| Course Number: | EDU 5710 S19 |
| Instructor: | Sean Beckett, M.S. |
| Location: | In-person & online. |
| Dates and Times: | May 18 - July 18, 2026. May 18-22, 2026 from 8 am - 5 pm each day at the Creative Campus at Goddard. |
| Credits: | 3 Graduate Credits |
| Tuition: | Tuition is set by and payable to North Branch Nature Center |
The course begins with a five-day intensive experience in plant structure, relationships, geography, and identification, focusing on the woodland plants of Plainfield and the Granite Hills, with emphasis on woody plants, sedges, herbs, and some of the larger and nicer mosses.
The in-person component will be taught as a series of exercises. We will typically start the day by looking at plants in the classroom, then go outside and see them in the field, and then return to study them in the classroom again. There will also be short morning lectures, and, to balance them, afternoon discussions and presentations by students.
Our first goal will be to learn about the common local plants—how they are made, where they live, what they do, whom they are related to, how they are identified—by direct observation. Our second goal will be, by discussions and readings, to get a sense of the plant world as a whole—where it came from, what it does, how it has transformed the planet.
Our method will be to take a few plants at a time and learn as much as we can about them. Our tools will be lenses, microscopes, notebooks, and drawing boards. The exercises will focus on observing, describing, comparing and identifying. The daily problems will start simple, with simple places and easy plants near Goddard, and progress to richer and harder ones in the Granite Hills. There are some lovely places nearby, and we will make sure we visit them. On the final in-person day we will do something fun, perhaps a scavenger hunt or a mini survey, as a graduation exercise.
The course then continues in an online, independent format with the final project due by July 18, 2026.
Offered jointly by the North Branch Nature Center’s Biodiversity University and the Northern Forest Atlas Project.
Audience: Naturalists and Educators with a Bachelor's Degree
Course Goals and Objectives:
Course will take place in-person, in the field and in the classroom, on the Monday-Friday listed in the scheduled course meeting time above. Course will begin at The Creative Campus @ Goddard in Plainfield, VT and may visit several sites during the week to cover course content in the field. Nightly reflections for each of the in-person days will be due immediately following. The course continues in an online, independent format with a final project will be due before July 18, 2026.
Costs for required readings/resources, if any, may not be included in the course tuition. Please contact NBNC for more information.
Jenkins, J. (2025). Field guide to the woody plants of the Northern Forest. Cornell University Press.
Jenkins, J. (2023). Woody plants of the Northern Forest: Digital atlas (updated edition). Northern Forest Atlas Foundation.
Jenkins, J. (2022). Grasses of the Northern Forest: A photographic guide. Comstock Publishing Associates.
Watts, M. T. (2025). Tree finder: Identifying trees by their leaves in eastern North America. Nature Study Guild Publishers.
Kress, W. J. (2024). Smithsonian trees of North America. Yale University Press.
Thompson, E. H., Sorenson, E. R., & Zaino, R. J. (2019). Wetland, woodland, wildland: A guide to the natural communities of Vermont (2nd ed.). Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. *older than 5 years, but the authoritative and most recent resource on botanical communities in Vermont and therefore indispensable for this course.
(802) 229-6206
This course requires registration with North Branch Nature Center (NBNC) first. Please click on the Register Now! link below.