For Current Students

Undergraduate Research

At Penn State Altoona, students benefit from small class sizes and direct instruction from faculty actively involved in research. Students can participate in research in several ways: through one-on-one faculty-student apprenticeships, as part of a course or as part of a collaborative team-based project. Our students can also create their own field or research projects for additional course credit. Our students have:

  • created a web site with information on composting
  • monitored turtle crossings and bat populations
  • charted the history of Altoona’s public water system
  • constructed a water garden at Penn State Altoona

For Incoming Students

The Environmental Studies Program at Penn State Altoona offers opportunities for learning and experiences in and out of the classroom. Each of the core Environmental Studies (ENVST) courses encompass a variety of embedded experiential learning activities including field trips, field research, laboratory research, service learning and other creative and professional work experiences.

Students in our introductory Environmental Studies 100: Visions of Nature have:

  • hiked, kayaked and canoed at local environmental centers, state parks, recreation areas and game lands
  • visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater
  • learned nature writing and haikus

Students in our Environmental Studies 200: Research Methods in Environmental Studies have:

  • created an environmental literacy survey
  • produced a crowd sourced fundraising campaign
  • analyzed soil and water quality at a local farm

Students in our Environmental Studies 400: Senior Seminar have participated in writing-intensive studies on a variety of topics and projects:

  • wetland delineation and conservation (field trips to local wetlands, vernal pools)
  • field course to the Chesapeake Bay to study flora, fauna and the importance of our place in the Bay’s watershed
  • construction of hiking trails and a replica of Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden and the completion of a comprehensive report on the history, physical landscape and biota of the Seminar Forest