Ronald Webb

In our day-to-day lives, we are all bombarded with loud and intrusive voices and messages. The people who "chose us" to be their friends rather than the other way around weigh heavily in our life decisions. We have given them permission to have great influence over us, just like how social media controls our lives if we want to fit in and be accepted The problem is these things, right or wrong, shape our way of thinking and how we act and treat ourselves and treat others. This book tells the story of a young man who has to make some life-changing decisions and turns to a man, a trusted friend, who gives him the advice he needs to learn to think for himself.

Taking students out of the classroom and into a variety of settings, ranging from remote wilderness sites to urban or built environments is now recognized as a valuable means of teaching ecological concepts and environmental values. But field studies are also a way of encouraging explorations across the curriculum, enhancing the teaching of life sciences, literature, and creative writing. Teaching in the Field is the first volume to specifically survey field studies conducted through colleges and universities. The essays, arranged into three sections, offer rationales, pedagogical strategies, and foundational advice and information that broaden and strengthen the collective knowledge of this increasingly popular means of instruction. The essays present theoretical information within engaging, candid narratives that report on various aspects of field experiences, whether hour-long excursions or month-long trips. Teachers of environmental studies, of English, composition, and creative writing, and of allied humanities and science disciplines, will find here a wealth of success stories and cautionary tales to guide them in envisioning their own outdoor classrooms.

Mesoamerican archaeologists have long been interested in the collapse of political systems or civilizations but have been slow to undertake detailed abandonment analyses of specific settlements. The Archaeology of Settlement Abandonment in Middle America explores some of the old questions in Middle American archaeology in light of the newer theoretical approach provided by abandonment studies. Unlike much of the abandonment work previously done in the American Southwest, a number of contributions to this volume examine relatively large population centers. Among the original contributions in this collection is the discovery that deposits resulting from termination rituals are more common than previously thought. Several chapters point out that structures and places can continue to serve ritual functions even after abandonment. Another finding is that the causes of abandonment--warfare, economic marginalization, or natural cataclysm--are likely to have varied effects on different social groups, which in turn sheds light on occupational histories in specific sites preceding major abandonments.