Class Schedules

From the food we eat, to the air we breathe, soil shapes our lives. Soil forms in response to local conditions, recording regional climate variability (if you know how to look). Soil is also one of the most important carbon sinks, so the way we interact with soil has the potential to seriously impact our changing climate. However, as an important agricultural resource, we must continue to utilize soil to feed Earth's growing population. To better understand this under-appreciated layer of Earth, this class will investigate soil formation, soil properties and the variability between types of soil, and how we interact with soil in our world today. This course includes one field trip.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, is also home to numerous streams and rivers. In this course we will examine the nature of these aquatic ecosystems; exploring their ecology, geology and chemistry. We will also investigate human impacts through such practices as agriculture, urbanization and industrialization, on these important ecosystems. Students will complete projects exploring various aspects of local waterbodies, especially the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix Rivers. Three lecture hours each week.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to the materials and structure of the Earth and to the processes acting on and in the Earth to produce change. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of landforms and the formation of Earth resources. Discussions focus on the important role of geologic processes in the solution of environmental problems. Required for geology majors. Local field trips. Three hours lecture and two hours lab per week.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course dives into a range of topics to study how species, populations, communities, ecosystems, and biomes function in our changing climate. We will emphasize biological nutrient and energy cycling, population dynamics, animal and plant species interactions, disturbances and response to disturbances, and ecology in urban and agricultural landscapes. We will examine Ecology under four conceptual 'lenses': Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Land Use, and Ecosystem Services. These lenses provide critical insight into how scientists, policy makers, land managers, and other stakeholders evaluate complex ecological and environmental systems. Labs will be field and data-based, and emphasize the development of hypotheses, novel data collection at Ordway Field Station, and statistical analysis. Three lecture hours and one three-hour laboratory each week.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course dives into a range of topics to study how species, populations, communities, ecosystems, and biomes function in our changing climate. We will emphasize biological nutrient and energy cycling, population dynamics, animal and plant species interactions, disturbances and response to disturbances, and ecology in urban and agricultural landscapes. We will examine Ecology under four conceptual 'lenses': Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Land Use, and Ecosystem Services. These lenses provide critical insight into how scientists, policy makers, land managers, and other stakeholders evaluate complex ecological and environmental systems. Labs will be field and data-based, and emphasize the development of hypotheses, novel data collection at Ordway Field Station, and statistical analysis. Three lecture hours and one three-hour laboratory each week.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Geologists tell us that we have entered a new epoch called the Anthropocene, when humans have fundamentally reshaped the planet in ways that put the future of life at risk. This course will consider questions like: When did the Anthropocene begin? Who has the power to define an epoch? How have we represented environmental disasters in the past and present? What are the stories we tell ourselves about human’s relationship to the Earth? Where do we find hope for our futures? A timely look at the concept of “The Anthropocene” provides us with special opportunities for self-reflection, debate and expression. Our fiction and non-fiction readings, film screenings and experiential learning will help us answer if there could be such a thing as a “good” Anthropocene rather than simply an apocalyptic one. We will develop our writing and research skills working on collaborative projects with the Twin Cities as our backdrop. This interdisciplinary course is being co-taught by faculty from three different departments: Andrea Kaston Tange (English), John Kim (Media and Cultural Studies) and Roopali Phadke (Environmental Studies). Students can select which section to join, but all sections will cover the same material and meet at the same time. Students will spend time in their individual section, have opportunities to work with the other two professors, occasionally meet up in one large group that includes all three sections, and take local and regional field trips together.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WC

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Urban ecology is both a concept and a field of study. It focuses on interactions between humans, urban ecosystems, and the built environment. With over half of the world's population now living in cities, cities have assumed a critical role in shaping local, regional, and global ecologies. In this course, we will examine the distinctiveness of the interconnected urban biophysical, socio-economic, and political processes. In order to disentangle the complexity of human-environment relations in cities, we will take an interdisciplinary approach and learn theories and concepts in natural science ecology, environmental studies, geography, urban planning, sociology, and public policies. We will use our campus and the Twin Cities as a "living laboratory" and apply these theories and concepts to laboratory exercises, field observation, case studies, and research on contemporary urban sustainability initiatives.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces you to the study of human-environment interactions from a geographic perspective, with a special emphasis on agriculture. We will examine environmental issues in a variety of geographic contexts (developed and developing countries) and the connections between environmental problems in different locations. Beyond agriculture, we will also examine other sectoral issues in relation to agriculture or as stand alone environmental concerns. These themes include: human population growth, consumption, biodiversity, climate change, and environmental health. We will be trying on a number of theoretical lenses from geography's broad human-environment tradition (such as physical geography, cultural ecology, commodity chain analysis, political ecology, resource geography, the human dimensions of global change, hazards geography and environmental justice). In other words, I not only want us to explore a range of environmental issues, but also to grapple with theory and how this informs our understanding of the human-environment interface.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

