Reconnecting with Nature
Learning community explores a holistic approach to education that blends science, spirituality, political activism
Lana Boles
Issue date: 1/24/08 Section: Features
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This is a classroom.
This is one of the classrooms for Reconnecting with Nature: Science, Spirituality and Political Science.
"I remember driving up with … classmates before our forest field trip and camping high in the mountains, building a bonfire and sleeping under the stars," former LCC student Noah Guadagni said of his experience with the Reconnecting with Nature learning community. "Then we met up with the rest of the class in the morning and spent the day exploring different forest sites, identifying plants and trees and learning about the differences between old-growth, second-growth and freshly logged forests."
The learning community links together three courses: Global Ecology (CRN40237); Nature, Religion and Ecology (CRN40622); and Environmental Politics (CRN40495).
"The idea is that these are all very interrelated courses covering the broader topic of reconnecting with nature," Cliff Trolin, Nature, Religion and Ecology instructor, stated.
Years ago, LCC started experimenting with learning communities that "linked together classes that are related to each other and have students that participate as cohorts," Stan Taylor said. Taylor teaches the Environmental Politics course within the Reconnecting with Nature learning community.
"I am now a true believer that learning communities are the … most effective teaching models of modern education," Tom Humphries noted. Humphries is a current LCC student who took the classes the last time they were offered one year ago.
Because the classes reach into the realms of ecology, politics and religion, while maintaining a central theme - nature - students receive an education that is broader in scope than generally found outside the learning community.
Jerry Hall emphasized that the learning community helps students gain a more complete understanding of nature. He teaches the Global Ecology class which blends Native American spirituality with ecology.
"When you take a course, you get one angle on a subject, when you take this kind of interdisciplinary program it becomes three-dimensional or even more so that it takes on a fullness for the human being that you can't just get by doing one angle," Trolin said.
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