Course Goals and Structure
Essential to preparing ourselves for the 21st century is an increased environmental literacy among the general college-educated population. Students in this class will develop an understanding of some of the basic scientific concepts and methods necessary for an educated assessment of environmental issues.
We will be using cooperative learning. Evidence shows that we learn best by teaching each other and the vast majority of modern-day professional work is done cooperatively. During the first week, you will choose a 3-person team; you and your teammates will work together in lab, and generally help each other learn the material. As in the real world, your teammates will be counting on you, so come to class prepared. Keep up on the reading and homework and bring study material and your notebook to all lectures and labs.
This course is taught in a cooperative manner as well. There are four instructors for the course, each playing a different role and contributing a different type of expertise. Steve is a chemist, Karen is an ecologist and the Director of the ES program, Kim is a geologist and Sue is a biologist. The instructors will be alternating lectures in the course in order to give you a thorough introduction to environmental science. In addition, Sue will be teaching three lab sections while Steve, Karen and Kim will each teach one lab section. While the four of us work quite well together, we can't usually read each other's minds. When you have questions, please try to direct them to the appropriate person, for example, the person who is teaching the material that your question pertains to.