River Summer

A Journey of Discovery: River Summer

River Summer's mission and curriculum directly result from the needs and deliberations of Consortium institutions. Through participation in River Summer, like-minded faculty are coming together in a quasi "College of the Hudson Valley" to create cooperative education and research opportunities that are more ambitious and sophisticated than individual schools can accomplish alone. River Summer uses team teaching and participation among institutions that are geographically and ethnically diverse, with faculty who have access to a wide range of resources - from research universities to liberal arts and community colleges.

Development of this program has already built community and continues to promote collaborative relationships amongst faculty from diverse institutions. The program continues to grow a cohort of faculty throughout the Hudson Valley with like interests and a common experience. River Summer provides a sense of place to faculty and will spark new enthusiasm and ideas into their courses and research, through the use of the Hudson region as a common learning laboratory.

Program History

The Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges & Universities is looking forward to its fourth year of an interdisciplinary and multi-institutional summer field course exploring the Hudson Watershed. Piloted in 2005 as a faculty development program, with support from The Teagle Foundation, The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, SUNY Stony Brook University, and the National Science Foundation, River Summer was an unquestioned success, sparking connections between instructors and disciplines that developed into new approaches to teaching, new collaborations in coursework, the development of new courses, and new research collaborations.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation pledged its support for River Summer with a $200,000 two-year grant for 2006 and 2007, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation awarded the Consortium a one-year $30,000 grant. The 2006 and 2007 programs focused on curriculum development for use not only at the college level but also in middle and high schools.

Barnard College, on behalf of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges & Universities, has been awarded a 3-year, $300,000 grant from The Mellon Foundation for the continuation of River Summer for 2008-2010. Stony Brook University's School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences will play a critical role for River Summer once again, as participants journey up the Hudson River aboard its 80' research vessel, Seawolf.

River Summer 2008 will focus on connecting the full extent of the river - with each of two modules offered transiting the full length of the estuary section from the Harbor to the Troy Dam and reversed. The experience is a unique examination of the Hudson River through the lenses of geologic history, human history, legal history, art history, and economic history. These widely varied but tightly connected frameworks provide an interwoven context for understanding the myriad faces of the Hudson.

Field and Place-Based Experience

Using the geology, hydrology, and landscape of the River as a foundation, River Summer focuses on understanding the Hudson's natural resources within the context of its cultural history. River Summer's day-to-day program was created to integrate field/place-based experiences with cognitive and meta-cognitive research showing that people learn best when they take control of their own learning. It provides resources from which participants will draw in reconsidering teaching at their home institutions.

River Summer pedagogy is based on the principles of cognitive psychology and immersive field-, place- and inquiry-based learning. Field programs have been found to provide memorable, transformative experiences for undergraduate students, and our experience with past River Summer years suggests it is equally effective with faculty. Using local resources and landscapes develops an understanding of the environment in which one works and lives, providing greater accessibility and deeper meaning. For faculty, proximity to the areas being studied also allows them to be developed into field visits in their own curriculum. The cognitive strategies of reviewing often, generating information actively, spacing learning sessions and including challenging or difficult materials will play central roles in the River Summer experience. (Download: A metacognitive pedagogy: The River Summer Project)

The 2009 Program

This year we have the opportunity to connect our River Summer 2009 experience to the many layers of Hudson Valley history as we join others throughout New York State in focusing on the Quadricentennial. The River Summer task force has developed a vision for RS2009 which promises to be a unique opportunity to stretch into new areas and depths along the river. From crafting our own digital RS journal, to connecting with local historians, to digging deeper into the multi-layered history at sites along the river 2009 promises to be a rich experience. We enter this summer with the goal of developing a tool kit of essential questions to ask, contacts to make, and issues to consider when exploring the Hudson Valley that can be used by educators and students in any range of topics.

The River Summer 2009 Program will take place during the month of July (beginning 7/9/09) on the Hudson River and in the Adirondacks. It will consist of three discrete modules, each with a different focus. Within each module, and across the program, teachers and students will be involved in activities that will address inter-related content areas.

Through River Summer, the Hudson Valley will become an extended laboratory and classroom to investigate the development of the watershed within an interdisciplinary framework.

For further information about River Summer, contact:
Tim Kenna at tkenna@ldeo.columbia.edu, or Margie Turrin at mkt@ldeo.columbia.edu.

For more information about the Environmental Consortium's programs, contact Michelle Land at mland@law.pace.edu.

River Summer

Schedules