Field Trips to Important Ecosystems allow Institute students an opportunity to develop the sort of understanding that can only come from first-hand experience.  Each year the Institute offers the half-unit course "Ecology and Environmental Issues of ____________," where we fill in the blank with a region of the United States.  The course entails a seminar during the spring semester, followed by a trip to the region.  We visited Florida in 2000 the Pacific Northwest in 2001, the Southwest in 2002, Chesapeake Bay in 2003,  Coastal Louisiana in 2004, and California in 2005.  As the name implies, these trips have two goals.  We visit parks and preserves to see ecosystems firsthand, in as unspoiled a state as possible.  We believe that it is important to actually experience an ecosystem in order to fully appreciate it.  We also look at human-impacted systems and environmental issues of national importance and discuss the choices we face, both as individuals and as a nation.