This essay addresses drawbacks to short-term study abroad courses offered at small liberal-arts colleges, as well as difficulties students encounter in such courses. These difficulties arise due to the extremely full itineraries that the course structure may seek to provide, which can become overly burdensome to students in terms of what they are able to process fully, and what they retain during the course and after the course is over. One avenue of possible amelioration of this difficulty, while not challenging the opportunity to expose students to a wide range of sites and course-topical material, is a reliance on mapping. In terms of pre-travel, the map serves as orientation, a setting of expectations for what will be seen. During the course, while onsite, students are able to use the supplemental materials offered on the interactive map better to understand their surroundings. After the course, revisiting the map, along with their course notes, photos, and journals, provides an essential aide-mémoire. Choosing potential sites for extensive mapping based on those sites students are least familiar with is a way, then, to maximize the map's impact on learning outcomes.
Entomology at Small Liberal Arts Colleges
