Honors Environmental Studies

What is the relationship between humans and the Earth? Are we part of nature, or apart from it? How do the stories we tell about the human-Earth relationship reflect and influence our worldviews? In Honors Environmental Studies, students will respond to these questions by critically examining the stories we receive and create about the natural world while getting to know the environment here, in both the indoor and outdoor classroom. By studying some of the non-human or natural processes that created the landscape (including plate tectonics, geology, climate and weather, glaciers, and forest succession) as well as the human processes that shape both the Earth itself and our relationship to it (including the development of agriculture, privatization of land, colonialism, and contemporary food systems), students will gain a deeper understanding of both scientific and social approaches to environmental studies.

The semester will culminate with independent and collaborative research on a chosen section of the school’s forested campus where students will investigate land-use change and ecological patterns of personal interest, while demonstrating the frameworks they have gained for getting to know a place by understanding humans’ relationship with the land, as well as their own connections to the planet.

TMS Seminar

A required course for all students, TMS seminar connects the dots between farm and food justice; health and well-being; and race, class, and gender. These seminar-style classes meet four times a week and are graded and for credit. They introduce students to conceptual frameworks and terminology that will help students understand the labor practices and land uses of farming, the food economy, racial and cultural identity construction, and the physiological connections between sleep and anxiety, among many other topics.