Skagit Valley College

Catalog Course Search Details

 Course Title:   Environmental Interpretation

 Title Abbreviation:   ENVIRONMENTAL INTERPRETA

 Department:    ENVC

 Course #:    130

 Credits:    5

 Variable:     No

 IUs:    5.5

 CIP:    030101

 EPC:    165

 REV:    2018


 Course Description  

Research presentation and communication styles through oral, visual, and audio-visual means of the history, geology, or natural history of an area, concept or species. Interpretation and discussion of ancient cultural archeological sites and influences on the present.

 Prerequisite  

None

Additional Course Details

Contact Hours (based on 11 week quarter)

Lecture: 44

Lab: 22

Other: 0

Systems: 0

Clinical: 0


Intent: Distribution Requirement(s) Status:  

Vocational Preparatory Required for ATA degree  

Equivalencies At Other Institutions

Other Institution Equivalencies Table
Institution Course # Remarks
N/A

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Communicate interpretive concepts in an entertaining, serious, and/or informative manner to the public in a park or forest area.
  2. Understand Native American perspective.
  3. Understand general techniques for dealing with the public.
  4. Develop a brochure in regard to a park, a particular skill, and/or a culture and give a presentation on the same.

General Education Learning Values & Outcomes

Revised August 2008 and affects outlines for 2008 year 1 and later.

1. Information Literacy

Definition: Recognizing when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
1.2 Access the needed information effectively, efficiently, ethically, and legally.
1.5 Effectively integrate and use information ethically and legally to accomplish a specific purpose.

3. Communication

Definition: Understanding and producing effective written, spoken, visual, and non-verbal communication.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
3.2 Recognize, produce and demonstrate appropriate interpersonal, group, and public speaking skills.

4. Community & Cultural Diversity

Definition: Recognizing the value of human communities and cultures from multiple perspectives through a critical understanding of their similarities and differences.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
4.3 Understand the historically and socially constructed nature of—and the meanings attributed to—human differences.
4.4 Demonstrate effective communication across differences in human communities and cultures.

5. Global & Local Awareness & Responsibility

Definition: Understanding the complexity and interdependence of, and stewardship responsibilities to, local and global communities and environments.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
5.1 Understand the impact of their own and other’s actions on local/global communities and environments and how those communities/environments affect them in turn.
5.4 Understand the concept of local/global stewardship, and its ethical components, to communities and environments.

6. Individual Awareness & Responsibility

Definition: Understanding, managing, and taking responsibility for one’s learning and behavior in varied and changing environments.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
6.3 Apply successful organizational strategies of planning, goal setting, prioritizing, resolving conflict, and managing time to specific goals and/or projects.
6.4 Use self-reflection to recognize and define a sense of self-identity in personal, social/gender, and/or cultural/global terms and in relationship to others.

7. Aesthetics & Creativity

Definition: Interpreting human experience through engagement with creative processes and aesthetic principles.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
7.1 Demonstrate an understanding of the creative process.
7.2 Demonstrate knowledge of aesthetic principles.

9. Scientific Literacy

Definition: Understanding scientific principles, and analyzing and applying scientific information in a variety of contexts.

Outcomes: Students will be able to . . .
9.3 Analyze, apply, and communicate scientific concepts and principles in context (for example, in technological, personal, and/or professional situations).
9.4 Use scientific concepts and principles to understand the natural world, human behavior and culture, and relationships between humans and the rest of the natural world.

Course Contents

  1. Introduction to interpretation.
  2. Preparation of a brochure.
  3. Press releases.
  4. Design of nature trails.
  5. Campfire talks/presentations.
  6. Road or wayside exhibits.
  7. Office reception area displays.
  8. Signs and bulletin boards.
  9. Conducted tours and control.
  10. Children's activities.
  11. ""Bare bones"" interpretation.
  12. Audiovisual equipment.
  13. Demonstration talks.
  14. Native American perspective.
  15. Research techniques.