Class Syllabus - ENV 110 (section 03)

Introduction to Environmental Studies

Winter Term 2009 GH TU-TH Professor Kahn

NOTE: THIS SYLLABUS IS STILL PRELIMINARY AND WILL HAVE NEW MATERIAL IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS

Contact information:

My office is Holekamp Hall 306. My office phone is 458-8036, my cellphone is 460-1421, and my e-mail is kahnj@wlu.edu . I am almost always in my office from 9:00 to 6:00, but I usually run during the noon hour. My official office hours are Monday and Friday from 9 to 11, but feel free to come by whenever. During critical times of the semester, I will also hold evening office hours. These will be announced in class.

Course objective:

The principle objective of this course is for the student to develop an interdisciplinary perspective towards understanding the causes, consequences and solutions to environmental problems. An essential part of this is the ability to integrate the tools that you have developed in other disciplinary courses into an interdisciplinary approach. A critical aspect of this is understanding the role of ecological services. We will also focus on developing your "executive summary" writing and oral presentation skills.

Your success in achieving these critical goals will be assessed in variety of ways.

Class participation(20%). I will not only expect you to keep current on your reading, but integrate diverse concepts during class discussion. I am not looking for evidence that you have read the material, I am looking for evidence that you are pursuing interdisciplinary thought paths. Since discussion is such an important aspect of the class, excessive absence will result in lower class participation grades, independent of the quality of your discussion on the days you are present.

First paper (20%): This paper is due February 5 and requires you to analyze the importance of wilderness. Start with the readings from page 280-310 in the Anthology, and add other references. class discussion and your own analysis. Your paper must have a hypothesis or integrating theme and you should pay critical attention to the structure and flow of your paper. It must be typed in 14 point Times New Roman font and submitted as a hard-copy. You are limited to four pages. No covers or folders are permitted, staple the paper with one staple in the left-hand corner. You are encouraged to type on both sides of the paper, or to use paper that has already been used on one-side (just draw a big X over the scratch side of the paper)

Second paper (20%): This paper is due on March 5. Choose an environmental problem and summarize the causes, consequences and solutions to the problem. Where are we lacking understanding of this problem? What types of research are needed to better understand the problem? Are the current (or proposed) solutions based on an interdisciplinary knowledge base? It must be typed in 14 point Times New Roman font and submitted as a hard-copy. You are limited to four pages. No covers, etc.

Take home exam (20%): The take home exam will be distributed on March 17 and most be turned in before March 24. The take home exam will be based on the case studies readings and class discussion. You will not be asked specific questions on specific readings. Questions will integrate across areas of discussion. There will be a word limit for each question but no time limit. Once you open the exam and look at it you may not consult references. Sample questions will be given several weeks before the exam.

Group oral presentation (20%): You will be assigned a group and the group will need to present a case study of human dependence on ecological services, how human activity has impacted the ability of the ecosystem to produce ecological services, and potential policy remedies. You may not discuss a case study that was part of the class lecture. The presentations will be made in the last two class sessions.

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Class outline

(underlined readings are hyper-linked, readings in black font

are available in the Environmental Studies Lab (Holekamp 213, reading)

Texts available at the book store (or Amazon.com, etc.)

Yvonne Baskins, The Work of Nature

Adelson et al, Environment: An Interdisciplinary Anthology

Topic 1: Perceptions on the relationship between humankind and the environment.

Jan 6: Readings: