Traveling in three SUVs and a pickup pulling a trailer that serves as a mobile library and computer lab - complete with satellite Internet service - the 21 Whitman College students in Brick's "Semester in the West" program cover more than 12,000 miles during a three-month educational road trip.

Their journey stretches from Walla Walla, Wash., to the Mexican border. Along the way, they study the environmental, social, and political challenges facing the American West - and, in late October, they reached southeast Utah.

The students - selected from more than 50 applicants - represent the best and brightest among Whitman undergraduates, Brick said. He offers the program every two years, giving sophomores through seniors the opportunity to earn 16 credit hours, in disciplines ranging from biology to English.

Their goal: learn about the West's most controversial and contentious issues.

The studies culminate in a series of writings or "epiphanies" describing what they've learned throughout the experience, as well as grades earned doing hands-on science and laboratory work in outdoor settings.

Brick is the only Whitman professor who accompanies the students full time, but four adjunct professors intersect with the group at different points during their travels to provide additional instruction in science and writing.

Last week, the group stopped in Castle Valley, about 15 miles northeast of Moab, to practice techniques for stream assessment. A day later, they headed to Fish Lake National Forest near Loa to examine, along a small creek that flows from the lake, the impact of livestock on stream ecosystems.

In Negro Bill Canyon near Moab, ecologist Mary O'Brien discussed flora and fauna and stream dynamics as the group hiked along a flowing creek.

"They [students] were critical of some of the studies they've read during the course so far," O'Brien said. "By the time they finish this project, they'll understand how difficult it really is to gather data and translate it into usable information."

In the two months since they hit the road with their mobile classroom, students have met with water officials in California and Nevada, explored public lands grazing issues near Jackpot, Nev., and toured a gold mine, where they viewed the smelting process and held in their hands a half-million-dollar gold bar.

In Baker, Nev., they spent time with Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and learned about a controversial $12 billion water project that proposes constructing a pipeline to transport water from less populated rural areas to meet the growing water needs of Las Vegas.

Brick and his students camp most nights, sleeping under the stars and exploring the diverse landscape each Western state has to offer. They cook group meals with the help of two school staffers who shop for groceries and plan the week's menus.

Most days are filled with reading, discussion and meetings with an eclectic assortment of activists, writers, public-lands managers, environmentalists, loggers, miners, public officials and private citizens who give them an up-close, in-depth look at the issues confronting their communities.

"What's most exciting about this program is having them see the West not as tourists, but through meeting real people who are involved in their communities," Brick said. "We introduce them to all kinds of people who have different ideas about public lands . . . and how those lands should be managed."

The diversity and the differing views force students to challenge their own beliefs, says participant Ginny Robbins.

"Sometimes we'll meet a person on one side of the issue in the morning and I'll think 'Yeah, that makes sense.' Then we'll meet someone completely on the other side in the afternoon, and I'll be just as swayed by their argument," Robbins said.

"I've learned that you can get facts to support almost any point of view. We've just learned to take everything with a grain of salt."

The week before arriving in Moab, the students canoed the Green River, experiencing some of the most ferocious October rainstorms to ever hit the area. They witnessed a massive rock slide and marveled at the powerful waterfalls that poured off the surrounding mesas.

"It's fantastic," said James Most, as he trudged along the creek bank last week. "We're learning on an exponential scale compared to the classroom."

lchurch@citlink.net