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Semester in Environmental Sciences Program 2004
The Ecosystems Center welcomed ten enthusiastic college students to the Semester in Environmental Science (SES) this fall. The program, now in its eighth year, is designed to immerse serious science students in an intensive semester of hands-on ecological science. During the 15-week program, students investigate problems ranging from the effects of land use change in the coastal zone, to disruption of the global nitrogen cycle, to deforestation and overexploitation of fisheries. Virtually all of the Ecosystems Center’s principal investigators, and many of the support staff, participate in the SES program.
In addition to core courses in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems science, SES students take one elective course intended to deepen understanding in a specific sub-discipline of ecosystems science. They also participate in a science writing seminar, designed to illustrate how the results of scientific investigations can be communicated to the public, and the Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series, which offers the students an opportunity to meet and interact with some of the best practitioners of environmental science in the world.
SES students spend about 20 hours a week in the lab and field. They make extensive use of five local sites to investigate the effects of land-use change and urbanization on ecosystem function: West Falmouth Harbor, Child’s River/Waquoit Bay, Johns Pond, Siders Pond, and the experimental forest at Falmouth Wastewater Treatment Plant. During the last five weeks of the program, the students choose a topic for independent research and work with a mentor from the Ecosystems Center to produce a paper and an oral presentation at the semester’s end. They will report their findings to the Woods Hole scientific community at a public symposium on December 17.
The newest institution to join the 60-college SES consortium is Brown University, which has two students in the 2004 class, Emily DeMoor and Noam Ross. Mount Holyoke College has three representatives, Lisa Brunie, Rose Phillips, and Emily Sampson; and there are two students from Hampshire College, Sarah Foster and Sara Hicks. The rest of the class consists of Kevin Kingsland from Beloit College, Katherine Nolan from Bates College, and Chad Yaindl from Lafayette College.
The addition of Brown to the SES consortium has made it possible for students from colleges and universities that are not affiliated with SES to attend as visiting students at Brown and receive credit from Brown for the semester. This opens the program to qualified students from almost any college or university in the nation.
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