People have always had to contend with the natural world, but only recently have historians begun to explore the changing relationships between people and their environment over time. In this course, we will examine the variety of ways that people in North America have shaped the environment, as well as how they have used, labored in, abused, conserved, protected, rearranged, polluted, cleaned, and thought about it. In addition, we will explore how various characteristics of the natural world have affected the broad patterns of human society, sometimes harming or hindering life and other times enabling rapid development and expansion. By bringing nature into the study of human history and the human past into the study of nature, we will begin to see the connections and interdependencies between the two that are often overlooked.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The Earth's climate system is complex and dynamic, and yet understanding this system is crucial in order to address concerns about anthropogenic influences on climate. In this course, we examine the basic physical and chemical processes that control the modern climate system, including the role of incoming solar radiation, the greenhouse effect, ocean and atmospheric circulation, and El Nino. We also look critically at the methods and archives used to reconstruct climate in the past, such as ice cores, marine and lake sediments, and cave deposits. We explore the possible effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions on modern and future climate by critically examining the models used in climate prediction, and discuss the challenges of modeling such a complex system. Although this course is taught from a primarily scientific perspective, it includes frequent discussions of the roles policy and economics play in the current dialogue on global climate change.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

The study of environmental hazards stands at a key point of intersection between the natural and social sciences. Geography, with its focus on human-environment interactions, provides key analytical tools for understanding the complex causes and uneven impacts of hazards around the world. We will explore the geophysical nature and social dimensions of disasters caused by floods, droughts, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires. For each of these hazard types, we apply theoretical concepts from major hazards research paradigms, including quantifying the human and economic impacts of disaster; assessing, managing, and mitigating risk; and reducing the impacts of disaster, not only through engineering works but also by reducing social vulnerability and enhancing adaptive capacity. Looking into the future, we will discuss how global-scale processes, such as climate change and globalization, might affect the frequency, intensity, and geographical distribution of environmental hazards in the decades to come.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course combines study of the contemporary global novel with considerations of the natural world—an approach known as “ecocriticism” in literary studies. While students will be introduced to ecocriticism, you will be encouraged to draw on your own interests and experiences with the natural world, in addition to trans-disciplinary approaches from natural history, biology, environmental studies, medicine, environmental psychology, and anthropology. In reading novels by contemporary writers, our class will examine a wide range of responses to the politics of place and the role of climate change, industrialization, and borders. We will also examine how nature takes metaphorical shape in literature, working as a group to understand how fiction draws on the environment to express complex human emotions and interconnections with the non-human world. This course fulfills the Writers of Color requirement on the English major.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Spinoza (1632-1677) has been called the “savage anomaly” of the Enlightenment because his philosophy enables an alternative or ‘hidden’ modernity based on the interdependence of beings rather than their hierarchy. Ever more political theorists, environmentalists, and ecologists are turning to Spinoza’s vision of a nonhierarchical union of nature and society that rejects anthropocentrism as the promise for a more equitable and sustainable life. In this course we shall focus on the foundation of Spinoza’s unconventional thesis: his intertwined conceptions of the human being as part of nature—as opposed to the prevailing notion of the human as an autonomous “imperium” in, yet above, nature—and of society as a continuation of nature—as opposed to the dominant theories of the “social contract” that ground society on its break with, or repression of, nature (Grotius, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant). We shall examine Spinoza’s entailed radical revision in understanding both the “political” and the “environment.” Beyond Spinoza’s Ethics and his Theologico-Political and Political treatises, we shall read major commentators both on Spinoza’s ethical and political theory and on his role in environmental ethics and Deep Ecology. Counts as a core course for the Critical Theory concentration.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Energy justice builds on the concepts of environmental and climate justice, with a focus on the visible and invisible infrastructures that produce, deliver, maintain and transform our economies and societies.  Topics will include pipelines (Standing Rock), waste disposal (Yucca Mountain nuclear storage), and issues around the fracking (Bakken). The course will also focus on citizen science as a tool for revealing injustice and promoting justice, such as the work of the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science, a non-profit that develops open source, Do It Yourself tools for community based environmental analysis. Students will develop an independent major research project over the semester. This course can substitute for ENVI 335. Prerequisite(s): ENVI 215

