As part of every field course, the lead professor visits the students 8-10 days into the expedition to give a mid-course seminar and make sure the students are able to bring together all the different concepts they have learned so far. This year, for the Sustainable Food Systems course, students spent midcourse seminar at “Baan Dton Mai” (The Tree House) in Ban Mae Mae village.   While the “mountain top” experience will come during the Forests mid-course seminar, there was definitely an excitement among the students when they learned that this massive tree house was their classroom.

“Baan Dton Mai” just before the students arrived

Students broke into groups to take a deeper look at the overarching themes of their field experience.

Students discussing with Ajarn Jeff about factors impacting upland people groups in Thailand who practice swidden farming, the consequences and how the people cope.

A classroom with a view!

During mid-course seminar, Ajarn Jeff dug deeper into the main concepts and issues the students had learned about during the first half of the expedition.