< Back to Curriculum-at-a-Glance

It is the mission of the Department of Sustainability Studies to guide and prepare members of the White Mountain School community to live as active and informed stewards of the natural world and human communities. The Department aims to achieve this mission by promoting and supporting the integration of the principles and practices of sustainability into all aspects of life at White Mountain School. In doing so, we hope that community members will be empowered to enact positive change in their world, will recognize the need for people to maintain dignity and a sense of worth, and will work toward the long-term vitality of the world’s natural systems and human communities.

Sustainability Studies is about understanding the connections between the earth's natural systems, people's economic and social systems, and our well-being as individuals, communities, and a whole planet. This is a tall order, but one which we dive into with vigor here at WMS. The department helps students build an understanding of these complex relationships by offering courses as diverse as Literature and the Land, Economics and Sustainability, and Political and Social Activism. This means that whether you are interested in sciences or politics, there is a way for you to explore these connections and relationships. However, the department extends beyond the classroom, as well. We believe it is important that students learn not just what the issues out there are and how they are related, but also how to take action to make the world a better place. You can meet the "action requirement" for the department either by participating in the Farm & Forest sport – planting onions, building a timber-frame shed, and clearing trails – or by taking an action-based class, such as Environmental Science, where you will spend much of the term in the field, learning how to test water quality or design a forest-management plan. Because the idea of sustainability is interdisciplinary by nature, the courses in the department are themselves very interdisciplinary, and many courses are cross-listed between departments.

Vision 20/20

In his book High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them, Jean-Francois Rischard describes what he sees as the twenty most critical global problems facing the world today that need to be solved within the next twenty years.  The National Association of Independent Schools has challenged its members to partner with schools abroad to create local solutions to these global problems.  WMS accepts this challenge through this new course, Vision 20/20.  During our semester together, we will work closely with our partner school abroad (we don’t know who or where the school is yet) to select one of the problems Rischard describes in his book, to become experts on the problem, and to take action to help solve the problem.  This course promises to be exciting and dynamic, the content and projects genuinely unfolding under the design and direction of the class itself. (Fall term; Prerequisite: open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the action component of the Sustainability Studies requirement)

Environmental Science
This semester-long course takes a project-based approach to the study of environmental science. In doing so, it aims to give students the tools and base-knowledge to understand how many of the earth's systems function and how the students, as scientists, can assess, monitor, and restore the health of our natural systems.  Students work in teams throughout the term to develop and execute projects of their own design.  Class time is spent discussing effective project design and group work as well as science.  Environmental science integrates information from many of the natural sciences, including ecology, geology, hydrology, climatology, limnology, biology, chemistry and physics.  While the weather is good, we focus our studies on our local environment.  Over the past couple of years, students have been contributing to the preparation of a forest management plan for the WMS campus and have done water quality testing on the Ammonoosuc River.  Through a combination of lectures, labs, field trips, and field exercises, students build skills in scientific investigation and an understanding of how our natural systems function. (Fall term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the action component of the Sustainability Studies requirement)

Environmental Issues
This semester-long course aims to give students the tools to understand the complexity of environmental issues through intensive study of the issues currently facing the Northern Forest in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.  Focusing around the question, “How can we best sustain both the communities and the ecology of the Northern Forest,” the course addresses the ecology of the region, the history of the logging industry and the recent changes in land-ownership patterns and community vitality as a result of global pressures in the timber markets. Students may attend a professional conference, where they participate in small working groups of professionals from around the North Country to move the Northern Forest region closer to a sustainable future.  By the end of the course, students have completed an action project of their own designed to address one small part of sustainability in the Northern Forest.  Throughout the term students also pursue an independent research project focusing on an environmental issue of their choice.  Through multiple assignments focusing on their individual research topics, they apply the analytical skills developed through the study of the Northern Forest.  The course uses a systems approach, focusing on relationships and interactions between ecology, economics, and communities. (Fall term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the theory component of the Sustainability Studies requirement)

