EVST3014: On the River
Experiencing the Brazilian Amazon
Instructor: Stephen Matter, Eric Tepe, Debbie Brawn
Offered: Spring 2024
Requires a study tour to Brazil
Description
The Amazon River basin is one of the largest, intact, tropical ecosystems in the world. This course offers students the opportunity to personally experience it and develop a passion for its sustainability. Students begin the semester preparing across disciplines for an immersion trip to the upper Amazon River. During the actual trip, students, instructors, and crew live on a boat that travels over 600 nautical miles along the river-‐stopping to explore the flooded forests by canoe, and the upland, villages, and cities, on foot. On return, students will report on individual projects and use their journals for reflection.
The sustainability of endangered tropical ecosystems may depend on the action of individuals who have a realistic appreciation of their structure, function, beauty, people, and problems. Students completing this course will be among those with the potential to influence the future, because they will have personally experienced the Amazon River and investigated the issues challenging it today.
In the News
Darkness veils the vast emerald sea of the Amazon rain forest when a plane carrying a group of University of Cincinnati students, faculty and staff touches down in the Brazilian city of Manaus, a cosmopolitan pocket of urbanity nestled in the heart of a dense jungle two-thirds the size of the continental United States.
A University Honors seminar to Amazonas, Brazil, lured 20 University of Cincinnati students on a boat with little amenities and no hot water. Overnight accommodations involved two people sharing a bunk bed, a small bathroom per room, and bath showers that came from river water. It was a trip captured on this video produced by John McGill, a UC junior. It was an experience beyond the classroom that made memories to last a lifetime.
Important Notes
Packing everything that you will need is essential, as you will not be able to purchase supplies during most of the study tour. Please familiarize yourself with the packing list!
Learn more about Amazonia Experiences -- the Expedition Company and Guides.