2024-2025
View all course descriptions here.
| Course # | Course Title | Fall | Winter | Spring |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 201 | Earth: A Habitable Planet | Beddows | ||
| 202 | The Health of the Biosphere | Stevenson | ||
| 203 | Humans and the Environment | TBD | ||
| 390 | Geographical Information Systems (GIS) - Vector | Sperone | Sperone | |
| 390 | Geographical Information Systems (GIS) - Raster and Remote Sensing | Sperone | ||
| 390 | R Data Science | Smith | ||
| 390 | Environmental Site Assessment | Sperone | ||
| 390 | Data Analysis & Visualization for Scientists | CaraDonna |
2024-2025 Course Descriptions
201 – Earth: A Habitable Planet
This course provides an overview of the physical processes governing environmental systems, from the Earth's lithosphere to hydrosphere to atmosphere. We will cover internal and external sources of energy to the Earth system; the processes from tectonic to atmospheric that are driven by that energy; and some human impacts on the resulting environmental systems. Students will gain physical science perspectives on current debates about environmental issues, such as those over water resources, energy, and climate change.
202 – Health of the Biosphere
This course studies the growth of populations and their interactions in ecological communities. Topics include: the ecological niche; projections of population growth, including the history of human growth, harvesting populations, and population viability analysis of endangered species; interactions among species, including competition, predation, and disease transmission; measuring the diversity of ecological communities; the effects of diversity on energy flow. More advanced topics will also be addressed, including the biodiversity-stability relationship, the economic values of biodiversity and ecosystem function, and the biology and management of metapopulations in fragmented habitats.
203 – Humans and the Environment
Environmental science is the interdisciplinary study of how humans interact with the living and nonliving parts of their environment. In this course, we will examine current environmental challenges, such as climate change, the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable production of energy, and the implications of human population growth. A case study approach will be used bringing in dimensions of ethics, justice, law, economics, policy, culture, and more, in compliment to the understanding of the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere functions and condition.
390 – Geographical Information Systems (GIS) - Vector
TBD
390 – Geographical Information Systems (GIS) - Raster and Remote Sensing
TBD
390 – Environmental Site Assessment
TBD