sierra

Sierra Nevada Field Campus Weekend - Register by May 24

Weekend for Center for Global Engagement Students:
July 19, 2024 - July 21, 2024

Commune with nature and appreciate the natural beauty of the Sierra Nevada region for a weekend at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC). Experience the diversity of the wild, and learn about the natural and cultural history of the region.

Activities include:

  • Hiking
  • Swimming in a lake
  • Stargazing and astronomy lesson
  • Enjoying a campfire with s'mores
  • And more

Camp in Comfort

New to camping? SNFC has a dining hall with a chef for all your meals, and bathrooms with hot showers.

What's included:

  • Round-trip transportation
  • Tents
  • Sleeping bags
  • Sleeping pads
  • Organized activities
  • Cost of admission to excursion sites
  • All meals

SNFC Outdoor Experience Weekend

Students in the American Language Institute, San Francisco Discover and Summer in San Francisco programs can also enroll in the optional SNFC Outdoor Experience Weekend. Learn about nature, astronomy, and the history of the mountain range while honing outdoor skills. The program will be based out of the Sierra Nevada Field Campus with excursions throughout the region.

Learn More

Get the details about the Sierra Nevada Field Campus Weekend and register by May 24, 2024.

Sierra Nevada Field Campus Weekend

 

See Sierra Nevada Field Campus to explore summer classes offered at SNFC.

Summer Class: Fire, Water and Conservation in the Northern Sierra Nevada

Study at the SF State Sierra Nevada Field Campus
August 4 - 9, 2024

The goal of the course GEOG 655: Fire, Water and Conservation in the Northern Sierra Nevada, taught by Michael Vasey at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, is to introduce students and others to the theory and practice of conservation and rehabilitation of fire-prone Sierra Nevada forests impacted by post-settlement logging, fire-exclusion, fluvial/wetland modification, and other related landscape disturbances. Forest ecology, its relationship to fire, and links with the water-scape will be explored. Land-use history of the North Yuba Watershed from what is known about indigenous tribal cultural management to post-settlement impacts following the Gold Rush will also be reviewed. This review will provide the context in which to appreciate the current threats to the watershed due to the risk of wildfire. The workshop will involve lectures, guest lectures, field trips, field design and possibly some field sampling experience.  

Learn More

Spend Summer Studying Stars in the Sierras

Outdoor Astronomy Class at the SF State Sierra Nevada Field Campus

We offer short summer courses for academic credit at SF State's Sierra Nevada Field Campus in the Tahoe National Forest. Sign up for our Astronomy class this summer, where you can stay in a tent and study celestial objects with a space scientist under the night sky. If you are a beginning amateur astronomer who is having difficulty finding anything but the moon and brighter planets to observe, this course will help you better explore the sky. Educators may use this course to maintain their science accreditation.

ASTR 216 Practical Observational Astronomy in the Sierra Nevada

Dates: June 30, 2024 - July 5, 2024
Instructor: Martin Sirk, UC Berkeley Space Science Laboratory

This field-based laboratory course provides an opportunity for students to understand our place in the universe. Using the naked eye, binoculars, and large telescopes, we will explore celestial objects including the solar system, the stars, the Milky Way and other galaxies. Set within a beautiful national forest in the mountains far from bright city lights, the Field Campus area has the dark sky ideal for observing deep-sky objects and meteors. Throughout the course we will stress hands-on use of telescopes and their accessories. Students will learn how to use star charts and atlases and the setting circles of an equatorial mounting to locate faint celestial objects.

Register Today

Find out how to register.

Learn More

For more information about the course and instructor, see course details. Discover other classes on the class schedule.

Flier (PDF)

Summer Class on Climate Issues and Activism in the Sierras

LS 699 Special Study: Climate Issues and Activism
June 24, 2024 - July 12, 2024

What can you do to be a part of positive change for our planet? This summer you can enroll in a class to become more informed and active, locally and globally. LS 699 is an intensive course and takes place at two locations: the San Francisco State University campus and the Sierra Nevada Field Campus, located in the Tahoe National Forest.

