Collaborative Learning and Global Education: Human-Environment Interactions in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Abstract

This article focuses on two innovative approaches to teaching human-environment interactions and international engagement in geography: (1) utilization of an agent-based model (ABM) at undergraduate levels to explicitly demonstrate complexity theories, and (2) implementation of a teaching experiment that connects students simultaneously enrolled in companion courses in North Carolina and in the Galápagos Islands through various multimedia and synthetic approaches to enrich a case study of conservation challenges to a World Heritage Site. Spatial simulation models are used to complement integrative geographic learning, to demand higher order skills of students and build critical thinking in college classes. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.