Program Description

The management of our planetary environment has assumed critical and strategic importance in today’s world, given the accelerating pace of change, the power of technology, the scope of scientific inquiry, the direction of demography, and the competition for natural resources. Confronting today’s environmental challenge is crucial to improving the quality of life in New Jersey and, indeed, the nation and the world.

The Governor’s School on the Environment is designed to bring together a diverse group of 48 gifted high school rising seniors from throughout the state for a two week-long intensive learning experience designed to explore the relationship of human beings to their environment and the impact of humans and the environment on each other. There is no cost to the scholars to attend this program. Students will be challenged to discover and evaluate competing interests affecting critical environmental issues of our day and to seek their personal roles in creating positive environmental change. The program is not limited to students whose academic interests and strengths are in the sciences. The program will explore aspects of the social, economic, and political environment as well as the natural environment. Therefore, students are encouraged to apply who have interests in any of these areas.

Goals of the Program

The Governor’s School learning experience is intended:

1. to increase students’ practical knowledge of our natural environment and its scientific study so as to bolster their confidence, capacity, and interest in taking ownership of the fragile ecosystems that sustain all life.
2. to enhance students’ awareness of participatory public responsibility for the quality of life through intensive collegial participation in public concerns related to the environment,
3. to encourage students to aspire to community leadership of the next

To accomplish these goals the Governor’s School will offer to students an array of "hands-on" activities within a collaborative setting. These include:

• inquiry into classic and contemporary thought about the relationship of humanity and nature in space and time;
• application of state-of the-art scientific and technological information to contemporary and pending environmental concerns;
• examination of the competing claims of economic development interests and environmentalists about public policy questions;
• field experiments in environmental concerns such as land use planning, preserving bio-diversity, and energy conservation;
• student research which integrates ecological concerns, private action, public health, community organizing and public decision-making with scientific knowledge.

Program Structure
The Governor’s School program is structured around the intensive course, the integrative seminar, field experience, the evening and afternoon programs, and the visual and performing arts program:

1. Daily intensive courses focus on areas such as Pinelands ecology and policy, environmental protection and economic development, geographic information systems, community design, pollution and public health, the quality of urban life, air and water pollution, marine science, biodiversity, alternate energy sources, environmental ethics, and global environmental issues. Each course approaches its topic in the context of New Jersey while considering local, national, and global dimensions also. Students concentrate on one course and develop individual or group research plans within the context of their course. The highlight of the intensive course is a scientific conference on the last Friday of the program where each class highlights critical aspects of their accomplishments during the four weeks of study. Frequent field trips provide the student with abundant first-hand experiences in multiple habitats as well as research opportunities. In addition to other physically demanding activities, scholars should be prepared for the rigors of hiking, backpacking, and/or canoeing for extended periods in the Pine Barrens.
   
    
2. The integrative seminar in centred around and builds upon the Stockton Campus Ecology Project. This Project is a four day collaborative field/lab experience designed by Stockton’s Environmental Science faculty to introduce students to the scientific study of the Pine Barrens. Under the direction of Governor’s School and Stockton faculty, students gather data on the vegetation, hydrology, soil, biodiversity and other aspects of the campus. This data is stored from year to year. Students in the integrative seminar draw on the perspectives and information from the field experience to analyse this data, as well as upon GS and Stockton faculty and other resources as needed. The object of the seminar is to develop an environmental impact statement (and alternate suggestions) for a proposed hypothetical development plan in this highly protected ecosystem. Each group will present its analysis and alternate plan in poster sessions to be completed by Friday of the third week of the program.
   
    
3. The evening and afternoon programs further enriches the learning environment with debates, lectures, simulations, and workshops on a range of personal, state, and global environmental issues. Professional performing arts events are also scheduled.
   
    
4. Participation in the visual and performing arts program (including student expression in instrumental and vocal music, dance, art, and theatre) is encouraged in recognition of the special relationship between environmental experience and artistic expression.