The Cornell Earth and Environmental Systems Field Program

Cornell University’s Earth and Environmental Systems Field Program (EES) is returning in the spring semester of 2009. Based primarily on Hawaiʻi Island with field trips to the other islands, the program unites classroom study and hands-on field research. The program is available to all interested and enrolled university students and is offered in collaboration with The Kohala Center.

Hawaiʻi Island, as a dynamic and natural living laboratory, allows participants to study:

• a variety of ecosystems and their development through time
• the influence of human life on plant and animal species
• geologic processes
• Pacific marine environments

Participants apply fundamental scientific concepts in geology, chemistry, and biology to the native environment and complement scientific study with Hawaiian history and culture.

EES program students are housed in Waiaka House in Waimea, an 8-bedroom home near the upper campus of Hawaiʻi Preparatory Academy. Participants spend most days in the field—often all day, leaving just after breakfast and returning just before dinner. Field trips are half-days, with morning or afternoon lectures or labs. There are overnight excursions to the islands of Maui and Kaua‘i. Field work requires hiking, sometimes at high altitudes, and the ability to swim as some work is done in or on the ocean.

Applications are currently being accepted for the spring 2009 semester on a space available basis. Visit http://www.geo.cornell.edu/hawaii or contact Dr. Alexandra Moore at am113@cornell.edu for additional information. Also, please feel free to contact The Kohala Center at info@kohalacenter.org or 808-887-6411.