{"id":47220,"date":"2024-02-05T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T19:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=47220"},"modified":"2024-08-09T07:40:55","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T11:40:55","slug":"honours-field-course-explores-socioenvironmental-change-in-the-madawaska-highlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2024\/honours-field-course-explores-socioenvironmental-change-in-the-madawaska-highlands\/","title":{"rendered":"Honours Field Course Explores Socioenvironmental Change in the Madawaska Highlands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Honours Field Course Explores Socioenvironmental Change in the Madawaska Highlands\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n

By: Emily Putnam<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the heart of the Madawaska Highlands<\/a>, a cohort of third and fourth-year students found themselves immersed in a reading week like no other in October 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students participating in the mandatory honours fieldwork course titled “Socioenvironmental Change in the Madawaska Highlands” stayed at the base camp in the Madawaska Valley, conducting independent fieldwork as part of a group from Oct. 22-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located a two-hour drive east of Ottawa, the Highlands are notable for biodiversity conservation, making them a captivating area for studying biophysical processes and exploring the intricate relationships between people and nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Co-taught by Associate Professor Derek Smith<\/a> and Instructor Adam Kirkwood<\/a>, the honours field course aspired to provide students with the ability to both examine the role of fieldwork in geography and the opportunity to get hands-on experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cohort of third and fourth-year students at the base camp in the Madawaska Valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The trip to the Highlands was the second part of the three-stage course, which included talking about fieldwork, doing fieldwork, and analyzing and presenting field research results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the experiential course delivered by the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies<\/a>, students were taught specific fieldwork methods, like streamflow measurement, participant interviews, vegetation quadrats, and soil surveys, all of which translate directly to careers that involve fieldwork in either environmental studies or geography. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Razz Routly, a fourth-year student in the Geomatics<\/a> program, the experience was rewarding in more ways than one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There was a pretty even split between physical and human geography activities that let us try out new skills and were more hands-on than most other courses.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Routly says that beyond the academic gains, the field trip facilitated personal connections. <\/p>\n\n\n

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“It was really great to get to know some of the other students in the department better,” They reflected. “I think the most important thing I learned from the trip was that I actually enjoy fieldwork and would like the opportunity to do more in the future.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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The trip was the second part of the three-stage course, which included talking about fieldwork, doing fieldwork, and analyzing and presenting field research results.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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“As a physically disabled student, I was not expecting fieldwork to be a possibility for me, but the professors and the department were really great about listening to and accommodating my limitations\/needs in a way that I hope I can find in the future,\u201d says Routly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Smith oversaw the human geography part of the course and emphasized the transformative power of field experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe course is about giving them an opportunity to use the intellectual tools they learn in the classroom to see things that would otherwise be invisible,\u201d says Smith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlighting the course\u2019s impact, Smith says the experience can give students a better understanding of the world around them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe field course also teaches them that the world is complex and always changing, but that with the right methodologies, we can get a reliable understanding of socioenvironmental change and gather evidence that can be used to develop effective policies. This is a lesson that they can take with them and use in different contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students were taught specific fieldwork methods, like streamflow measurement, participant interviews, vegetation quadrats, and soil surveys.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kirkwood, who taught the physical geography portion of the course, notes the significance of being fully engaged with the geography in order to comprehend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Being immersed in your study site is really important for understanding the complex interactions of social and environmental systems that you wouldn\u2019t otherwise be able to connect with or understand holistically from completing desktop studies,” says Kirkwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kirkwood says the variability of fieldwork is a crucial aspect to keep in mind when studying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Even the best-laid plans can often change without warning. Being in the field and experiencing this firsthand, we hope students learned the importance of adaptability.”<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThat is one of the wonderful things about geography, it is literally everywhere,\u201d says Kirkwood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the heart of the Madawaska Highlands, a cohort of fourth-year students found themselves immersed in a reading week like no other in October 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,58],"tags":[76,437],"class_list":["post-47220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-geography-and-environmental-studies","tag-for-students","tag-geography"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47499,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47220\/revisions\/47499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}