The Naturalist's Notebook

General Description:

No matter how much or how little natural history training you have, you can use a journal to deepen your understanding and appreciation of any environment. This class covers writing and sketching techniques useful for sharpening your powers of observation and analysis—and for producing a useful record of your experience. Each participant will have time to design and carry out a small independent field project, pursuing a favorite question using skills gained in class. Previous experience with writing, sketching, and/or natural history is welcome but not assumed.

Instructor

Writer, editor, and visual artist Sarah Rabkin is an award-winning UC Santa Cruz instructor in writing and environmental studies. She thrives at the intersections of image, language, and landscape, and loves teaching in wild places. Sarah has led scores of field workshops around the Sierra and the western U.S. Her essays, poems, articles, and reviews have appeared in regional and national publications; her illustrated field journals have been exhibited formally and informally. Sarah has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard and a graduate certificate in science communication from UC Santa Cruz.

Class Schedule

There will be a get-acquainted meeting on the evening of July 9 at 7:00 PM ; last meeting finishes at 3:00 PM on July 12.

Class Equipment

• A sturdily bound notebook with stiff covers and blank, lined, or graph-ruled pages (whatever you prefer)
• pens with fine points and permanent black ink; a black water-soluble fiber-tipped pen (such as a Pilot Razor Point)
• a couple of Number 2 or HB pencils and a sharpener with a reservoir to contain shavings
• a white vinyl eraser in stick or block form
• 12 or more Prismacolor pencils in a range of colors, including True Blue, Lemon Yellow, and Process Red
• a clear plastic 6-inch ruler
• To experiment with a greater variety of notebook formats, you may also want to bring a hard-covered blank book or journal with unlined, acid-free white or tinted pages, a small, inexpensive, pocket-sized notebook, and/or an 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" three-ring binder with narrow-ruled paper.

Field gear

• Binoculars are highly recommended
• pocket knife
• hand lens

Camping gear

• warm sleeping bag
• foam pad
• flashlight
• bring your own tent or use tents with beds provided at the field campus

Clothing

Although days are generally warm, or even hot at lower elevations, be prepared for temperatures as low as freezing at night. Variable weather clothing that may be layered is best. Long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, warm sweater and jacket, t-shirt and shorts or skirt, tennis shoes or hiking boots, sun hat, rain gear, and a warm hat or gloves for cold weather or night activities. Old sneakers, rubber boots, or hip-waders may come in handy for marsh prowling.

Miscellaneous:

• day pack
• sunscreen
• insect repellant
• alarm clock
• water bottles

Required Reading

• A class reader, to be purchased from the instructor at the first meeting ($10-15, cash or check)

For carpool email jsteele@sfsu.edu