It is not hard to understand why Professor Michael Tarrant is quite popular among students that enroll in his classes, as many of those classes are based in some of the most spectacular geographic locations on planet Earth. Whether breathing the thin air on top of the Southern Alps mountain range on the south island of New Zealand, snorkeling coral reefs vibrant with aquatic life in the balmy blue waters of the South Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, or floating alongside icebergs and physically seeing how climate change is altering the landscape of Antarctica, Tarrant truly takes his students to the ends of the earth, and back.

Don’t let these descriptions leave the impression that his classes are some kind of paid vacation, however. While some can be expensive, with travel half-way around the world for weeks at a time, Tarrant is teaching his students about concepts they could never truly learn inside a classroom.

“Mike's teaching style has been centered around integration of theory and practice,” explains Dr. Uttiyo Raychaudhuri, a former student of Tarrant’s and now Associate Director of the UGA Studies Abroad in the South Pacific & Caribbean, which was created by Tarrant in 2001. “Using his own vast global experiences, which are reinforced with scholarly writings, his students are introduced to theories with learning styles that are reinforced by real life experiences and examples.”

“Mike also uses cutting edge technology in the design and delivery of instruction from interactive DVD's to webcast lectures which has taken his classroom beyond the walls of the Warnell School and UGA.”

This includes bringing students and faculty from multiple campuses and separate continents together for classroom lectures delivered via internet-based technology that allow all participants to communicate and collaborate together at one time.

Following traditions developed centuries ago within his native British culture, Tarrant is truly an explorer at heart. Whether exploring environmental conditions across the globe or the latest teaching technologies to further enhance his students learning experience, Tarrant is always in search of ideas that are new, fresh, and relevant to the teaching of human dimensions of natural resources.

Tarrant’s leadership and outstanding teaching programs resulted in the creation of a new Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism major at the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources in 2006. This new major is important for the School’s teaching program as “we are finally including a human dimensions approach to studying and teaching natural resource conservation that supports and augments the traditional science and management programs already incorporated into the Warnell School’s curriculum,” according to Dr. David Newman, associate dean of academic affairs.

In addition, Tarrant’s Study Abroad in Antarctica program received high recognition from UGA president Michael Adams in his “State of the University” speech this past January as he extolled the rapid increase in UGA student participation in study abroad programs campus-wide. President Adams used the Antarctica program as an explained of how the University's 2010 goals had already been surpassed in terms of the percentage of UGA students studying abroad. And with more than 400 UGA students participating in his UGA Studies Abroad in the South Pacific & Caribbean program, the largest at UGA, in addition to his programs in Antarctica and Great Britain, Tarrant is pleased to assist the university in surpassing its goals, while at the same time preparing his students to become tomorrow’s leaders in human stewardship of our planet’s natural resources.