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 2008 Program

2008 will be a unique format for River Summer with each of two modules transiting the full extent of the estuary section of the river – from the New York Harbor to Albany in Module 1, and from Albany to the NY Harbor in Module 2. This ‘Transit the Spine’ is an opportunity we have not offered before! Each module will run 4.5 days, Module 1 from New York City to Albany (July 19-noon on the 24th) and Module 2 from Albany to NYC (July 25h – July 31st).

Through River Summer, the Hudson Valley will become an extended laboratory and classroom to investigate the development of the watershed within an interdisciplinary framework, addressing such questions as:

How does the Hudson River flow and function?

How have the watershed geology, anthropology, history, culture, and socioeconomics changed over time?

How have we affected the River? How has the River affected us?

How does one observe, measure, and document impact and change?

Examples of issues that will be used to consider these questions are:

Redevelopment strategies of river towns along the Hudson, and throughout the watershed;

Using law as a mechanism to examine and regulate water quality issues, fisheries issues, redevelopment plans, habitat protections, and land ownership.

For further information about River Summer 2008, 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