From its earliest days, COA students have taken advantage of the College’s extraordinary location to get out “in the field”—or in the woods, or on the water—to study and learn from nature. We learned science by doing field-based science: observing, measuring, recording, collecting, analyzing, and, in some cases, publishing, all while having memorable and life-shaping experiences. Sometimes this took us far from Mount Desert Island—to the Arctic, the tropics, and the deep ocean. For some of us, this led to careers in science, but whatever path we took, the experience became an indelible part of our intellectual and personal makeup.

On Saturday, we will convene a colloquium reflecting on 55 years of field ecology at COA, delving into discussions like:

• how hands-on field work shaped our lives and worldviews,
• how field research has evolved from pens and notebooks to laptops and GPS tags, and
• the ongoing relevance of immersive field experiences to an education in human ecology.

In morning and afternoon sessions, alumni, faculty, students, and staff will participate in panel discussions and conversations representing a variety of generations, disciplines, and perspectives. Specific details on panels will be shared at registration check-in.

To help us plan, please register separately for the morning session, lunch, and afternoon session, and the evening activities that you plan to attend.

This special day is being curated by alumni and is generously supported by John Biderman ’77.