Ge Status Request From: Glocup; Ps

Ge Status Request From: Glocup; Ps

GE STATUS REQUEST FROM: GLOCUP; PS

Course ID:ENVS 1010

Course Name: Introduction to Environmental Science

Contact person:Kelly Bringhurst

Office:Sci 206

Email:

Phone:652-7768

Request for PS GE and GLOCUP status

Step 1: Describe how your course provides broad introduction to the content of a Global and Cultural Perspectives education. Demonstrate how your course is broadly foundational, rather than narrow or limited. Is your course available and taught in a manner accessible to non-majors?

ENVS 1010 is a course designed for non-science majors. The course offers an introduction to the field of environmental science, focusing on how an understanding of the natural world around us and the application of the scientific method can help us address problems facing our planet. Subject areas include environmental policy, natural resources, energy, and human impact to the environment. These subjects are introduced to students through an examination of current environmental issues and the role science has in understanding the impact and potential remediation for these issues. Scientific literacy in a variety of disciplines will be used to address environmental issues. These disciplines will include (but not necessarily be limited to) geology, chemistry, biology, ecology, geography, oceanography and meteorology. Social perspectives will be addressed in relation to how they relate to the understanding of environmental issues and the ability for societies to adequately address these issues.

Most environmental issues are a concern across political and geographic borders and impact people everywhere. Many issues are also considered fundamental human rights. Access to clean water, air and food are basic needs that all people have a right to expect. Policies that deny access to these cause human suffering and political unrest. How environmental issues are addressed have implications on local, national and global levels.

Many environmental issues are also a concern not only because of the potential for human suffering, but the health of our planet in general. Biodiversity creates a richer and more productive world for everyone. Understanding environmental concerns will help students gain an appreciation for the natural worldthat will expand their thinking to a more global perspective.

Step 2: Every GE area has established learning objectives that every student is expected to achieve as a result of any class which has been granted GE status in that area. Below is a list of learning objectives for GLOCUP courses. On a separate page, please indicate (in paragraph form) how the proposed course satisfied the objective requirements, in this case meeting at least 4 of the 8 objectives.

Global and Cultural Perspectives Learning Outcomes

Courses qualifying for Global and Cultural Perspectives (GLOCUP) credit must meet at least 4 of the 8 objectives. Those objectives are:

Global Perspectives

  1. Examine and critique information and argument related to substantive problems that have a global dimension.
  2. ENVS 1010 will examine issues of global climate change, supplies of clean water, food availability, marine resources, pollution, human population growth and energy resources. These issues will be addressed through the study of factual data and public opinion where appropriate. Students will be encouraged to develop fact-based understandings of these issues by writing responses about these issues based upon available evidence. Students will discuss the impact these issues are likely to have on people.
  1. Learn how to evaluate sources from a variety of perspectives and use those sources to inform their critique of problems in the global community.
  2. Students in ENVS 1010 will gather information from a variety of sources. A current textbook will be used as the base of information and will be supplemented with current information from a variety of web sources and news outlets. Readings from Clashing Views on Environmental Issues (McGraw Hill) will be used to help students understand arguments from differing viewpoints. All sources will be critically reviewed by looking forscientific evidence that can be verified and the presence of bias. Bias will be examined in a cultural and scientific context.
  1. Demonstrate the ability to develop informed judgments about global issues.
  2. Environmental issues will be examined against peer-reviewed scientific data, where data does not exist the students will develop the ability to ask pertinent questions. Questions may address a complex issue such as climate change, such as how can a complex system be understood, what role do models have in our understanding, and how can scientifically accurate and representative data be gathered? Students will be asked to write responses to questions that develop during the analysis of the issues.
  1. Synthesize and balance information in developing appropriate evidence-based conclusions about global issues.
  2. Frequently, the general public is confused by conflicting claims of scientific data that support or refute an issue such as climate change. Students will write a paper on a pressing environmental issue. They will examine scientific data and claims and consider methods needed to resolve conflicting scientific evidence. Preponderance of evidence and quality of the data will be examined. Students will also differentiate between anecdotal and scientific evidence and include a response about the relative merits of each.

Physical Science GE objectives:

The student, at the end of this course will:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the skills required to make informed personal and social decisions about the issues that we will face locally as well as globally.
  2. Responses to environmental problems require an understanding of the scientific laws that govern these processes and the impact that occurs on both local and global scales. Students will gain an understanding of these issues by completing activities involving a hypothetical area known as Hazard City. They will use skills develop to determine the possible impacts of flooding and water pollution on the town. Current events will be utilized to translate these skills into real world decisions that impact the lives and health of people locally and across the globe.
  3. Demonstrate knowledge of basic fundamental scientific laws, concepts, and theories in the physical sciences that can be used for further life-long scientific understanding.
  4. Students will utilize knowledge of basic scientific information in geology, chemistry, meteorology and physics to write responses to current environmental issues. This skill set will be emphasized as a tool for future decision-making. Information sources that are available for continued learning will used, and students will be able to access this information to gain knowledge in the future.
  5. Be able to explain and apply the scientific method as well as how scientific knowledge is generated and validated – so that they can make independent, empirical inquiries about the natural world.
  6. Observation is the key process in all of science. Students will develop the skill of observation to obtain factual data through the use of the Hazard City program. They will then form a hypothesis and determine how the hypothesis can be tested. The vast amount of observations and testing of theories will be discussed and utilized in responses to scientific problems throughout the course.
  7. Demonstrate knowledge of the process of science by being able to utilize data in the form of tables, graphs, and charts through interpretation and then communicate those finding in oral and or written form.
  8. Data is key in understanding environmental issues. Students will have ample opportunities to gather data from charts, tables and graphs as they write responses about each environmental issue. They will utilize these charts, tables and graphs in the paper that they write about an environmental issue. These tools will be an important part of communicating scientific data in the paper.
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