Get on the Bus
Field Study @ CC
Field study has shaped the Colorado College experience since before there was a Block Plan to schedule it around.
CC's earliest catalogues, dating to the 1870s, promised students the "vast educating power" of the Rocky Mountains — geology, botany, astronomy, and more, learned in the place itself rather than read about it. That promise waited almost a century for the framework that could deliver on it.
The Block Plan changed that. One course at a time, with no bell schedule to work around, departments like geology began organizing coursework directly around fieldwork. Others followed — a few hours, a few days, sometimes weeks, to sites local, regional, national, and international. CC responded by building the infrastructure to make it possible: a fleet of vans and buses, a cabin in the mountains, a campus in the San Luis Valley, and eventually a full-time office to run it all.
Getting out and seeing things in context, in action, became one of the most distinctive features of a CC education.
Why Field Study
Field study isn't just a change of scenery — it runs on a well-defined pedagogical cycle: students have a concrete experience, reflect on it, form new understanding from that reflection, and then test that understanding back in the world. Field trips aren't the only way to run that cycle, but they're one of the most effective.
What Students Say It Does
Across recent research — student interviews, senior-cohort focus groups, and post-trip surveys — a consistent picture emerges. Students describe field trips as where they first felt at ease approaching a professor, where friendships with classmates deepened fastest, and where academic material stopped being abstract and started being something they could hold, walk through, or physically feel.
The connections don't stop at graduation. Field trips regularly lead to research opportunities, faculty recommendations, and direct lines to career professionals working in the field itself.
More than 70% of a recent graduating cohort took at least one field trip during their time at CC.
For Faculty
Thinking about building a field component into a course? Field Study provides logistical support, faculty training, and course-development help — from a single-day trip to a multi-week placement.
[Start with the Taking Academic Courses Off Campus Canvas Course]
For Students
Search for courses with field trip components when you are registering. Use the "field trip" attribute to find courses.