Environmental Ethics
Matt Tedesco, Beloit College
This course focuses on two sets of issues in environmental ethics. The first set of issues, emerging significantly from practices such as animal agriculture and animal captivity in zoos, research facilities, and other settings, concerns the moral status of non-human animals. What kind of moral consideration are non-human animals owed? Do they have rights, and if so, how extensive are those rights? As a philosophy class, our emphasis is on the analysis of concepts and the critical evaluation of arguments. Beyond gaining a familiarity with the issue of the moral status of animals (along with the second issue of the class, not discussed here, concerning global climate change), students should expect to develop their analytic and evaluative skills through in-class discussion and a range of writing assignments.

Home Energy Audit/Retrofits
Barbara Whitten, Colorado College
Home energy audit/retrofits allow students to apply thermodynamic principles to planning and executing a retrofit to make an existing home more energy efficient.

Where does your energy come from? Analyzing your energy bill
Mary Savina, Carleton College
Students use utility bills to determine the cost and sources of energy in their households.

Meal Satisfaction and Sustainability for Psychology
Lee, Jen (Coe College) With Contributions from Kent Simmonds (Luther College) and Betsy Hutula (ACM)

Understanding and Analyzing an Environmental Controversy
Steve Martin, Ripon College
Students will write a paper that analyzes a particular controversy that is related to the environment or issues of sustainability. In so doing, they will discover the role discourse plays in resolving, or failing to resolve, the different goals of competing interests.

Looking Back at History
Jim Farrell, Saint Olaf College
Students research an organism/commodity in the colonial period of American history, and write a first-person narrative/autobiography of its history as European settlers reshaped the environment (mental and physical) of North America.

An Environmental Assessment of Newark Road Prairie
Sue Swanson, Beloit College
The goal of this exercise is for students to complete a basic environmental assessment of Newark Road Prairie, a 35-acre wet-mesic prairie and state natural area owned by Beloit College. The exercise is completed ...

The Virtual Geology of Beloit College (using handheld PCs)
Sue Swanson, Beloit College
The goals of this exercise are for students to create their own geologic map and cross-section of the Beloit College campus and to describe the geological history of the campus based on their interpretations. The ...

Gathering field data using a GPS and ArcGIS 9.3 Part 1: Collecting Point Data
Jeff Clark, Lawrence University
Students learn how GPS and GIS can be used to gather and analyze point data. The main outcome is a digital map of campus trees classified by size and type. The technical skills learned in this lab will be used in a ...

Depictions of Primates in Fiction Pre- and Post-Origin of Species
Scott Legge, Macalester College
Students are asked to choose two pieces of fiction that depict or describe interactions between humans and non-human primates. The main limiting factor in their choices is that one of the works should be pre-1859 and the other should be post-1859, representing works from before and after Charles Darwin published On The Origin of Species. It is really meant as a starting point for a discussion of historic perceptions of the relationship between humans and the natural world and how those perceptions would have shaped reactions to Darwin's work. The expected learning outcomes include placing the discussion of human's place in nature in historical context and providing the students with a comfortable and interesting starting place for the more theoretically challenging discussions to come.

Considering Animals Senior Seminar
Kimberly Smith, Carleton College

The Neuroconversations
Eric Wiertelak, Macalester College
The Neuroconversations brings together advanced neuroscience majors with advanced majors from other disciplines for a one-session seminar meeting focused on exploring the intersection of neuroscience with the other discipline. Through guided conversation inspired by shared readings of select primary literature from both neuroscience and the invited discipline, the students develop a greater appreciation of the topics discussed, and ultimately, each others' disciplined inquiry processes and path to completing a liberal arts education.

Treating Mental Illness Around the World
Susan Long, Lake Forest College
This activity asks students to understand indigenous mental health treatments and compare them globally.

Oakwood Cemetery Excursions - Beloit, WI
Susan Rice, Beloit College

INDEPENDENT MAPPING EXCURSIONS
Susan Rice, Beloit College

AUDIO TOUR EXCURSION
Susan Rice, Beloit College

Community Excursion - Historic District
Susan Rice, Beloit College

Remembering the Model T
Jim Farrell, Saint Olaf College

Legacies of Gandhian thought
Brian Caton, Luther College

Exploring in the Footsteps of Columbus: Letters Back Home
Nancy Gates-Madsen, Luther College; Anne-Marine Feat, Luther College
Students will write a letter back home describing a "pristine" wilderness scene of a Caribbean beach. They will compare their descriptions to Columbus's diary chronicling his first impressions of Hispaniola, paying attention to: 1. what is seen (and not seen) 2. the filter/frame of reference used to describe the landscape 3. the rhetoric of the letters.