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course offers an opportunity to work with faculty and staff of the Ordway Field Station to perform research into several open questions in community ecology. The class will include a primary-literature-based component that will examine current knowledge of community processes such as species invasions, community assembly, and niche theory. It will also include a practical component to build student skills in ecological measurement, experimental design, data analysis, and scientific communication. Three 1.5 hour blocks per week. Prerequisite(s): Ecology and the Environment (BIOL/ENVI-170) and Biodiversity and Evolution (BIOL/ENVI-180), or permission of instructors.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, is also home to numerous streams and rivers. In this course we will examine the nature of these aquatic ecosystems; exploring their ecology, geology and chemistry. We will also investigate human impacts through such practices as agriculture, urbanization and industrialization, on these important ecosystems. Students will complete projects exploring various aspects of local waterbodies, especially the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix Rivers. Three lecture hours each week.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Combustion of fossil fuels produces carbon dioxide, which traps energy near Earth's surface and leads to warmer average global temperatures. Combustion of fossil fuels also forms the backbone of the modern economy. This team-taught course provides a framework in which to consider the costs and benefits of fossil fuel consumption in the present and over the coming decades and centuries. We use concepts from climate science and environmental economics to evaluate existing and proposed policy interventions designed to reduce fossil fuel consumption, and consider possible technological solutions to slow or reverse climate change. Among our main approaches are state-of-the-art Integrated Assessment Models; students will be exposed to several of the most commonly used models and to research from their critics. This course counts as a 200A economics course. Students signing up for the course as Economics will get credit toward the social sciences general distribution requirement; those signing up for the course as Environmental Studies will get credit toward the natural sciences and mathematics general distribution requirement. Prerequisite(s): ECON 119 .

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What is the history and evolution of environmental thinking and writing?  How have writers shaped the ways we understand our relationship with the natural world?  This course explores these questions, drawing in roughly equal measure on 'classic' texts from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.  The ideas introduced by these classic texts are still present, implicitly and explicitly, in much of today's environmental discourse. This course will use a selection of books and papers that have had a major impact on academic and wider public thinking - primarily but not exclusively in the USA.  Through engaged discussion, we will trace the impact of each text, beginning with the context in which it was written and ending with its influence on our contemporary understandings of the environment.  In addition, we will seek to understand the characteristics of 'classic' texts that hold attention, encourage new ways of thinking, and facilitate social change. Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor or two of the following: ENVI 133, ENVI 240, ENVI 215, ENVI 234,  ENVI 170.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an introductory survey to the various sociological approaches to understanding the relationships between humans and their environments. Using a comparative approach, the course explores the social, cultural and structural factors that impact those relationships at different levels of analysis (individual, group/organizational, institutional and societal). Some of the concepts that will be discussed are: The New Environmental Paradigm and other functionalist approaches such as ecological modernization, political ecology, and social constructionism. We will also include some more practical approaches such as environmental justice, perception of risk, environmental governance and decision-making, natural resources management and the sustainable management of critical infrastructure.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Global change – or planetary-level changes to land, oceans, and the atmosphere – is one of the most critical societal challenges of the 21st century. This course will emphasize the‘global’ part of global change, with case studies representing issues such as heat waves inIndia, air quality in Indonesia, deforestation in the Amazon, coastal erosion in Alaska, andfood security in Ethiopia, with a strong interdisciplinary link to environmental justiceissues throughout. We will work through different global change “modules” that look atclimate change, land use change, biodiversity loss, and environmental health, with eachmodule focusing on a different region of the planet and equitable solutions to thoseproblems. This course will involve science communication to different audiences throughan array of formats – potentially including infographics, op-ed essays, online datadissemination, and policy assessments – so that students can practice engaging with andproducing informed, effective scientific content. We aim to spend the semester focusing onenvironmental problems and solutions on a changing planet while pointing a spotlight atregions that will be impacted first and most severely by global change. This course willcount towards the Biology capstone.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

