During the summer students will be involved in all phases of field survey, excavation, trained in lab processing, and encouraged to critically examine how archaeological and paleontological knowledge is constructed and expressed. The course focuses on human and non-human adaptation to climate change, and how such contexts are excavated, but the course also provides a solid introduction to how arch
aeological and paleontological sites are excavated and how archaeologists and paleontologists investigate and interpret prehistory. This new and innovative course focuses on human and non-human species (plant and animal) response to climate change and how paleoenvironmental data are recovered in the field, studied in the laboratory and museum, and presented in public venues. This class will be a 100% hands-on, learn-by-doing, field experience. Surviving Climate Change will use a pedagogical approach that incorporates collaborative methods, and transformative solution-oriented outcomes by bringing together students and faculty from multiple disciplines. Specifically, Surviving Climate Change will be a course that uses interdisciplinary field methods. The course will introduce students to archaeological, paleoenvironmental, paleontological, and other Quaternary science field techniques, outlining the benefits of using interdisciplinary methods to interpret species responses to climate change. Students will participate in the survey and excavation of Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, which contains the remains of plants and animals that survived the last major episode of rapid and profound global climate change. Students will be involved in all phases of field excavation, trained in laboratory and museum curation processing, and public education. Students will be encouraged to critically examine how interdisciplinary knowledge about species response to climate change is constructed and expressed.