While many environmental science classes start with the big themes—climate change, planetary degradation, deforestation, and the like—Biological Science 3 begins with the idea of connection: to the self, to others, and to the natural world. That array of connections, says Jennifer Anderson, a program director at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center and an instructor in the biology department, “is foundational to engaging with the environment and learning about the big challenges we’re facing right now.”
The premise of her class, she says, is to get students to slow down and appreciate the natural world. For the first six weeks of BISC 3, students are encouraged to spend time outdoors—“take themselves on a date with nature, look at the stars, draw something they’ve never really noticed before”—and record their observations and feelings in a journal to share with their classmates. In tandem, Anderson teaches classes on topics like the origin of the universe, “the idea that we’re made up of the same stuff as stars,” she says, “the same carbon;” about birth and death, the air cycle and the water cycle, “and how we’re also a part of those cycles and therefore connected to the natural world.”
The latter part of the class focuses on the “big challenges” facing the natural world, the existential crises caused by factors such as plastics, chemicals, and climate change. Anderson’s hope is that their initial period of immersion in nature and of self-reflection will help her students understand what’s at stake, understand the magnitude of these crises on their own existence, and inspire them to work together to shift the status quo and come up with solutions for the future.
“It’s about what people can do as individuals and as a community,” she says. “As individuals, we have choices about what we can do or not do. But as a group, we can make a choice collectively, and that is much more powerful. Talking and getting to know each other is what lets us make those collective choices and get creative about tackling those big problems.”
Their final group projects are reflective of the kind of thinking Anderson hopes her students will carry forward beyond her class: Some have chosen to give up single-use plastic silverware and straws. Others have eschewed fast fashion. “It’s so powerful to see what they commit to do,” she says. “Right now, students might not have choices about what light bulbs are in their dorm or their apartment building. But their choices can make a difference in the future, as individuals and as a community.”
Anderson has been working at Shaver’s Creek since 1997. She first co-taught BISC 3 with its creator, the late Chris Uhl, professor emeritus of biology, who was a champion for sustainability practices at Penn State.
