Mondays can be rough for college students, but what if your classroom was the Colorado mountains? Or the winding streets of Prague? Or even a beach on the coast of Mexico? For students in the field quarter program in the Department of Geography & the Environment, the world is their research lab.
“There’s no better way to learn,” DU student Sophie Fitzgerald says. “We are getting comfortable outside, and that’s a big part of field work. Getting dirty, understanding the equipment you’re working with and figuring out best practices is just so valuable.”
The field quarter is a unique learning opportunity. Instead of signing up for a mix of classes for fall quarter like most students do, these students dedicate their entire quarter to the field quarter courses. Those four classes are scheduled back-to-back, allowing the students to travel with a small group and spend the entire quarter exploring off campus.
“Everyone on this trip is so interested in learning, and it’s so refreshing,” Fitzgerald says about her nine classmates. “Everyone here is self-selected to come and learn in a group environment, so the excitement just builds off each other.”
Associate professor Don Sullivan has felt that excitement about the field quarter for the past two decades, ever since he launched the program in 2000.
“I love the whole program,” Sullivan says. “It’s a really rewarding experience. When we talk to students who are graduating, they identify their field quarter experience as the single best thing that they did at DU.”
The quarter begins with several days in the Colorado mountains collecting sediment and tree cores and getting comfortable doing hands-on research. Students then take those skills on the road and travel to New Mexico and Arizona, where the highlights include conducting field investigations in the desert and analyzing a supervolcano. Associate professor Mike Kerwin teaches that second session, Geology and Ecology of the Southwest.
“It just brings to life what you are trying to study in a book,” Kerwin explains. “The goal of today’s students who are studying the environment is to make a difference and to understand the damages that are happening as a result of human impact. We want you to take all your knowledge and apply it with hands-on learning.”
After their time in the Southwest, the students take their learning international with a two-week trip to the Czech Republic, where they focus on history, mapping and field work with associate professor Mike Daniels. The quarter closes out with a camping trip in Mexico, taking a closer look at coral reef ecology and endemic plants.
“We camp on the beaches in Mexico for 18 nights,” says Sullivan, who teaches the Mexico section. “It’s pretty hard to beat — pulling up on the beach right around sunset, setting up camp and having a discussion around the campfire, then waking up and having a lecture on the beach.”
Sullivan also has the pleasure of teaching the first class of the field quarter, allowing him to watch the students grow in their learning over the quarter.
“It’s really a remarkable transition,” he says. “Each trip provides them with more expertise, background and tools in their toolbox to understand what they are seeing.”
And for this ambitious group of students, the learning doesn’t end when lecture hours are over.
“When you’re with like-minded peers that are as excited and passionate about the same thing you are, you have those late-night conversations: ‘What is our place in the world as stewards?’ ‘What are the impacts of climate change?’” says senior Chloe Chalekian. “Everyone has this zest for life and an adventurous spirit. That passion rubs off on everyone else, and they want to know more.”
Below are photos taken by Dana Grad, a student in the 2019 field quarter. Click image to see larger versions.
The group poses on a hike in the Bohemian Paradise preserve in northern Czech Republic. 
Students observe the natural landscape of a Czech forest. We often compare diversity in vegetation, soil, and topography in the environments we explore. 
Dr. Mike Daniels explains how to use transit for surveying. We used these tools to study medieval farming techniques in the Czech countryside near Prachatice. 
Dr. Mike Daniels and student Julia Henseleit carefully collect soil samples that will be analyzed in a lab later. These will serve as a comparison point for uncultivated Czech landscapes in future research. This will help in further understanding the effects of medieval landscape use. 
Dr. Don Sullivan stands on a fen on Grand Mesa and explains the difference between sedges and grasses. 
Chloe Chalekian helps transfer a meter of soil core from the coring device to a pvc pipe for transport. This sample came from Kenna Creek Fen on Grand Mesa and will be used reconstruct past environmental change. 
Emily Lovaas-McGloine proudly displays her field notebook. These books are always within reach for an impromptu lecture on the side of the road or a formal sit down. 
Lectures happen anywhere and everywhere during field quarter. This particular one took place on the side of Mt. Evans above tree line. Students bare the elements of this windswept alpine tundra to truly understand what it takes for life to survive. 
The group poses on the windy summit of Mt. Evans at 14,270 feet. 
Jennifer Sutherland examines layers of the KT Boundary at Raton Basin in Colorado. This unique site is evidence for the most recent mass extinction by asteroid impact which ended the Cretaceous period. 
Dr. Mike Kerwin explains to student Jack Oberg the geologic effect of the rift valley on the Rio Grande. 
The group hikes down the face of Capulin Volcano, one of many cindercone volcanos sprinkling the landscape of New Mexico. The origin of the volcanic activity comes from the spreading of the Rio Grand Rift over 60 million years. 
Will Sweeney writes in his field notebook on the banks of South Mesa Lake on Grand Mesa. An important part of field work is analyzing and reflecting on the environments around us and recording those thoughts.
