Courses
GEOG3045 Developing Interdisciplinary Field Studies for Environmental or Social Issues (3 units)
- Prerequisite:
- Consent of the instructor
This course provides experiential learning opportunities for students to apply their knowledge and skills to tackle complex real-life problems via developing and organising field studies. Students will identify environmental or social issues for their field studies, in which they can engage the communities to obtain first-hand materials and feedback for their investigating issues. Students will have the opportunities to apply their interdisciplinary knowledge for designing a field trip study to investigate/research these issues. Four objectives are: (1) to establish students’ foundation for designing interdisciplinary field studies based on social, historical and cultural (etc.) contexts for environmental and social issues; (2) to encourage students to determine social or environmental issues, engage in the communities and learn from first-hand practical experience by organising field studies; (3) to give students authentic field study organising tasks in a team, for developing their multidisciplinary skills to integrate knowledge from different sources in real complex situations (e.g. diverse opinions on a topic, different work styles, conflicting time schedules, lacking financial supports); and (4) to offer a safe environment for students to reflect on their individual personal growth through organising field activities, so that students can identify their strength and weaknesses in terms of their roles in the community.