Programs

The College of Exploration was founded in 1991 to develop and offer programs in leadership, the environment and technology. The interplay and interactions of these three areas are crucial for our survival and well being. All of our programs offer opportunities to learn about all three themes. In 2006 we are enlarging these themes to acknowledge work completed in our first 15 years and to affirm their importance going forward.

The current programs are clustered into these theme areas:

GLOBAL ISSUES
A recent event funded by the National Science Foundation was our workshop "Understanding Tsunamis".
Exploring Global Communities is a periodic course offering online and onsite. Examples include : "Exploring Global Communities: Bermuda" and " Exploring Global Communities Iceland".

SYSTEMS, CYBERNETICS and COMPEXITY
These fields of studyare important to the College of Exploration. We are continually guided by the gowning body of knowledge in these complimentary areas.

ENVIRONMENT
Marine Sciences: We work with organizations around the world to bring marine science and marine topics educational programs by offering events online. We are a part of two National Science Foundation Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence (COSEE) COSEE WEST and COSEE GREAT LAKES. Ocean Literacy is an important part of this work http://www.oceanliteracy.net

Ocean Exploration
We partner with NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, the National Geographical Society, NASA, Bermuda Biological Station for Research, the National Oceanographic Centre at the University of Southampton, the Ocean Technology Foundation and others to offer educational programs in ocean exploration. Classroom Exploration of the Ocean is an on going project.

Coastal Health Through projects like Globalheartbeat we help the public understand issues related to our coasts.

Watersheds Our office in the Northwest USA is developing communities online to study watershed and watershed issues.

Human - Environment Interactions Our impact on the environment and its impact on us is a major program theme. A recent event funded by the National Science Foundation was our workshop "Understanding Tsunamis"

TECHNOLOGY
Learning Support Tools and Technologies We started operations in 1991 with internet tools that were pre World Wide Web. We now continuously study the changing tools and technologies that support learning using the WWW and other approaches, for example mobile phones and PDA's.

LEADERSHIP
Program, Project, Course Evaluation. Throughout our 15 year history we have had a strong evaluation program. Read articles and reports produced from evaluation projects.

The CoExplorer Project. The College of Exploration is a community of COEXPLORERS who develop their own exploring, learning and design systems and culture to support, collectively and individually, the design of their own lives and the systems in which they live, to shape their own futures, and to design systems of exploration and learning and human empowerment that empower future generations to design their own lives and shape their own future

DESIGN

Designing Social Systems in Changing World With thanks to Bela H Banathy.

Sustainable Design A committment to building sustainably.. when we can. Beginnings