This course focuses on collaboration and contemplation through the production of art that is place-based and/or responds to social issues. We will engage in aesthetic experimentation and dialogue about the…

This course focuses on collaboration and contemplation through the production of art that is place-based and/or responds to social issues. We will engage in aesthetic experimentation and dialogue about the…

In the essay “The Making of a Marginal Farm,” Wendell Berry writes about his family’s efforts to restore and nurture a place that had been hard used, a marginal farm…

This course hopes to demonstrate the complex relationship between horses and humans through time. Of the animals which have captured the imagination of humans, the horse as Pita Kelenkna describes,…

This course explores how activists and ordinary citizens have come together to create mass movements toward cultural, political, social, and economic change. This course will investigate campaigns from three social…

This pod will focus on planning a farm through a permacultural lense integrated with business planning and marketing. Even though this class is focused on planning a production oriented farm …

Students in this pod will take Foundations of Ecology and Introduction to Fiber Arts, and will be based on campus.  Enrollment Requirements and Options: Student are not required to enroll…

This pod will combine closely related actions of food preservation and processing food while taking action to meet food needs in our community.  Enrollment Requirements and Options: Student are not…

This course explores how people work in groups when facing challenging or unfamiliar situations. Personal development focuses on self-confidence, trusting teammates, and communication.  Leadership and group problems solving exercises accompany…

Through these complementary courses, students will explore “kin-centric” relationships between humans, plants, and the natural world, particularly as these are expressed through indigenous and/or traditional subsistence knowledges, technologies, and histories….

This pod combines three 2-credit classes that were taught separately last year – Forestry Techniques, Woodlot Practices, and some parts of Log Building Techniques.  Basic forest measurements and small scale…

Our land uses have the potential to  impact the ecological stability of our watersheds. In this pod we will explore the intersection of agricultural practices and the health of the…

This combination of classes will immerse students in experiential activities helping them to understand the diversity, distribution, function, and interactions of plants, fungi, bacteria and other microbes.  Over the whole…

In The People’s Stories: Art and Culture, students will establish foundational understandings in the ways cultures express their personal and collective beliefs and interactions with the natural world through the…

Located in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, the Northeastern Highlands biophysical region is composed of unique natural features, rare wildlife species, and a rich cultural history. The…

 Students interested in this pod will find adventure on the rocks of Vermont & New Hampshire, learn of and gain certification in the principles of Leave No Trace, and engage…

 This pod will use an agroecological lens to introduce students to the foundations of ecology, agriculture, and food systems.  Enrollment Requirements and Options: Students are strongly encouraged though not required…

In Nature and the Human Spirit we explore the human relationship with the natural world from the Pleistocene to the present.  We investigate primal worldview, the development of classical wisdom…

  In Reading the Northwoods Landscape we develop the naturalist skills of field observation, descriptive ecology and landscape interpretation while exploring the forests and geologic wonders of Northern New England. …

The Making & Meaning pod offers the opportunity both to create and to examine cultural objects. The Meaning of Things considers broadly how we value and give meaning to material…

Build your personal skills in leadership, group facilitation, knot tying and belaying, paddling strokes, woodworking, and awareness of  environmental issues in a supportive group setting.  Facilitation and leadership happens mostly…

According to Stephen Budiansky, “Horses have been enveloped in human dreams, myths, ambitions, and sentiments for so long that the story we have come to think of as theirs is…

Food preservation can help you put by the bounty of the harvest for winter months, as well as adding value to raw food products.  Most of all, preservation can transform…

According to most estimates, 47% of the Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems are grazed. In this survey we take a holistic view of grazed ecosystems and their interacting components, including biotic and…

Students in this course will help to support faculty and students enrolled in A Sense of Place as they develop skills and group dynamics throughout the intensive. Students will work…

This course bridges the fields of ecology, food systems, cultural studies and humanities, and provides students with an investigation into the diverse relationships between humans and plants.  The course will…

Artisan Breadmaking & Heritage Grains June 22-26, 2020 Faculty:  Richard Miscovich Connecting to the origins of sustenance, students in Sterling College’s Artisan Bread-making course will practice the art of breadmaking…

This course prepares students to tackle the challenges of sustainable farming in a world changed by a pandemic. Students will engage for 12 weeks, rooted by a weekly Whole Farm…

The Art of Fermentation July 20-24, 2020 Faculty: Sandor Katz   Have a question about this course? World-renowned fermentation educator and author Sandor Katz leads this effervescent exploration of the…

The Self-Designed Major Workshop serves to guide and support students who are planning to complete a self-designed major proposal. Students should be prepared to meet weekly, to share drafts of…

The course is a field-based exploration of birds with a dual emphasis on developing and refining field identification and classification skills and gaining an understanding of the evolution and ecology…

This course is a field-based botanical study of flowering plants with a focus on spring and summer wildflowers.  Students learn plant systematics and advanced field identification skills through intensive field…

Senior Year Research Project I is the first in a two-course sequence that gives students the opportunity to pursue a particular question in significant depth and explore an area of…

Entails serving as a teaching assistant in a course previously completed with a satisfactory grade. Introduces strategies for the planning, preparation, presentation, and evaluation required for teaching at the college…

A continuation of Senior Year Research Project I, Senior Year Research Project II enables students to continue work on the project. Students in SYRP II typically work on finishing research,…

In seminar style students will examine their personal relationship to education and culture while exploring topics of race, privilege, power and cultural identify. Cultural influences will be examined to better…

Plein air painting and drawing allows us to explore the local landscape with a new perspective using natural light and its changing, ephemeral qualities. Landscape art heightens our understanding of…

This course focuses on the intersection of climate change and social justice.  The course objectives are to provide historical perspective on current issues through examining an array of social justice…

This course introduces students to the complete process of investigating field-based ecological questions.  In this class, students will pose questions about ecological phenomena, develop hypotheses, design experimental and/or observational studies,…

Like their urban counterparts, rural areas have historically been a nexus of cultural intersection-places where migrants and immigrants have come for work, farming the land, mining resources, harvesting timber, and…

Entails serving as a teaching assistant in a course previously completed with a satisfactory grade. Introduces strategies for the planning, preparation, presentation, and evaluation required for teaching at the college…

Students in this course will help to support faculty and students enrolled in Expedition II as they develop skills and group dynamics through the second half of the fall semester…