Environmental Studies 253: Environments in Context
Field-based overview of environmental principles and concepts in context of their physical, cultural, social, economic and ecological spaces. Comparison of similar sites around the world. Emphasis on resource sharing of US, Mexico and Canada.

Other courses you will recieve credit in are:
ACS & GEOL

Course Aim

In this field-based course, students will spend 9 weeks traveling throughout the US examining how humans interact historically and in the present with the diverse ecosystems. The course content will focus on developing a general understanding of the complex nature of the interactions between humans and the natural environment with emphasis on the impacts of human population pressure and decision-making on land use, wildlife, and water resources. Students will extend this exploration to consider how other cultures are grasping with similar environmental issues through a case study approach that pairs US sites with similar sites around the world. In our cross cultural comparison, we will place considerable emphasis on understanding environmental problems and policies within the context of resource sharing among the people of the U.S. , Mexico and Canada .

Student Learning Outcomes

 ENVS 253 Outcomes:
The student will be able to:
1. Begin to understand social, economic, political and ethical issues as they relate to environmental issues.
2. Begin to understand the basic characteristics of ecosystems.
3. Begin to identify, investigate and propose realistic solutions to complex environmental problems.
4. Develop critical thinking skills and apply those skills in rational, civil discourse about complex environmental problems in a way that considers multiple points of view.
5. Continue to develop your written and oral communication skills.

 These relate to the following Cognitive Skills Learning Outcomes for all General Education courses:
The student will be able to:
1. Communicate effectively by gaining proficiency in reading, writing and presenting.
2. Think critically through investigating and creative problem solving.
3. Effectively participate and to lead through active engagement with diverse groups and teams of individuals.

and

The General Education Learning Outcomes for the Social Sciences and International Perspectives.
The student will be able to:
1. I dentify issues and problems and to formulate and frame these in ways that contribute to their solution.
2. L earn how theory is applied to events to produce knowledge.
3. E xamine the nature of decision making in society from the perspectives of the social sciences and how values impact on that decision-making.
4. You will be able to construct and present an argument, identifying the evidence that supports it and the reasoning process by which a conclusion is reached.
5. You will be able to articulate the bases of evidenc e in this discipline, how they are used, and the assumptions on which they rest.
6. You will be able to articulate the significance of diverse cultures and their modes of thought.

Course Content
The course content will be organized into topics relative to geographic regions
Specific topics to be covered include:

Great Plains
Humans in the natural world, philosophies of resource management: conservation, preservation, restoration, U.S. strategies for natural area protection: parks, preserves, refuges, wilderness areas, etc., International strategies: Biosphere Reserves; World Heritage Sites, Overview of humans and their relationship to water: The disappearing Great Lakes , Grassland ecology and desertification, Managing agriculture, Sustainable practices, The Green Revolution, Genetically Modified Organisms

Northern Rockies
Water resource issues: The BPA, The effects of mining on water quality, , Sharing the land for grazing, Wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone, Bison habitat restoration, Disease ecology, Fire ecology, Introduction to Biodiversity: "What is biodiversity?" - "Why is it important?", Measuring biodiversity. Threats to biodiversity, (Forestry, development, mining, invasive species)

Pacific Northwest
Forestry in the west, Environmental and economic impacts, Trade relationships with Canada and Japan, Fisheries - Comparing US, Canadian and Japanese perspectives, Protecting endangered species, Habitat fragmentation, Combating sprawl: Growth management in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia

California
Agriculture and water projects, Environmental consequences of NAFTA, "Who should have priority for water?", Alternative energy (solar and wind power), Human responses to natural hazards: earthquakes and landslides

Colorado Plateau
Pastoralism, The effects of air pollution in the Grand Canyon , Managing the Colorado River, Resource wars: "Who owns the Colorado River ?" - US and Mexican perspectives, Urbanization and sprawl, Agriculture in high plains desert, Aquifers, Chaco Canyon disaster, Introduction to fire ecology

Gulf Coast
Human desire to remake the land - building mounds, digging, canals, damming streams, Introduction to the urban environment, Flood hazards - human adaptations, Coastal Zone Management cont.- Shrimp and oil, The Breaux Act

 Southeast
Strategies for preserving and restoring biodiversity , Dogwood Alliance , Species reintroduction , Coastal Zone Management , Humans and their relationship to water , The TVA , The importance of wetlands, Ishmael wrap-up, Water rights, mineral rights, land ownership - "Do humans have 'rights' with respect to the natural environment?", "Do humans have obligations towards the natural environment?"

Instructional Strategies
The course will be taught using an interdisciplinary approach combining social and geological sciences in conjunction with three other courses which are being proposed at the same time this course is. The courses will make up a 16 hours sequence to be taught in the field at selected field sites through out North America during a nine week period. These courses will collectively be called "GeoJourney". The unique nature of this field program will create a living community of faculty, staff and students which will travel from field site to field site using camp sites, selected U.S. parklands and field locations as its campus. In-camp lectures and discussions as well as road-side stops, museum visits and meetings with local experts will comprise the instructional strategies used in this course. For a complete list of student activities and instructional strategies, please see the attached itinerary.

 Student Learning Activities
Learning activities include:
Participation in field excursions
Field exercises
Maintenance of a field notebook
Organizing group discussions on environmental issues
Completion of written reports on resource sharing

These activities will require students to develop skills and practice using quantitative and qualitative approaches to study environmental concepts. For a complete list of activities please see the attached itinerary which shows how the activities from this course and others compliment each other in an interdisciplinary fashion.