In this urban studies capstone seminar students research the internal and external forces that will foster change and reinforce the status quo in American metropolitan areas during the 21st century. Course readings focus on suburbs, which are the dominant mode of metropolitan living in contemporary America. We will consider the history of suburbanization, the political economy of growth in the suburbs, the rise of smart growth strategies, and other attempts to foster change in the suburban experience (including the New Urbanism, green building and green movements, and regionalism). We will also consider how suburbs are now experiencing demographic changes and investigate the struggle for community in historic and contemporary suburbs. This seminar will thus complicate the conventional narrative of suburbs as sprawling, inauthentic and homogeneous places. Students will further enrich their understanding of issues covered in the course by conducting original research that examines ways in which American suburbs are changing and/or remaining the same despite efforts to the contrary. Students will consider their collective findings and discuss what they portend for American cities in the 21st century.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course will replace the Environmental Leadership Seminar and Practicum in Fall 2020. The course involves an intensive remote project experience (10 hours/week) with an environmental organization or business. The project allows students to apply knowledge learned in the classroom and laboratory while building professional networks and exploring career options. Weekly assignments include reflective writing, mentor profiles, mock job interviews and meetings with ES alums and community leaders. Required for Environmental Studies Seniors.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

From the food we eat, to the air we breathe, soil shapes our lives. Soil forms in response to local conditions, recording regional climate variability (if you know how to look). Soil is also one of the most important carbon sinks, so the way we interact with soil has the potential to seriously impact our changing climate. However, as an important agricultural resource, we must continue to utilize soil to feed Earth's growing population. To better understand this under-appreciated layer of Earth, this class will investigate soil formation, soil properties and the variability between types of soil, and how we interact with soil in our world today. This course includes one field trip.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Learning communities and workspaces in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) continue to be considerably less diverse than the world in which we are located. Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) scientists in the US and elsewhere face barriers that reflect the structural racisms of our society at large and those entrenched within STEM communities. Female-identifying, LGBTQ+, differently-abled persons, first-generation college students, and those holding other and intersectional marginalized identities experience different, and compounded, injustices in the sciences. To be the formidable scientific force we can and deserve to be, we must critically evaluate and change who is invited into the sciences, how science is done, and how scientific discoveries are distributed and used. In this seminar, we will examine our own stories of being human in our scientific pursuits, and collaboratively begin to assemble a toolkit of strategies and practices that will help us chart a path toward greater equity and inclusion in STEM.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

