How Did This Landscape Form? A Field-Based Exercise to Enhance Awareness of the Natural Environment
Lyn Gualtieri, Seattle University
In this activity students will investigate a landform (such as a waterfall or lake) in the field and apply the scientific method to come up with a geologic hypothesis. The focus of the activity is on making observations of the natural environment and fostering a "sense of place."

Interviewing the Past: Developing a Sense of Place through Oral Histories
Bob Abel, Olympic College
Local changes in climate, flora, fauna, and the human population can be anecdotally explored through interviews with long time locals.

Producing Bioregional Knowledge and Understanding: Student Projects Based on Field Learning
Susan Digby, Olympic College
Students produce a set of eight personal travel 'insights' from field trips within their bioregion. Each insight consists of an image produced by the student and accompanying text; students are producers of meaning rather than consumers.

Quantifying Our Stream: A Field Lab on Stream Channel Morphology and Stream Discharge
Emma Agosta, Shoreline Community College
In this field and lab activity, students will collect field data and take measurements at specified cross-sections at a local stream. They will later analyze in lab the data collected and use it to calculate stream discharge and to draw conclusions about stream channel dynamics.

Geochemical Clues and Biological Insights: Characterizing the Importance of Salmon in Northwest Streams
Kena Fox-Dobbs, University of Puget Sound
Students use geochemical tools used to track the presence of marine (salmon) derived nutrients in the terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems of creeks where salmon spawn. They also explore pros and cons of hatchery-raised salmon.

Town Planning using Geological Constraints
Tracy Furutani, North Seattle Community College
Students are divided into teams, each charged with writing a plan for the expansion of a fictional town in the North Cascades foothills. The town council (the instructor) has decided upon several expansion projects, such as an airport and housing subdivisions, and the student teams receive information about the bedrock geology, hydrology, soils, and slope stability of the area. Students present their plans in a open forum to the other students, and there is a vote of the students on the most reasonable science-based plan.

The Vital Role of Soil in Sustainable Ecosystems
Midori Sakura, Cascadia Community College
In this natural science lab, students examine different soil profiles along a hillside. Understanding about topsoil formation and conservation is then related to sustainable agriculture and carbon sequestration and its importance in mitigating climate change.

Using Google Earth Layers to Understand Local Geomorphology
Ralph Hitz, Tacoma Community College
Using Google Earth to understand how geomorphology may control shallow groundwater flooding and surface hydrology.

Wilderness Practice within the Circumference of the Collegiate Home
Elizabeth Sikes, Seattle University
This is a field activity that reinforces the concept of what Gary Snyder calls "a practice of the wild," that is, a practice that engages and connects the whole person within the local ecological community broadly conceived.

Bioregion Assignment
Claus Svendsen, Department of Environmental Conservation, Skagit Valley College
A weekly bioregion homework assignment exploring for the student local landscape changes. What were the past natural conditions and native uses to todays uses, as well as projected changes in the coming decades.