The students have radically different packing styles, some bringing small, manageable bags, others risking the allowed weight limit for economy-class airline passengers. The heavy packers find negotiating the narrow castle staircases challenging, if not treacherous. The 15-passenger vans, too, are not easily navigated through the narrow stone streets of tiny English villages.

The breakfast room at St. Briaevel's is segregated, with the faculty — Derek Elsworth, professor of energy and geo-environmental engineering, Eser, and Mathews — drinking pots of tea at their own table. Mathews, born and raised in England, brews his with exaggerated precision: "What you need to do is add hot water, wait 47.5 seconds, stir clockwise four rotations, then remove the teabags. It's an art form, really." The students sit at the other tables, many huddling over cups of instant coffee and discussing their group research projects.

Jonathan Mathews The cooling towers at Ironbridge coal plant are "shaped like lovely ladies," says tour guide Sydney Armstrong.

Jen Holzhauser, a geosciences major, is part of a team exploring the differences in energy policy between Iceland and the UK. The students spent the first few days of their trip getting a first-hand look at geothermal and hydroelectric energy sources in Reykjavik. "Iceland plans to be fossil fuel-free by 2020, and I think they can do it," Holzhauser says. "It's a small country with a small infrastructure that can be changed." The UK lags behind Iceland's pace, but its energy policy is moving in the same direction. By 2010, the UK plans to produce at least ten percent of its energy from renewable sources like wind or water.