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Courses
• Required courses for all majors
• Other courses of interest to Environmental Studies students
Environmental Studies Required Courses
100 Earth and Environmental Processes
Staff
Human society has embarked on an unparalleled, unplanned experiment with the global environment. Natural resources that support life on Earth are being exploited at an accelerated pace and the long term consequences of our actions are unknown. This course addresses the questions of why Earth is as it is and what influences global change. Through an interdisciplinary approach involving the natural sciences of biology, geology and chemistry, the Earth is considered a biogeochemical system. The nature of interactions between the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere are studied. The cycles of water and nutrient elements such as carbon, nitrogen and sulfur are studied, as well as processes operating on a smaller scales including lakes, rivers, wetlands and forests. Global, regional and local case studies will be used to emphasize modes of current thinking and the importance of interdisciplinary research. The laboratory portion of the course teaches techniques in soil and water chemistry. These are applied to group projects which emphasize interactions between the biotic and abiotic components of local ecosystems.101 Human Systems, Ecosystems and Social Science
Staff
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to social scientific approaches to the study and analysis of contemporary environmental issues. Students will consider how different social sciences, economics, geography and sociology, in particular, frame questions concerning the relationship between human society and environmental change. The course will also emphasize the construction, implementation and evaluation of environmental public policy. Students will be introduced to the methods and materials used by social scientists in research on the environment. Each of these goals will be further addressed through a series of case studies on contemporary environmental issues of the built and natural environments. Possible topics will include, among others, air and water pollution, deforestation, waste management, management of wilderness areas, and environmental health. During the course, students will participate in research concerning selected environmental issues which includes the analysis of empirical information concerning interrelationships between society and the environment. Prerequisite: ENST 200 or permission of instructor.480 Interdisciplinary Investigations of Environmental Issues
Staff
This course will examine current environmental issues from a social, ethical and natural science perspective. Students will form teams to investigate local problems with each member bringing a special expertise to the project. The goal is to get students from different disciplines to understand interdisciplinary perspectives by interacting and cooperating in the data collection and analysis of a local or regional environmental problem. Topics for investigation will be selected by faculty sometimes in conjunction with local and regional agencies. The course is designed to give students practical experience working as an interdisciplinary team to examine the ethical and philosophical aspects of environmental issues along with the social and natural scientific aspects of the problem. Prerequisites: ENST 200, ENST 201 (or their equivalents) and at least 3 courses from the ENST affiliated-department of concentration or permission of instructor.ENST 480 Fall 1999 Class Website
These may interest ENST students but they do not count towards an ENST major.
ARTS 235: American Art and PHIL 316: American Philosophy
(linked courses)
ARTS 235 and PHIL 316 will be offered as linked courses. This means that students must enroll in both. They will meet back to back Monday and Wednesday afternoons in Little Hall 207, ARTS 235 from 1:00-2:20 and PHIL 316 from 2:30-3:50. Several fieldtrips will also be scheduled to visit museums and historical sites during the semester.
Separately, these courses consider American artistic and philosophical traditions from the colonial period until World War II. The purpose of linking them is to explore interests shared by both visual artists and philosophers in themes such as the meaning of American democracy, nature, spirituality, and the wilderness, the responsibility of the individual to the community, and the formation of American identity.GEOG 350: Advanced Geographic Information Systems
Advanced Geographic Information Systems is designed for students who have completed the GEOG 345 - Geographic Information Systems course. Unlike GEOG 345, which addresses the theory, function, and applications of geographic information systems (GIS) at an introductory level, GEOG 350 will focus greater attention on GIS theory and complex spatial analysis. As such, this course is divided broadly into two sections that are entitled "GIS concepts and theory" and "Advanced GIS Analysis and Application." The first section explores the evolution of geographic information systems from a set of cartographic and data analytical tools used primarily by geographers to a more encompassing set of ideas and tools used by many disciplines to examine spatial processes. In fact, the term GIS is often increasingly being defined as geographic information science. Included in this first section will be a more thorough examination of issues associated with mapping and referencing the non-spherical earth, conceptual model fro representing spatial phenomena, and data quality issues. The second section of the course focuses on a select set of spatial analytical issues that can be addressed using GIS. These issues include the analysis of continuous spatial phenomena, such as terrain, model building using multiple sources of spatial data, network analysis, and the integration of remotely sensed data in a GIS. The grade for this course will be based on a series of exercises, a mid-term exam, a final exam, and class participation. Prerequisites: GEOG 345.PHIL 214: Ethical Theory and Practical Problems
With the renewed interest in moral philosophy over the last few decades, any philosophers have turned to the question of whether philosophical argument might be especially helpful in illuminating particular areas of moral controversy. This development raises several important questions: What is the relation between moral theory and practical problems? Are moral philosophers (or philosophers generally) especially well qualified to speak on such questions: What is distinctive about a philosophical approach to such controversies: What conclusions have philosophers reached when they take up these questions: In this course students pursue such questions by first examining the relation between moral theory and practical controversies, and then considering what philosophers have said about certain particular controversies. This spring we will focus on questions involving our treatment of the environment and animals, and on issues in medical ethics.