Students will live alongside lizards, birds, and plants as Cal Poly professors from across majors come together to host a Field Quarter. The class will be offered for the first time this spring, and possibly the only time due to semester curriculum changes.
Field Quarter, a course combining field botany, herpetology and ornithology into a single class, will be taking about 40 students into state and national parks – Napa Valley State Park, Angelo Coast Range, Yosemite and more – periodically throughout the quarter for weeks at a time.
“I think that this type of experience really exemplifies learn by doing,” said Jenn Yost, a field botany professor at Cal Poly and member of the team of professors responsible for teaching and creating field quarter. Yost’s field quarter team consists of professors Matt Ritter of field botany, Clinton Francis of ornithology and Emily Taylor of herpetology.
Normally, each of the professors’ classes include field trips that last multiple nights. The group found that they could combine the courses in order to create a deeper learning experience that would benefit their schedule and students.
“The way we’re able to make this work [is] for the professors, it’s the only class that we are teaching, and for the students it’s the only class they are taking,” Yost explained. “And that frees up everybody to leave campus and go away for long periods of time.”
According to Yost a typical day during field quarters would start with birding in small groups at 6 a.m, when the birds are most active, and followed by breakfast back at camp. Students return to the field to focus on plants and reptiles as the day warms up, with time for birds if the class comes across any.
During the afternoon students have time to rest before lectures from their professors and guest lectures during the evening. Finally at night, students will go night driving with spotlights to find reptiles and amphibians or large mammals if they come across them.
A unique field opportunity
Field quarter, however, may not fit in the future of Cal Poly due to the switch to the semester system beginning at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year. During semesters, professors will teach more classes than they currently do on the quarter system, meaning for professors to teach another field quarter they would have to do so on top of additional full-time courses on campus. According to Yost, this would be unlikely with the year of preparation that field quarter required.
“We were so motivated to do it this year because it’s the last spring on the quarter system,” Yost said.
According to Yost, students will only be expected to pay for their food and regular tuition, making the course accessible to all students when compared to travel abroad programs. This required the team of professors to secure the financial resources needed for field quarter through the Bailey College of Science and Math. The rest they raised themselves.
Through crowd funding, the team was able to raise over $32,500 this past November according to Morgan Marshal, Assistant Dean of Advancement & External Relations. Marshal connected Yost and her team to the University Development and Alumni Relations who were responsible for a large portion of the crowd funding by organizing zoom calls with alumni to ask for donations.
“They’re the heroes over there. They do such awesome work,” Marshall said.
According to Yost, the 56 contributors who funded the course ranged from alumni to community members. Making field quarter work for students was equally challenging.
Field quarter had to be announced a year in advance so students planning on taking it wouldn’t overlap credits by registering for any of the three courses field quarter includes.
“You just have to do a lot of planning because there are 40 of us,” Yost said. Professors struggled with paperwork for 40 students from each individual park and from Cal Poly.
Students excited to take opportunity
Environmental management senior Ingrid Alexandra Mohr is looking forward to taking the course this spring.
“I’m honestly really excited. I didn’t go abroad, and even though the field quarter is completely in state, it’s giving me that,” Mohr said.
Field quarter is also helping Mohr keep her concentration in wildlife biology.
“Because field quarter is being offered this spring they aren’t offering field botany, herpetology, ornithology, and I wasn’t able to take those classes [last year],” Mohr said.
Field quarter will start this spring quarter with their first expedition to Napa State Park.