Course Description

This course unites diverse areas of study through multidisciplinary learning that bridges gaps between science, design and activism. Students will learn about environmental issues and will create a way of confronting an issue through creative practice. The goal is to support the development of student relationships with their world and to locate themselves as individuals in terms of their values when faced with difficult situations such as the climate crisis. Students will be taught about the climate crisis and environmental issues specific to California. They will be introduced to activism and change makers, and they will develop a climate campaign to either inform, or to encourage action in others that is based on what they have learned and the research they conduct.

Learn More

Study Latinxs and the Environment in the Sierra Nevada this Summer

LTNS 699: Latinxs and the Environment
August 11, 2024 – August 16, 2024

Use the natural landscape of the SF State Sierra Nevada Field Campus as a foundation for thinking about the experiences of Latinx communities with the environment in rural and urban landscapes. The Latinxs and the Environment independent study course is an introduction to the ways in which issues within Latinx communities and environmental resources and conditions intersect. Using historical analysis and contemporary case studies, you will examine how conflicts around natural resources, urban and rural planning and intergenerational practices inform Latinx experiences with the environment.

    Faculty

    Carolina Prado works at the intersection of community-based research, environmental justice, and border studies. She is an Assistant Professor of Latina/Latino Studies at SF State and has previously taught in environmental studies departments in the U.S. and internationally. Her research looks at both the impacts and movements around issues of toxic waste, air pollution and water pollution in Latinx communities. The current research being developed is around the impacts of contaminated water runoff in the city of Tijuana, México.  She is also passionate about food justice and anti-domestic violence work.

    More Information

    Carolina Prado, Faculty

    Sierra Nevada Field Campus - Register Now for Summer

    Go offline this summer. Study in the Tahoe National Forest at SF State’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC). Summer classes are now up and available for registration.

    Summer Classes at SNFC

    • ART 470: The Mobile Studio: Creative Research in the Outdoors
    • ASTR 216: Practical Observational Astronomy in the Sierra Nevada
    • BIOL 315: Ecology and Conservation of California Bats
    • BIOL 315: Flora of the Northern Sierra Nevada
    • BIOL 315: Fungi of the Sierra Nevada
    • BIOL 315: Insect Biology and Identification
    • GEOG 655: Fire, Water and Conservation in the Northern Sierra Nevada
    • LS 699: Climate Issues and Activism
    • LTNS 699: Latinxs and the Environment

    Learn More

    Find out more about SNFC summer classes and how you can study in the beauty of nature this summer.

    Flyer (PDF)

    Study Biology in the Tahoe National Forest this Summer

    Summer Study in the Sierras

    Study Biology in the Tahoe National Forest this summer at SF State’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus. Registration is now open for accredited summer 2024 courses, starting in June and July.

    Biology Courses

    • BIOL 315: Ecology and Conservation of California Bats
    • BIOL 315: Flora of the Northern Sierra Nevada
    • BIOL 315: Fungi of the Sierra Nevada
    • BIOL 315: Insect Biology and Identification

    Learn More

    Find out how you can study Biology in the beauty of nature with summer Biology classes at the Sierra Nevada Field Campus.

    Biology Classes Flyer (PDF)

    Sierra Nevada Field Campus Information Session 2023

    Take summer classes in the Tahoe National Forest. Find out about San Francisco State University's Sierra Nevada Field Campus in a Zoom information session.

    The Sierra Nevada Field Campus is surrounded by thousands of forest acres, lakes and 49er gold mines, and partially bound by a trout tributary of the Yuba River, the campus offers students a unique opportunity to explore the natural environment of the Sierra first-hand.

    Classes include the study of fungi, flora, bats, astronomy, climate activism, butterflies, insects — and feminism.

    RSVP to find out more and get your questions answered.

    Subscribe to sierra

    Document Readers are required to view documents.