In 2015 nearly two hundred countries adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goals, described as “the world’s shared plan to end extreme poverty, reduce inequality, and protect the planet by 2030.” This course will examine three of these goals – Zero Hunger, Climate Action, and Clean Water and Sanitation – through a scientific lens as well as within the broader context of social, human, economic and environmental sustainability. We will examine the ways in which science can help to identify both problems and solutions to these pressing problems, and we will also acknowledge and explore the ways in which these goals demand a multidisciplinary approach.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to the field of Environmental Politics and Policy. Using a comparative approach, the course engages the meaning and development of environmental governance. We will explore the tandem rise of the modern environmental movement and profound new environmental legislation in the U.S. and internationally. Topics investigated will include: deforestation, hazardous wastes, climate change, population growth, and loss of biodiversity.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What is the history and evolution of environmental thinking and writing?  How have writers shaped the ways we understand our relationship with the natural world?  This course explores these questions, drawing in roughly equal measure on 'classic' texts from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.  The ideas introduced by these classic texts are still present, implicitly and explicitly, in much of today's environmental discourse. This course will use a selection of books and papers that have had a major impact on academic and wider public thinking - primarily but not exclusively in the USA.  Through engaged discussion, we will trace the impact of each text, beginning with the context in which it was written and ending with its influence on our contemporary understandings of the environment.  In addition, we will seek to understand the characteristics of 'classic' texts that hold attention, encourage new ways of thinking, and facilitate social change. Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor or two of the following: ENVI 133, ENVI 240, ENVI 215, ENVI 234,  ENVI 170.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Disasters are fundamentally social processes. While triggered by the impact of natural or technological events, their causes lie in the vulnerable social conditions of the impacted society or community. Also, their consequences are not equally distributed across the impacted population. The objective of this course is to introduce students to the sociological examination of disasters. The course is designed as a survey of the social, cultural, and structural causes and consequences of those collective crisis situations that we call disasters. We will be focusing on the conceptual foundations of the discipline and, through the analysis of contemporary disasters, in the main theoretical approaches in the field including homeostatic and political ecological models.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Although the United States accounts for just five percent of the world's population, it consumes roughly twenty-five percent of the world's total energy, has the world's largest economy, and is the world's largest consumer and generator of waste. Relative to its size, its policies and actions have had a significantly disproportionate impact on global economic development and environmental health. Mixing broad themes and detailed case studies, this course will focus on the complex historical relationship between American actions and changes to the global environment.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an in-depth treatment of the science and engineering of power generation by solar and wind and their integration on the electrical grid using energy storage.  In the first part of the course general aspects of electrical grid energy production will be surveyed. The focus of the course will be an in-depth treatment of solar cell and wind turbines technologies, energy storage options, electrification of transportation, and emerging areas such as demand response and microgrids.  We will conclude with a discussion of current technical and economic issues associated with the wide scale implementation of these technologies. Prerequisite(s): Though there is no college level mathematical prerequisite, students should have mathematics preparation though elementary calculus (high school calculus or MATH 135​​). Not open to students who have taken PHYS 130.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to the materials and structure of the Earth and to the processes acting on and in the Earth to produce change. Emphasis is placed on the evolution of landforms and the formation of Earth resources. Discussions focus on the important role of geologic processes in the solution of environmental problems. Required for geology majors. Local field trips. Three hours lecture and two hours lab per week.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course dives into a range of topics to study how species, populations, communities, ecosystems, and biomes function in our changing climate. We will emphasize biological nutrient and energy cycling, population dynamics, animal and plant species interactions, disturbances and response to disturbances, and ecology in urban and agricultural landscapes. We will examine Ecology under four conceptual 'lenses': Climate Change, Environmental Justice, Land Use, and Ecosystem Services. These lenses provide critical insight into how scientists, policy makers, land managers, and other stakeholders evaluate complex ecological and environmental systems. Labs will be field and data-based, and emphasize the development of hypotheses, novel data collection at Ordway Field Station, and statistical analysis. Three lecture hours and one three-hour laboratory each week.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Human beings have an unprecedented ability to shape the environment around them, yet the environment powerfully shapes both individuals and species. Two main questions run throughout this course: 1. How does language influence the way we think about and perceive nature, which in turn influences the way we interact with and shape nature? 2. How has our environment shaped the Language faculty and individual languages? To answer these questions, we'll start by asking, what is language and what is nature? Then we'll turn to the way that our environment has impacted the evolution of Language. Next we'll look at indigenous knowledge as it is encoded by language and the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis, which says that language influences the way we perceive the world. With this as background, we'll look at the language of environmental discourse. Next, using the metaphor of ecology, we'll examine languages as if they were organisms and analyze the ecosystems that sustain them. Knowing what makes a healthy language, we'll look at endangered languages and the connections between linguistic diversity and biodiversity.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course studies the economics of public policy toward the environment. We begin by examining the problem of market failure in the presence of externalities and public goods. Then, we consider public policy responses to these market failures, including command-and-control regulations, tax and subsidy incentives, marketable pollution permits, voluntary programs, and information as regulation. We consider these policies in contexts such as local pollution, climate change, threats to biodiversity, environmental justice, international trade, and development. In addition, we learn how to measure the costs and benefits of pollution control.  By the end of the semester, you will learn how economists think about environmental problems, understand the advantages and disadvantages of a range of environmental policies, be able to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, and have a complete economic analysis of an environmental problem. Counts as a Group E elective for the Economics major. Prerequisite(s): ECON 119 (with minimum grade of C-).

