| Course Number: | EDU 5710 S22 |
| Instructor: | Sean Beckett, M.S. |
| Location: | In-person & online. |
| Dates and Times: | June 22 - August 22, 2026. June 22-26, 8 am - 5 pm each day at White Creek Field School, White Creek, NY with the remainder of the course in an online environment. |
| Credits: | 3 Graduate Credits |
| Tuition: | Tuition is set by and payable to North Branch Nature Center |
First, a content warning: mosses are beautiful and dangerous plants. The closer you get, the lovelier they are. Look at them close enough and long enough, and you can lose your heart.
That accepted, this is a five-day course in looking and thinking about mosses. There will be some liverworts too: they are strange and ancient and Sue and Jerry like them. It will start at the beginning; focus on field study; be taught as a series of exercises involving examination, drawing, description, comparison, and diagnosis; and have, addition, short daily lectures on moss history, abilities, relations, collaborations, and accomplishments.
On Day 1, we introduce mosses and look at the common mosses of stream banks and post-agricultural woods at the field station. On Day 2, we go up the hill to the Notch for common boulder-and-ledge species; on Day 3, to Mount Equinox for limestone species and some rarities; on Day 4 to Branch Pond for boreal shoreline species, focusing on Sphagnum; and on Day 5, back to the Notch for a merry ledge moss-and-liverwort Hunt.
The course will start with large common species and then work, carefully, towards smaller and rarer ones. Designed incrementally to introduce about a dozen characteristic species from each habitat each day, and emphasizing drawing and description throughout. To learn to see, you need to draw; to understand what you have seen, you need to describe.
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 will take place in-person, in the field and in the classroom, on the dates listed in the scheduled course meeting time above. Course will take place at the White Creek Field School in White Creek, NY 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 week. Work will continue in an online, independent format with the final project due by August 22, 2026.
Costs for required readings/resources, if any, may not be included in the course tuition. Please contact NBNC for more information.
Williams, S. A. (2024). Ecological Guide to the Mosses and Common Liverworts of the Northeast. Cornell University Press.
Jenkins, J. (2020). Mosses of the Northern Forest. Cornell University Press. *more than 5 years, but the best and most recent resource available of its kind.
Jenkins, J. (2025). Field guide to the woody plants of the Northern Forest. Cornell University Press.
Wilbraham, J. (2025). Mosses, liverworts, and hornworts of the world: A guide to every order. Princeton University Press.
Smith, A. B., Jones, C. D., & Lee, E. F. (2024). The beginner’s guide to moss & liverworts: Identification and ecology. Nature Walk Press.
(802) 229-6206
This course requires registration with North Branch Nature Center (NBNC) first. Please click on the Register Now! link below.