TRAVEL COURSES

TOURS TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES

In order to earn college credit during the summer it is no longer necessary for students to go to college. Instead, they may spend six or eight weeks in foreign or domestic travel and receive the same credit as they would in the classroom. The lust for travel and for the out of doors which has taken possession of students as well as of the rest of the world since transportation has been made so easy, may thus be satisfied and at the same time students may be accumulating college credit under conditions which render the process of learning exceptionally pleasurable.

Study tours have been made in recent years to nearly all quarters of the globe. Europe, of course, attracts more summer students than all of the rest of the world combined. On these study tours classes are held and lectures are given on shipboard, on railroad train, on motor bus, and at points en route. A competent director and faculty are employed, and a library bearing on the subject or subjects to be studied is a part of the necessary equipment. The opportunity so to coordinate class work with travel is a regular summer offering of a number of colleges and universities. Following are the outlines of some of the tours undertaken in the summer of 1931:

The College of the Pacific, Stockton, Calif., conducted its fifth annual European tour. Courses carrying two units of credit each were offered in the appreciation of art and in the history of music education. The tour lasted 56 days and covered nine countries: England, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy.

Northwestern University gave a 2-month seminar in social science research in Paris, the aim of the course being to introduce the student to, and guide him in the utilization of, research facilities in Paris and its environs in connection with the student's specific research project. The course, conducted entirely in English, was open to graduate students having an easy reading knowledge of French. Students could register either for credit or without credit, the maximum amount of credit allowed being 3-semester hours.

The university also offered a European geographical field course in which opportunity was given for the study of several of the world's greatest harbors, the more important industrial areas of western Europe, and some classic physiographic fields. The students visited Glasgow, in the English lake district, Birmingham, the Shakespeare country, London, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, the Rhine and the Ruhr Valleys, Switzerland, Oberammergau, Milan,

Marseilles, and Paris. Harbor officials and European geographers gave instruction at different points. The course carried four semester hours of credit and was open to college students who had completed a course in geography, geology, or physiography, and to other mature students by permission of the instructor.

The College of Idaho conducted a European tour in which courses for college credit were offered in French civilization and history, the Renaissance, and the Reformation.

· A European 6-week painting and appreciation tour, through Holland and France was conducted by the University of Wichita. Only 20 persons were admitted to this tour. Instruction was given in oil, water color, and pencil. Four semester hours of credit were given for satisfactory work in painting and 2-semester hours of credit for art appreciation to those submitting a satisfactory written report covering the places visited and the lectures offered.

Three separate 6-week tours of Germany, Russia, and France for the purpose of observing school systems at first hand, were offered by Columbia University. In each country the students visited all types of educational institutions. Rutgers University conducted a similar 2-month education tour of Russia, Germany, Denmark, Austria, and France.

Columbia University offered also a field course in science and science education in Germany, to provide teachers and students of science an opportunity to study at first hand the biological and geological phenomena of various regions and to investigate the facilities available for instruction in science in that country. The itinerary included a journey by steamer on the Rhine and walking tours in the Black Forest, the Bavarian Alps, and Saxon Switzerland.

In cooperation with the American Institute of Educational Travel, Hunter College of New York gave a travel course, for credit, in art appreciation and art history, Greek and Roman civilization, and western Europe. In each course the itinerary was planned to include centers that would yield the richest store of information in the particular field. In the art appreciation course students visited Paris, Naples, Rome, Florence, Bologna, Venice, Milan, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Dresden, Amsterdam, and London. In the course on Greek and Roman civilization, which included a study of the art, literature, and private life of the ancient Romans, and of the influence of that culture on the modern world, visits were made to Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan, and other places of classical interest in Italy. In the western Europe course, which comprised a study of the outstanding characteristics of medieval history and a survey of the development of the nations of western Europe, the itinerary led through England, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and France.

The College of William and Mary offered two study tour groups, with a choice of residence in Paris or Rome. One tour was designed to meet the needs particularly of teachers of modern languages; the other of teachers of Latin. The French group remained in Paris five weeks attending courses at the Sorbonne and the Institute of Phonetics, studying the French language, literature, history, and art, taking week-end excursions to important places, and attending theaters and other places of interest. The Italian group remained for four weeks in Rome, where they received instruction in the topography of Rome and the Campagna, the history of Rome, the art of Ancient Rome and the Italian Renaissance, and the reading of Latin writings centering around the history and life of the city of Rome. The students make excursions into the Roman Campagna and the Etruscan territory. A Virgilian cruise through the Mediterranean and the Egean was offered in substition for residence in Rome. The two groups traveled for a period before and after residence in Paris and Rome.

Students of French were given opportunity by the University of Virginia to combine pleasure with study by a summer spent at St. Servan on the northern coast of France. Courses were offered throughout the travel period and during the residence period the students attended the Cours de Vacances of the Universite de Rennes, which was held in St. Servan during the summer.

Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (for Negroes) offered one tour to the Holy Land and one to Europe, for study in Bible history and history of the Near East. The tours were open to anyone able to profit by them although they were primarily intended for teachers and students and offered college credit.

