Antarctica

Course Name

ERM/BE 499: Antarctica: Human Impacts on a Fragile Environment, 1 credit in Fall 2023, 2 credits in Spring 2024.

About the course

Environmental Resource Management faculty are partnering with the College of Engineering and Agricultural and Biological Engineering along with SUNY Brockport and Virginia Tech to offer this course. The program is hosted by AUIP.

The course investigates the impacts of climate change and scientific discoveries in Antarctica. It provides a broad overview of the continent’s human and natural history. Special attention is given to Antarctica’s physical and ecological systems, human activity in the region, sustainable tourism, and the use of fragile polar resources.

Students attend weekly lectures, write two short essays, complete a midterm project and final essay exam, and submit an annotated bibliography of their field course readings.

About the travel

Antarctica has been described as the “coldest, windiest, driest, highest, quietest, most remote and least understood continent on Earth.” For more than 200 years, scientists and explorers have worked to unlock its mysteries. 

During winter break, students will experience a two-week field excursion, by plane and ship, to Antarctica, where they will explore sites such as the Beagle Channel, which is inhabited by black-browed albatrosses, Magellanic penguins, skuas, different varieties of seagulls and Alakush ducks.

The ship will continue its course to the Antarctic Peninsula, during which travelers will view icebergs and land at various points, including coves, inlets, islands and bays. Wildlife is abundant during this season: penguins, seals, whales and orcas all are likely to appear during the journey.

If weather permits, the ship travels around Cape Horn, the rocky headland on Hornos Island in southern Chile’s Tierra del Fuego archipelago. Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage, where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet.

Interested?

Contact Tammy Shannon, Environmental Resource Management academic advising coordinator, at tmb5352@psu.edu or Ketja Lingenfelter at ketja@psu.edu for details and information about applying.