When in McCarthy, we learn alongside guest instructors from around the region and take part in community events and workshops.  In the backcountry, we use natural history field journaling and sketching techniques as tools to understand landscape processes occurring from rapid to geologic timescales.  We travel across glaciers and through boreal forest into high mountain tundra, taking routes through striking terrain to reach sites for student projects.  Climate change impacts to local landscape structures and processes, and to related social-ecological systems, are unifying themes we return to throughout the course.

Our surroundings are characterized by dynamic biophysical evolution, where ecosystem and Earth system processes are evident.  We learn through direct experience with the land and from observations in the field; faculty-led exercises and site-talks; natural history field journaling and sketching; and the creation and presentation of small-group student final projects.  These final projects are presented in McCarthy at the end of the program.

We build a collaborative learning community, in which observation is a daily practice and critical thinking is supported.  Academic emphasis is on the research process and context, and on the value of viewing systems through multiple ways of knowing.  We engage with faculty and guest instructors intimately familiar with this place through their research, writing, and artwork; participation in regional stewardship and climate adaptation planning; and involvement in community governance.

We are nested in a small and remote community, in which people value and rely on interdependence and collaboration.  Personal growth can be achieved in places like this through building trust, dialogue, and mutual support with peers.