THE INTERDISCIPLINARY CLIMATE CHANGE EXPEDITION (ICCE) AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR ENHANCING LEARNING AND EMPLOYABILITY

The benefits of creating meaningful field opportunities for students by providing engaging and inspiring hands-on research projects have been well documented over past decades. In August 2014 Central Wyoming College - located in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains - designed a field-based research project aimed at reaching the greatest number of students possible across the widest range of disciplines. The project – the Interdisciplinary Climate Change Expedition (ICCE), was comprised of a two-week adventure in the high alpine terrain of Wyoming with the research component embedded within an existing Outdoor Education field course. Participating faculty worked in concert to incorporate the strengths of experienced risk managers with the skills and desires of the science team. The goal was to use the Dinwoody glacier of the Wind River Range as a field lab to expose students to the practical applications of scientific methodologies geospatial technologies, stream classification techniques, and the practice of field-based data collection.

While some of the students on this expedition will continue to four-year universities, several were completing terminal AAS degrees as Environmental Technicians and/or planned to use this this experience as a capstone prior to entering the workforce in the field of Outdoor Education. This field experience provided students with insight into the field skills required for their various field-based professions, while also inciting curiosity surrounding employment opportunities potentially tangential to their original career trajectory. This held particularly true in respect to the use and applications of geospatial technologies. All students on the expedition had the opportunity to witness the capabilities of contemporary GPS units, and many left the expedition committed to enhancing their employability by adding coursework in geospatial technologies to their educational quiver.