Comparative Economic Development

How did China and Taiwan move from agricultural economies to major industrial powers with relative ease?  Why have the countries in Latin America struggled so hard to establish themselves in the global economy?  What are the implications of our current global economic structure on the people and places of the planet?   In this semester-long course we will begin to answer questions like these as we work to understand how and why some of the regions in the world have developed so differently.  Through a case-study-based approach, we will explore the development stories of countries from several regions in the world.  In doing so, we will build a basic understanding of the capitalist system and globalization.  Examining each case study through a sustainability lens provides a unifying theme to the course. (Fall term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the theory component of the Sustainability Studies requirement and the Non-Western History requirement)

20th Century Middle East

The Middle East course focuses primarily upon the pivotal role played by events in the region as they affected global politics during the 20th century. The major themes to be emphasized will include: the nature, rise and influence of Islam, the conflict between the two nations—Palestine and Israel, the emergence of radicalism in a culture of desperation, the interference of the superpowers, and the effects of rapid economic development upon a primarily tribal-agrarian society. (Fall term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the theory component of the Sustainability Studies requirement and the Non-Western History requirement)

Campus Sustainability
This semester-long course is an action-based class designed to develop in students the skills and knowledge base to create positive change in their schools and local communities.  With a focus on making WMS a more sustainable community, students explore the environmental, social, and economic systems at the school – e.g. school governance and decision-making structures, budget and operations, energy and water use, and student investment in the community.  At the same time, they read examples of actions taken on other campuses to make them more sustainable.  Drawing on the information they gather about WMS and the case studies from other schools, students work in small groups to design and implement action projects on campus.  In order to develop the skills needed to carry these out successfully, the class also undertakes several smaller projects on campus collectively throughout the term.  In addition the course addresses human behavior and psychology, particularly as it relates to behavior change. Action projects emerge out of an assessment of the needs and resources available on campus. (Spring term; Prerequisite: open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the action component of the Sustainability Studies requirement)

Connecting to Place: Literature of Loss and Resurrection
Wallace Stegner writes, “You don’t know who you are, unless you know where you are.”  Ranging from anger to loss to deep love, the emotions that places and our relationships to them bring out in us are real and strong.  This course explores human connection to the land and communities, and so to ourselves and each other through literature.  Reading books (such as The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Control of Nature, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma), essays, and poetry we will begin to understand our own connections to people and place more deeply, and seek the sources of hope and resurrection for the land and our communities that help us regain what is lost and create a vision for the future. (Spring term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the theory component of the Sustainability Studies requirement and the Senior Literature requirement)

20th Century Latin America

This course will concentrate on the major political, social, and economic themes of 20th century Latin America.  It will focus on the Dominican, Peruvian, and Nicaraguan revolutions, the causes and results of the wide social and economic gap between the classes, the U.S. role in Latin American affairs before, during, and after the Cold War, and the region’s place in a global economy.  Students will read a variety of texts and will be expected to analyze in both discussion and extensive writing. (Spring term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor; fulfills the theory component of the Sustainability Studies requirement and the Non-Western History requirement)

Biomimicry: The Design of Nature and the Nature of Design

Architect and designer, William McDonough writes,  “Could we design a building that's alive?” Imagine a building like a tree. Imagine a building or a project, a complex or a campus that accrues solar energy, builds soil, purifies water, sequesters carbon, provides habitat, changes color with the seasons, and hopefully, self-replicates…

In this course, we will begin to understand the complexities of our natural systems and how we, as designers, may be able to mimic ecological principles and processes in our designs.  Our studies will range from living wastewater treatment systems to permaculture food production systems to new energy technologies, each time asking the questions, “How does nature do what it is we need to do?” and “Can we design a system that does what nature does?”  The term will culminate in a group project applying biomimicry design principles.  (Spring term; Prerequisite: open to Juniors and Seniors or with permission of the instructor, does not fulfill the theory or action components of the Sustainability Studies requirement)