Course descriptions
Summer classes for teachers
Each summer teachers from across the nation come to VCU’s unique one-week workshops that are designed especially for teachers. Spend a week of your summer exploring spectacular sites along the James River as a teacher-in-residence at Richmond’s Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, or discovering the diversity of Virginia’s wildlife. Gain new knowledge and great instructional ideas to capture your students’ interest, all while earning graduate credit through VCU.
Read more about the VCU Summer Workshop Series »
Woods, Waters and Wildlife
From ecology and management of wildlife populations to environmental processes, this field workshop will emphasize hands-on activities with the research and management of the region’s native species from dragonflies to Bald Eagles. Participants will take part in scientific investigations using cutting-edge technologies like Geographic Information Systems to learn how science informs conservation and management of the Chesapeake Bay region’s living resources and critical habitats. Tuition assistance may be available.
Instructors: Dr. Greg Garman, Cathy Viverette and the staff of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
Botany: Gardens and the Wilds
Be a teacher-in-residence at Richmond’s famed Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and explore the wilds of VCU’s Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences on the James River between Shirley and Berkeley plantations. Don’t miss this botanical adventure.
Instructors: Dr. Greg Plunkett and the horticultural staff of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Vertebrate Natural History
If it has a backbone, we’ll explore it during this varied and interesting week. Learn at the side of expert naturalists and scientists about the natural history and habitats of reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish and mammals. You will use sampling techniques to collect and observe, and learn ways to incorporate this study into your classrooms and science standards.
Instructors: Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries staff and VCU biology faculty
The James River – Past and Present
From biology to earth science and history, you’ll enhance your instruction and meet your standards of learning in a week of outdoor learning in the James River Park System in downtown Richmond, VCU’s Rice Center and Chesterfield’s Henricus Park. Follow historical footprints along the river as you learn how geology and hydrology shape the ecology and economics of the area.
Instructors: Ralph White, Dr. Ralph Hambrick and Anne Wright
Entomology: Terrestrial and Aquatic Insects
Insect species … they outnumber us 900,000 to one, so we might as well know who they are! Capture insects on land and in water and identify them using taxonomic keys. Learn how to keep them alive in the classroom and make a collection to take home. Your students will love what you’ll bring back to them.
Instructors: Dr. Art Evans and Anne Wright
Summer classes for students
VCU’s Summer Discovery program is designed for rising sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. The following classes engage students in activities that use the many resources of the Rice Center and other aquatic habitats to engage students in great outdoors experiences. Visit the Summer Discovery Web site for more information on these summer courses.
Aquatic Ecology
Spend a wet week exploring the ecology of Virginia’s waters. We will investigate energy flow and food webs in aquatic systems, examine the fossil remains of extinct aquatic organisms and float down a scenic river. Hands-on experience in biomonitoring and fish observation will be gained as we contrast normal and impacted systems.
Go Fish!
This unique class offers an opportunity to gain knowledge in both fish biology and angling. We will hone our fishing skills in the James, the Pamunkey, Lake Charles at the Rice Center and several urban locations while learning about fish ecology, biology and identification. A daylong canoe trip tops off the week.
From a recent “Environmental Education Curricula and Field Investigation Techniques” class:
“I wanted to thank you for a (another!) week of highly beneficial class work at VCU. I have so enjoyed all that I learned in Richmond this session, but I’d like you to know the course work from Environmental Education Curricula was VERY useful. There is so much in those resources that have direct application for my students.”
Nancie Wirthlin
Snow Hill, Md.