Course Description:

This spring semester course included a 10 day trip to Iceland in May 2018. Through this class, students were able “explore geological features like volcanic craters and geysers, and hike in the fault line between the American and European tectonic plates.” We were able to explore both the environmental and human (viking) history of the island. This class is organized in presentations and papers. Each week, students presented on a different topic in Iceland. Examples of this include: birds, land/ marine mammals, subarctic climate, geology, geysers, volcanoes, schooling, health systems, and Viking history. Each students performs two presentations. The first is with a partner, while the second is given alone. After each presentation, students are required to write an informational paper on their topic. After all presentations, a field guide was put together with important information we learned throughout the year. This was brought to Iceland with us to apply what we learned in class to what we were seeing. During the 10 day excursion, we visited Reykajvik, Holaf, and Akuryeri. Within these cities we saw the Golden Circle, multiple craters, lava fields, natural hot baths, the fault line between the American and European tectonic plates, and much more.

To learn more on the course visit this website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Course Work:

Example Assignment: Microbe Chapter

Within this class, we each gave two presentations on topics of our choice that deal with Iceland. I chose to microorgansims of Icelandic hot springs. I know it may not sound that interesting, but I honestly think it is! After each presentation, we put together a chapter on are topic. This is the attached link above. The class as a whole then put all the chapters together to put a book together for our Iceland trip. We were then able to bullet point each chapter and make a field guide, which we brought to Iceland and took notes in.