While Europe offers fertile fields for foreign study and research, especially along cultural lines, there are other portions of the globe that provide unexcelled opportunities for study in the natural and social sciences. Several institutions have therefore directed their summer tours to other lands.

The University of Oregon and the University of Washington sent study groups to Hawaii during the past summer. The University of Oregon also sent a group to Alaska. Clark University gave a tour to the Caribbean and a transcontinental autobus tour which included a trip to Alaska, returning from Los Angeles to New York by steamer, with shore trips at Panama and Habana. The University of Denver offered a 15-day trip to Mexico City, to give students an opportunity to acquire fluency in the conversational use of Spanish.

The cruise of the University of Oregon student groups to Hawaii was the second to the islands undertaken by that institution in

cooperation with the University of Hawaii. Courses on shipboard and in Hawaii were offered in the geography of the Pacific; sociology and anthropology; South Sea literature; and education, with emphasis on the local problem of Americanization. These courses were supplemented by the full summer offerings of the University of Hawaii. Side trips in Hawaii included trips to see the volcanoes, to study aspects of life in the islands, and to observe the sugar and pineapple industries.

The 1931 summer cruise to Alaska was the third offered by the University of Oregon to that Territory. It covered southeastern Alaska and Puget Sound by way of the inside passage from Seattle to Skagway and Sitka. Courses offered included Pacific Northwest history, sociology and anthropology, botany, art, geology and geography, and State and Territorial administration.

The University of Washington's travel course, involving a 40-day trip to the Hawaiian Islands, was confined to the study of geography. In connection with its work in geography, Clark University has been conducting field trips by motor bus through various parts of the United States for the past several years. In the summer of 1931, in addition to a transcontinental field trip and three shorter trips, the university conducted a 6-week field trip to the Caribbean. The route included a sea voyage of more than 5,000 miles and land excursions at Habana, the Canal Zone, Port Limon, three ports in Colombia, Kingston, and Santiago. As much as 8-semester hours of credit could be earned. The transcontinental field trip led to Niagara Falls, Chicago, Banff and Lake Louise; from Vancouver to Alaska, returning to Seattle. From Seattle to Los Angeles it led by motor bus to Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, and Yosemite National Park. The students returned to New York by steamer stopping briefly at Panama and Habana. Three shorter trips, one of 16-day duration to the Middle States, Maryland and Virginia, and 2 to Canada, 1 of 2 weeks and the other 3 weeks, were offered immediately following the summer session, which closed August 7. During six weeks in July and August the University of New Mexico sent a small class of students to Mexico to study collections in the National Museum of Mexico and to undertake field studies at ruins accessible from Mexico City.

TOURS OF THE UNITED STATES

Field trips, principally for the study of geology, geography, and botany are conducted by a large number of institutions during their summer sessions to various parts of the United States and Canada. Travel is usually done by motor bus, allowing frequent stops. One

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of the most ambitious annual undertakings of this kind is that of the University of Wichita. During the summer of 1931, in cooperation with the University of Nebraska and Ball State Teachers College, the so-called Omnibus College of the University of Wichita, "an affiliated unit of the university," went on its ninth annual tour. Two 7-week tours, covering 6,000 miles, through 25 States and two Canadian Provinces, were made. Courses were offered in biology, history, and geography.

In addition to participating in the field trip of the Omnibus College, the University of Nebraska offered 6-week field trips in botany to Estes Park, Colorado; in geography, through Wyoming and the Colorado Rockies to Salt Lake City and other scenic points of Utah; and in geology, through the Black Hills and other Rocky Mountain regions.

Western Reserve University conducted a 4-week field course in botany to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks, and Northwestern University a 3-week course in botany to Glacier National Park. Colorado State Teachers College offered field trips for the study of Rocky Mountain flora and fauna, comprising trips into the Alpine region and Estes and Rocky Mountain National Parks. Harvard University offered a 6-week field course in geology, in the Jemez Mountains of central New Mexico; Ohio State University a 5-week course in geology, open to advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the Appalachian region of eastern Tennessee; Augustana College a field trip in geology covering the Grand Teton National Park, Wyo., and adjacent territory; Cornell University a 2-week field trip in geology and geography of the Adirondacks, Thousand Islands, Quebec, the St. Lawrence Valley, and the Helderberg Mountains, for students either with or without special training in these subjects. The University of Missouri conducted a 6-week travel course in geography in the Pacific Northwest and a 6-week field course in geology in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. The University of Wisconsin offered a 2-week field trip to study the geography and phsyiography of the State of Wisconsin. Each of the geographic divisions of the State were visited and studied. For the study of field ecology, Oberlin College offered a 6-week camping trip on which visits were made to the Badlands, the Black Hills, Devils Tower, Big Horn Mountains, Yellowstone Park, Glacier Park, Mount Rainier, the Pacific coast of Washington, Columbia Highway, Salt Lake City, and Rocky Mountain Park. Another geology field trip went to the Green Mountains in southeastern Vermont. Columbia University offered a 35-day course in field geology of the Rock Mountains. A camp in Medicine Bow Mountains near Laramie, Wyo., was headquarters for trips into Wyoming and adjacent States.