The Penn State CHANCE (Connecting Humans and Nature through Conservation Experiences; www.chance.psu.edu) is an accredited environmental education program, whose overarching goal is to connect students and teachers with nature so that they are equipped to conserve the biological diversity on Earth. To do this, the CHANCE team brings the brightest minds together to create authentic research opportunities and to promote environmental literacy and civic engagement.

CHANCE is offering a 2018 embedded field program for Penn State undergraduates and our nations high school teachers in North Queensland, Australia – an area of the world that boasts some of the most diverse and remarkable ecosystems in the southern hemisphere. Participants in this embedded field program will complete two pre-trip assignments in late spring 2018 to prepare them for a two-week field practicum (June 24 - July 9, 2018). The practicum includes field research, citizen science projects, and service learning activities - all with James Cook University (JCU) research faculty and graduate students, and field scientists and/or conservationists from the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. 

Field work will focus on the conservation and sustainability of the Australian Wet Tropics (tropical rainforests), Great Barrier Reef, and the dry sclerophyll forests and open woodlands ecosystems. Some highlights of this program include research with the JCU Turtle Health Research Team on sea and freshwater turtle health and viral outbreaks, participation in the Great Barrier Reef Monitoring Program, a Koala Population Survey Project on Magnetic Island, a Nywaigi Aboriginal culture experience, platypus spotting, and an eco-retreat on the edge of the Outback.

Graduate credits or CEUs available. For more information contact Dr. Jacqueline McLaughlin at jxm57@psu.edu.

Application deadline is March 30, 2018.

To learn more>>

http://www.chance.psu.edu/fieldcourses/australia2018/index.html