Honors Academy Summer 2020 Taking the Pulse of Montana

Abstract

Our overarching goal: To examine the broader role science can play in informing public dialogue of important health and environmental issues facing society -and to understand why it often falls short. Recognizing this and charting a course of action may be the great generational challenge for the class of 2024.Because of our pivot to remote instruction this 2020 iteration of Honors Academy, we will take a virtual tour of the state, seeking diverse perspectives on science and change, to probe the effectiveness of policy approaches and to witness the consequences unfolding in real time. Our voyage of discovery will traverse the state, bouncing from climate change to the pandemic, environmental justice and the political response to the magnetic beauty of the Northern Rockies and our greater Yellowstone ecosystem.The culminating aspect of this course is a journal recording life during the pandemic that each student will submit for inclusion at the MSU Renne Library Special Collections Department, so future generations may learn from today’s struggles and triumphs, through your eyes.To this end, our second synchronous meeting—July 15—will feature Jan Zauha, MSU Special Collections Librarian. Your journal effort will be patterned after recent 1918 pandemic archival work by Russell Johnson, a UCLA librarian (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/letters-and-diaries-1918-flu-pandemic).