Course design and learning outcomes

WEEK 1:  Understanding sustainability and collapse

The questions and concepts we consider at the beginning of our course will become the foundation for our study of sustainability, past and present. These questions include:  What is sustainability? What is the resilience? What is archaeology and how can it contribute to sustainability efforts? What factors/conditions contribute to social and environmental sustainability and the collapse of past, present, and future peoples? 
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this section, you should be able to: 
  • Define and critically evaluate the concept of “sustainability” and "collapse" from multiple disciplinary perspectives in order to understand and engage in informed discussions (beyond the classroom) and actions (in your life) that influence socio-environmental sustainability.  
  • Define the concept of resilience of socio-ecological systems to: (1) understand and evaluate how some policy makers and scientists are investigating and promoting solutions to the problem of sustainability; and, (2) recognize and use some new concepts to address sustainability issues now and in the past (e.g., adaptive management, ecological goods and services).
  • ​Identify the value of a long-term perspective on current sustainability problems
  • Ethically visit archaeological sites next week and throughout your life
ACTIVITIES & METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
WEEK 2: Developing a long-term perspective on human and environmental history of the San Luis Valley

The concept of sustainability begs the question: sustainability of what, for who? Our focal place is the San Luis Valley. During our week-long stay in the Valley we will visit multiple archaeological sites to inform our understanding of the social and environmental history of the Valley.  One purpose of visiting these sites is to develop a "sense of place" -- a necessary prerequisite for engaging in thoughtful and effective efforts to understand sustainability and resilience from a long-term perspective. During Block 2 you will be exclusively focused on the community of Crestone and their efforts to address a changing climate future and food security. Our time in the SLV will prepare you for that work. 
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this section, you should be able to: 
  • Identify the key components (e.g., peoples, places, events) of the long-term social and environmental history of the San Luis Valley. 
  • Speak and think critically about the key causal variables and interactive processes involved in social and environmental sustainability, collapse, decline, and transformation in the Valley.
  • Visualize and describe a spatial, landscape-scale map of the Valley.  
  • Describe select groups that lived and live in the San Luis Valley
  • Describe the broad outlines of the human and environmental history of the San Luis Valley
ACTIVITIES & METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
  • Maintain daily records in your Field Notebook
  • Data gathering for your Final Report
  • Read and discuss the assigned articles in class
WEEK 3:  Creating a climate chronology, comparing it to a human history, and producing a Final Report

Climate and global warming are focal aspects of our study of sustainability. Tree-rings are the strongest proxy data used to retrodict past climates during the past several thousand years. Becoming familiar with the methods, strengths, and weaknesses of tree-ring based climate work contributes to your ability to evaluate one line of evidence used to support or refute anthropogenic, global-scale, climate warming. The questions we consider are: what is the evidence for anthropogenic global warming? What is at stake? How do tree-ring widths contribute to our understanding of past climates? 
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this section, you should be able to: 
  • Sample a living tree to produce a wet-dry climate chronology gaining beginner-level skills with cross-dating, skeleton plotting, measuring ring-widths, and detrending the raw ring widths of your samples
  • Define and articulate a definition of "climate change" and the evidence that supports and challenges our understanding
  • Improve your ability to identify research problems, research questions, and a research design to produce a technical report. 
  • Describe a model of climate and human behavior frequently used in arid to semi-arid climates
  • improve you ability to identify research problems, research questions, and a research design to produce a technical report. 
ACTIVITIES & METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
  • Lab-work with the tree-ring cores
  • Write your Final Report analyzing primary data
  • Answer associated questions on the Key concepts quiz. 
  • Read and discuss the assigned articles in class
WEEK 4: Synthesizing and reflecting on your learning
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After completing this section, you should be able to: 
  • Describe how archaeology and long-term studies of human-environment interactions can be used to inform modern sustainability studies 
  • Accurately use new terms/concepts in professional settings (e.g., resilience, complex adaptive systems, socioecological systems)
  • Begin reflecting on different disciplinary modes of inquiry and how these can inform your intellectual path at CC and beyond
ACTIVITIES & METHODS OF ASSESSMENT
An integrating theme throughout the FYE is to prepare you for a successful academic and personal learning experience at CC.