Procedures for evaluating student performance
Assignments and Grading :
Grades in this course will be based on student performance on several different activities: contributions to whole class and small group discussions, the journal students will keep as part of their field notebook, short exercises, and exams. Grades will be determined on the following basis:

Student participation in discussions will comprise 20% of the grade for this course. Discussions will focus on a variety of environmental topics including timber and mineral exploitation, water resources, land use, and strategies for preserving wilderness. Students will be expected to synthesize ideas from readings, field observations and interactions with local experts on environmental issues in order to contribute meaningfully to discussions.

Daily entries in field notebooks and journal entries will comprise 30% of the grade for this course. Each field notebook entry must be legible and contain all the pertinent information discussed at each field stop as well as students own observations and thoughts. Sketches (with scale indicated) are necessary for many field stops. Field notebooks will be periodically checked throughout the course - approximately 15 grades will be given. Field notebooks are graded to determine the level of participation and development of analytical and observational skills.

Field exercises , during which students will collect soil, water and biological samples will comprise another 25% of the grade. Typically, the exercises will be graded with regard to consistent methodology, completeness, neatness of presentation of data and observations, and logical extension to other similar locations.

The final 25% will come from five one-hour written exams that will cover the wide variety of environmental concepts and issues outlined in the course content. Exams will typically frame questions in the context of how environmental concepts and principles are applied in the context of the cultural, ecological, social and physical world using examples observed in North America .

Plan for assessing student learning outcomes
Assessment of these objectives will be done using performance-based methods.

Proficiency in reading, writing and presenting will be encouraged through substantial course requirements to read, write and present. For most field stops there are corresponding reading assignments during which students will learn how theory is applied to events to produce knowledge. During the oral introduction to each field site, students will orally respond to preliminary questions posed by the instructor. Their responses will be assessed for their comprehension of the reading assignment. Based on their answers and concordant with the main concepts to be learned at each site, focus questions will be generated and dictated by the instructor and copied by the students into their field notebooks in order to direct the student's inquiry at the site. Students' initial observations will be recorded in the field note book and will give students the ability to synthesize their observations in the form of a written summary statement , also to be written in their field notebooks. Initial field notebook checks will serve as critical feedback to the students and can be rewritten following initial instructor comments, allowing the opportunity to learn by responding to criticisms and suggestions. Once the students have completed the focus questions, the group will be collected for oral reflection on the purpose of the field stop. Students will be chosen at random to orally present their summary statements. Presentations will be assessed in terms of: communication of how an environmental principle is applied in the context of the site and an explanation of how their observations contribute to knowledge regarding environmental issues. Following their presentation, the instructor will be provided oral feedback on sustaining or improving their presentations.

Thinking critically through investigating and by examining the nature of decision making in society from the perspectives of the social sciences and how values impact on that decision-making will be achieved by student inquiry and observation of field sites pertaining to an aspect of an environmental issue regarding natural resources. Assessment of their thought processes will occur during a reflection period at which point students will share their thoughts on which side of that issue (and with which interest group) that can identify with regarding the conservation or development of those resources. Following the reflection period, the instructor will give a short verbal summary of the central values that should be considered and identified with regard to the issue. The purpose of the summary will be to clear up areas of confusion and to provide students' feedback on their own approaches to using values in the decision-making process. Creative problem solving will be assessed during student presentation on how their own values lead them to a conclusion with regard to their own (and their preferred interest group's) solutions to the issue and the likelihood of the issue's resolution. During the oral presentation, students should cite the environmental principles pertinent to the issue and explain how their own of values were used to propose a solution to the issue at hand.

Students' ability to participate and lead through active engagement with diverse groups and teams of individuals and identify issues and problems and to formulate and frame these in ways that contribute to their solution will be encouraged by having the students work in teams of three to solve problems at field stops and during the student-lead discussions. Throughout the course, students will be assigned to different groups for projects including field exercises and discussions. Students will construct and present an argument pertaining to a regional environmental issue , identifying the evidence that supports it and the reasoning process by which a conclusion is reached. Each project will involve a unique collaboration of students . For at least one of the projects during the program, every student will be appointed as their group's leader. Assessment of a student's participation in the group and/or as the leader of the group will occur at the end of the day during an evening debriefing of the day's assignment which will involve the entire camp. Each student will voice their assessment of their group's dynamics using a "sustain and improve" feedback model. The students will first comment on their group's working characteristics that should be sustained followed by what characteristics they think should be improved. The instructor will summarize and record all student comments on a dry-erase board under the columns "Sustain" and "Improve". After all students have provided their assessments, the instructor will provide a final summary of characteristics that lead to effective teamwork/leadership and those characteristics that make teamwork/leadership inefficient.

Assessment of the student's ability to identify issues requiring solutions based on arguments of sound reasoning will be assessed during the introductory presentation to the evening's discussion. Students will be given a qualitative score (poor to excellent) of their presentation based on: 1.) correct identification of a local environmental issue in need of amicable solution and 2.) Proposition of a solution to that problem presented in logical progression in terms the evidence for a resolution.

The students' ability to articulate evidences, how they are used, and the assumptions on which they rest will be assessed using essay exams. Exam questions will require the student to identify basic environmental concepts, apply those concepts to specific field sites they have visited and demonstrate an understanding of the interconnectivity of underlying economic, social, geological, ecological and cultural knowledge which is the basis for those concepts.

Compare and contrast essays pertaining to the points of view regarding resource sharing between the governments of U.S. , Canada and Mexico will be the primary means of assessing the student's ability to articulate the significance of diverse cultures and their modes of thought .