Being out in nature is one of the best ways to learn about it.

That’s the teaching philosophy of Tim Billo, assistant teaching professor in the UW College of the Environment and the instructor of an undergraduate environmental studies course focused on the natural history of the Puget Sound region. This popular class draws students from all majors at the University of Washington and is a highlight for many, even if they aren’t majoring in the sciences.

Jacob Adams/University of Washington

Instructor Tim Billo, right, talks with students on a field trip to Ebey’s Landing on Whidbey Island.

“We teach a lot of science indoors, but the biology and the geology is out here, and so we should be teaching it outdoors whenever possible,” Billo said. “That’s my opinion, and that’s what brings it to life and makes the experience much more rich when you can touch it, you can taste it, you can experience it.”

Central to this course are class lectures held outside on and around the UW campus as well as four daylong field trips to different places across western and central Washington. The students build their skills in urban nature settings and apply that knowledge on the weekend field trips by looking for plant and animal species, sketching what they see and hiking through landscapes to observe the geological features that make each place special.

“This class gives us a unique opportunity to go outside and have more of that hands-on learning, which connects some of the more scientific plant identification stuff to the real world that just feels more tangible,” said Hank Rohs, a fourth-year student majoring in environmental studies and political science.

This past spring, Billo’s class spent four weekends visiting sites around Washington, including Ebey’s Landing on Whidbey Island; the Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge south of Tacoma and the Muckleshoot Reservation; Vashon Island; and the Yakima River Canyon. During these trips, representatives from local tribes shared knowledge about stewardship, cultivation and harvesting practices of significant plants and animals. Students were invited to participate in harvesting and eating camas plants on Muckleshoot land and clams on Vashon Island along with tribal members who co-teach the class with Billo.

Jacob Adams/University of Washington

Warren KingGeorge, left, teaches students on a field trip.

“I like to encourage all of the students at University of Washington to have a better, deeper understanding of the value of Puget Sound. These concerns and these lessons in life that we are asking people to be more mindful of, they begin when people are very young,” said Warren KingGeorge, a historian with the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

Warren and Betty KingGeorge have been co-teaching this course with Billo for the past two years, thanks to funding from the UW Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies. They deliver some of the class lectures and join on field trips, enriching the course with their Coast Salish perspective on the natural world. Michael Buck of the Yakama Nation also joined this year’s class on their trip to Yakima Canyon.

More than 1,000 UW students have taken this course over the years Billo has taught it. The skills they learn are applicable across fields, no matter what they major in or focus on in their future careers, he said. Billo has taught not only future science teachers and wildlife conservationists but also future medical doctors, historians and artists. Learning to look carefully at what’s around them and pay attention to connections in the natural world are skills that will benefit any profession, he said.

“My students talk about how they have become better observers of the world around them, and their lives feel more enriched — and they share that with their friends and families,” Billo said. “This class is about falling in love with the natural world. It’s about paying attention to what’s around you in such a way that your daily life becomes, I hope, more fulfilling, because you develop a connection with the organisms around you that maybe you didn’t notice before.”

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Learn more about courses like this and other opportunities for students at the UW College of the Environment.

Video and interviews by Jacob Adams. Story by Michelle Ma.