When asked about his retirement plans, Professor Ken Gilbertson has an unconventional response. “I’ve never heard a bull elk bugle,” he replies.
For 47 years, Gilbertson has been teaching when the elk are in rut in autumn. He’s retiring this spring and looks forward to taking a fall trip westward to witness their distinctive call.
Gilbertson started at UMD five decades ago as a biology student. Now he’s a tenured professor and head of the Department of Applied Human Sciences. As he tells it, there hasn’t been a dull moment and it has rarely felt like work.
The longtime professor of environmental and outdoor education has been on countless adventures in his lifetime, from canoe trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to Nordic ski racing in Finland.
Experiential, student-centered learning
Gilbertson was emphasizing experiential learning long before it became a best practice in teaching.
“I really shine when I’m teaching outside—that’s where I'm at my best,” Gilbertson explains, admitting that he was a poor student by academic standards—mainly because he wanted to spend his time in the woods rather than the classroom. “I didn’t do well in lectures, but I aced all my labs. That’s the kind of learner I am.”
Gilbertson brings this intrepid approach to the classroom. He takes pride in watching students progress and succeed. A prime example of this happens during the annual May trip to the North Dakota Badlands. This culmination of learning for upper-level students in the Environmental and Outdoor Education (EOE) program brings classroom lessons to the field during a week of backpacking in rugged terrain.
Students’ leadership and teamwork skills are tested as they face physical, mental, and emotional challenges together during the trip. Gilbertson describes the joy of seeing the “lightbulb go on” as students make the connection between theory and practice during such trips.
Being able to witness this result is Gilbertson’s favorite part of teaching. “You can see that they’ve taken steps toward their own self-efficacy and confidence—that’s as good as it gets,” he says.
Leaving a legacy
Years after they’ve graduated, Gilbertson maintains relationships with many alumni of the EOE program he developed at UMD. He rattles off their accolades like a proud parent but is humble about taking credit. “I don’t see it as I have influenced their lives, I see it as I get to be part of their lives,” he says.
Besides the EOE program and its graduates, Gilbertson is pleased with UMD’s successful Outdoor Program that he founded and directed for 17 years (it later merged with another entity to become the Recreational Sports Outdoor Program).
Early on, Gilbertson recognized that the university’s location only two hours from some of the “finest wilderness in the country” was a big opportunity. So, he developed the program. “It was satisfying to be able to plant that seed,” he says.
Gilbertson’s influence will be apparent long after his retirement. “As our EOE graduates go on to careers and positions of leadership, they carry with them an important passion for wild places and a deep understanding of how important the outdoors is for nourishing and enhancing our whole selves,” says CEHSP Dean Jill Pinkney Pastrana.
“Ken helps us all to connect with the natural environment and teaches our students the skills they need to work to ensure we have access to these experiences into the future."