Environment and Society

15-30

Lecture only

Private four-year institution, primarily undergraduate

This is a general education course with no pre-requisites. It is required of geography majors, but most of the students in the course are from across the campus. It is one of several optional courses in the environmental studies minor. The course is writing intensive with numerous rewrites of essays on a particular environmental issue that are eventually revised into an in depth case study. Many students find the research paper challenging because they have to research and explain effectively both the science of the issue and also the social aspects of the issue. The science majors often find the social aspects challenging, and the humanities students often find the science aspects challenging.

The course follows the content often covered in an intro environmental science course (water, food, population, climate, soil, pollution, waste, etc.) although in less detail in order to incorporate the social aspects of the issues.

1) To learn the fundamental concepts behind basic environmental systems
2) To understand the relationship between human activities and environmental concerns
3) To be able to research a topic and make an informed decision regarding an environmental issue; including potential concerns and also possible options
4) To be able to critically analyze global and local environmental issues

The main feature related to environmental justice would be the research paper that the students write over the course of the semester. I teach about the various aspects as they have to write about them. (ie. talk about the role of the environment at the beginning of the course, then talk about the externalities associated with resources when they have to do that particular analysis on their issue. There are also several readings on particular environmental issues that are used for discussion regarding the environmental injustice related to the issue.

I revised the course when I came to Wittenberg when I realized that the student used to view it as an environmental science-lite course that just taught about the different issues, but there was no connection to people. I increased the emphasis on the social implications in the course partly because it is one reason many of the students are interested in environmental issues and the course. I also incorporated the environmental justice aspect because there are several other course on campus that deal with social justice, but none of them ever approach the spatial aspect of social justice, which is an integral component to understanding the issue, its impacts and also in developing solutions.

Assessment consists of:
* weekly quizzes on readings
* 3 exams on content
* Assignments that help students to analyze different aspects of environmental issues (data analysis, data collection, etc)
* semester long research paper on a specific environmental issue

Environment and Society Syllabus (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 26kB Apr14 13)