Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Earth, The Environment, and You

This summer experience program focused on Earth and Environmental Science, high school students will explore the field via a course bridging camp and college-level study. Brought to you by UConn Department of Earth Sciences Faculty, Dr. Ouimet and Dr. Hren, students will have the opportunity to work side-by-side with field researchers and experts.

Geoscientists study all aspects of the Earth, including its history, structure, rocks, soils, rivers, oceans and atmosphere. The UConn Environmental Science pre-college summer course will introduce this wide-ranging discipline and discuss how earth and environmental scientists play a crucial role in understanding and making predictions about a diverse range of earth resources, processes and hazards, from mineral deposits to earthquakes to floods and climate change. Why is this important? Earth’s ecology is closely linked to sustainability and environmental science is key to this pursuit.

This Earth and Environmental summer course for high school students will integrate:

  • lectures and dynamic learning modules on background geoscience material
  • field and lab demonstrations
  • collection and analysis of rock, soil and water samples
  • guest visits from Geoscience faculty across the wide range topics in the discipline

Sessions Offered

Session 1: June 22 – June 28

Format

Residential, Non-Credit

This class is meant to be immersive and students will experience:

  • The many aspects of Geological & Environmental Science and the diverse methods and approaches Geoscientists used to study the Earth and Environment.
  • How to analyze the mineralogy and environmental geochemistry of rocks, soil, water and sediments.
  • How to understand and interpret the geologic history of Connecticut.

Environmental science summer high school students studying and researching with instructor in a field experience during pre-college summer course

High school students listening to pre-college summer course researcher and teacher explain environmental science findings at a wetland to ensure sustainability

Environmental science high school camp students in exploratory forestry class watching faculty lecturer explain ecology of water and land resources

Schedule at a Glance

 

7am – 9am: Breakfast

9am – 12pm: Class

12pm – 1:30: Lunch

1:30pm – 4pm: Class or Workshop

2:40pm – 4:45pm: Closing Ceremony on Friday

5pm – 7pm: Dinner

7pm – 9pm: Social Programming

10:30pm: Room Checks

Meet the Professors

 

UConn Environmental Science Pre-College Summer Program Instructor: Dr. William OuimetWilliam Ouimet, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geosciences

Dr. Ouimet (Will) is an Associate Professor of Geosciences at UConn. He loves working with students outdoors and on field trips, and it’s one of the reasons he became a Geologist. His research and teaching involves the study of erosion, rivers, landslides and environmental change around the world, as well as the influence of human activities. He works in the field, where he collects samples and maps out geological features, in the lab, where he analyzes rocks, water, soil and sediment, and on the computer, where he explores remote sensing datasets of the earth and uses models to simulate how landscapes change through time. His research has taken him all over world, from the Colorado Rockies, to Greece, Tibet, Taiwan, and the Bahamas. It has also allowed him to appreciate and explore the geology underfoot and processes at play here in southern New England, right where he grew up.

UConn Environmental Science Pre-College Summer Program Instructor: Dr. Michael HrenMichael Hren, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geosciences

Dr. Hren (Mike) is also an Associate Professor of Geosciences at UConn. His research and teaching is focused on understanding how Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and environment evolve over time and how Earth’s history informs its future. His work takes him to mountain ranges around the globe, from the high peaks of Patagonia to the mountains of Tibet to the Sierra Nevada of California, where he and his students collect sediment, rocks, soils and water to bring back to UConn for analysis. He is the director of the Stable Isotope and Organic Molecular Biogeochemistry laboratory, and when not traveling for research, can be found working in the laboratory with students and colleagues from UConn and visitors from around the world analyzing modern and ancient plants, sediments and even an occasional woolly mammoth, to understand Earth and life through time.