convey an immersive experience. Students will draw on these materials to enhance their appreciation and understanding of the complexities of environmental management. Moreover, using the Companion Modelling approach, students will be challenged to develop conceptual and physical models that capture the conflicts, trade-offs, and decision making processes, and which can be used to evaluate potential solutions. We will further explore technologies that would allow students to annotate video material by adding, for example, notes and references, and thus share their thinking visually.

• We use a digital archive of stakeholder perspectives and landscape elements from an ecosystem management case study in Scotland that can be explored by students to support an enriched understanding and improved communication
• Digitally incorporating the field-based learning experience into the classroom greatly enriches the analysis and interpretation of environmental systems and wicked problems.
• The multi-sensory learning possibilities that sound and imagery offers increases motivation, discussion, and engagement in learning contexts.

We use sound and imagery of the landscape, and filmed interviews with a variety of stakeholders, to embed the field-based experience into classroom settings, both to enrich the analysis and interpretation of complex environmental systems and to facilitate motivation, reflection, and engagement.

Developing a good understanding of environmental complexities through the use of digital information requires discussion and debate among students and the instructor. Time in class settings is limited, and this constrains the possibilities for a deep and interactive understanding to emerge.

Students valued the wealth of material available, and the richness it brought in terms of information and understanding. They complained, however, of the lack of time available to invest in this analysis of such information.

• Projects that engage students in innovative ways, by asking them to draw on first-hand information in digital forms, require plenty of time to allow students to immerse themselves in this kind of learning
• Digital information sourced from real case studies can open up new vistas of understanding by conveying complexity in its raw form, but requires considerable structuring and organisation of the material in advance of the class.