Earth Expeditions in Galápagos: Islands of Change

The Galápagos Islands are a spectacular natural treasure and one of the best places on Earth to appreciate change. To biologists, a trip to the Galápagos is something of a pilgrimage to sacred evolutionary ground, for it was here in 1835 that Charles Darwin witnessed how giant tortoises, finches, and other taxa each varied from island to island across the archipelago—observations that, among many others, shaped Darwin’s ideas on evolution. For this course, we will be working with Ecology Project International (EPI), which championed inquiry-driven field science and sustainability for many years and made tremendous progress working with the Galápagos National Parks Service and others on ecological education. This course is also offered in partnership with the Houston Zoo. Students in this course should be prepared to explore the forces of change in the Galápagos and contribute directly to sustainable solutions to current issues. Before and following the field experience in Galápagos, students will complete coursework via Dragonfly Workshops' Web-Based Learning Community as they apply these experiences to their home institutions.