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

People have always had to contend with the natural world, but only recently have historians begun to explore the changing relationships between people and their environment over time. In this course, we will examine the variety of ways that people in North America have shaped the environment, as well as how they have used, labored in, abused, conserved, protected, rearranged, polluted, cleaned, and thought about it. In addition, we will explore how various characteristics of the natural world have affected the broad patterns of human society, sometimes harming or hindering life and other times enabling rapid development and expansion. By bringing nature into the study of human history and the human past into the study of nature, we will begin to see the connections and interdependencies between the two that are often overlooked.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course challenges students to critically examine contemporary global population issues and link these patterns and processes to local events and situations. Using the lens of Geography, we will investigate the dynamic interplay between individual, local, regional, national, and international scales and the implications of scale, culture and perspective in dissecting current population issues. We will also use individual countries as case studies to examine population policies. Students will acquire a working knowledge of the data and methods used by population geographers to describe and analyze changes in human populations at sub-national scales, and will implement these skills in an independent research project.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course combines study of the contemporary global novel with considerations of the environment—an approach known as ecocriticism in literary studies. While you’ll be introduced to ecocriticism and its intersecting theories of the environment, you will be encouraged to draw on your own interests and experiences with the natural world, in addition to trans-disciplinary approaches from natural history, biology, environmental studies, medicine, environmental psychology, and anthropology. In reading works by contemporary writers, our class will examine a range of responses to the politics of place and cross-cultural experiences of our changing planet. We will also examine how nature takes metaphorical shape in literature, working as a group to understand how fiction draws on the environment to express complex human emotions and interconnections with the non-human world.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to outdoor education as an opportunity to promote social justice and environmental sustainability in a globalized world.  Informed by relevant philosophical, psychological, cultural and political-economic frameworks, in addition to critical issues in public education policy and practice, we will explore interdisciplinary approaches to outdoor environmental education appropriate for students across the K-12 continuum.  We will utilize the Katharine Ordway Natural History Study Area (Ordway Field Station) as an outdoor classroom and will adapt curriculum from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other outdoor education organizations to assist elementary school teachers and students in fulfilling Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards. Early in the semester, all students will participate in a weekend retreat at the Ordway Field Station. Weekly lab sessions will include field days during which course members design and implement educational experiences for elementary school children at Ordway, small group work days for preparing field day lesson plans, trips to local outdoor environmental education sites within the Twin Cities, and other experiential learning opportunities.  Weekly seminar sessions incorporating readings, reflective writing, and individual and small group projects complement the experiential aspects of the course. As the semester progresses, each course member will develop a curricular unit aimed at teaching an important environmental issue to diverse adolescents attending urban public schools.  The curricular unit is a significant undertaking that provides students with the opportunity to synthesize all aspects of the course material in a creative, pragmatic and integrative manner.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the interaction between landscape and power in Andean history from the colonial period to the present day. The dramatic mountains have both shaped and have been shaped by sociopolitical relations, from the "vertical archipelagos" of ancient Andean peoples to the extractive economies of the Spanish and post-colonial Andean states. The course incorporates analytical perspectives from environmental, cultural, and urban history, alongside eyewitness accounts, to consider the relationship between the natural and built environments, on the one hand, and Andean racial and social identities, on the other. In selected years, this course will involve collaboration with contemporary Andean communities deploying oral history as a means of community and environmental preservation.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Earth's climate has evolved with the planet itself as changing boundary conditions in the ocean, atmosphere, cryosphere and lithosphere have caused ice ages, periods of extreme warmth and mass extinctions. Information about these events is contained in the geologic record in the form of fossils and rock sequences, but also in lake and ocean sediments, ice sheets, cave deposits and tree rings. This course will provide an overview of variations in climate throughout Earth history while simultaneously examining the proxies and archives used to reconstruct those changes. We will also construct our own record of paleoclimate using cores from a local lake and a variety of laboratory techniques. Prerequisite(s): ENVI 240, ENVI 150 or GEOL 160 .

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course examines the history and modern use of "sustainable development" as a framework for international development. Close attention is given to the role of philanthropies, NGOs and social movements in shaping projects and policies. The course examines a range of topics including appropriate technology, microfinance, ecotourism and ecovillages. Prior coursework in international development and/or environmental studies is strongly recommended.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Caribbean Islands serve literally as the “canaries in the mine” to the world particularly in the face of Climate Change, and the extreme, geophysical, pandemic and weather events associated with it. At the same time, as small island development states, global trends in energy source availability, renewable energy technologies, energy security and governance, play an integral role in their future development and increased resilience. This seminar will survey Cuba, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, their complex tapestry of colonial histories, cultures, economies, ecologies, language, racial and ethnic diversity. What makes the region one of the most challenging landscapes to understand the wicked nature of regional just sustainable energy transitions? What can we learn from their experience? How can we collaborate justly towards the goal of global decarbonization? The course will offer a survey of the most important literatures, research projects, community engagement and governance efforts in these selected Island Nations of the Caribbean Basin. It will bring some of the leading stakeholders actually LIVING energy transitions in their island nations and territories to our classroom, to engage participants in a convergence dialogue to promote adaptive learning and relational understandings.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials