Class Schedules

This class is a broad survey covering topics such as genetics, evolutionary mechanisms, adaptation, primate studies, the human fossil record, and human variation. All of these areas will be placed within the framework of the interaction of humans within their environment. The course is divided into three sections: human genetics, human ecology and primatology, human evolution and adaptation.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Food chemistry is the application of chemical concepts to food, cooking and food processing. This course focuses on food and cooking with lots of in-class and out-of-class experimentation on texture, appearance, flavor and aroma of food. Chemical concepts such as structure, equilibrium and kinetics will be discussed in relation to cooking. Topics covered will include an overview of the chemical structure of fats, proteins, carbohydrates as well as the structure of flavor and aroma molecules. The equilibrium of the chemical reactions involved in ripening and cooking will be explored. Of particular interest are acid-base reactions, pH and the reactions involved in leavening, browning and fermentation. A portion of the course will be student led and depend on the interests of the class.

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 hours lecture 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

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 hours lecture 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

In this course, we will study contemporary food issues, ranging in scale from the global food system to family dinners. We will use food and foodways as a vehicle for exploring systemic, institutional, and interpersonal power as expressed through the production, distribution, and consumption of food, with a focus on the United States. The course provides an overview of the conventional food system, then moves into examining key contemporary debates around food related to human health, social class and consumption, gender and carework, race and food production, and the broader social and environmental ramifications of how we eat. By better understanding the relationships between power, privilege, and food, we can learn to recognize how people come to produce, consume, and identify with various aspects of food systems. Throughout the course, we will explore how people are working to address food system issues in pursuit of the values of justice and sustainability through investigating lesser-known food cooperatives of the past and interrogating visions of possible food futures.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

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 food and agriculture.  We examine environmental issues in a variety of geographic contexts (Global South and Global North) and the connections between environmental problems in different locations.  Beyond agriculture, we also explore other sectoral issues in relation to farming and food security.  These themes include: human population growth, consumption, biodiversity, climate change, and environmental health.  We try 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, we not only explore a range of agricultural and environmental issues, but also grapple with theory and how this informs our understanding of the human-environment interface.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Food has been a global issue for over half a millennium. The intercontinental movement of potatoes, sugar, rice, tobacco and more has shaped populations, economies, empires, and environments, while food today inflects the worldwide experience of nationality, ethnicity, religion, health, gender, race, class, culture, rights, and indeed life. Thus this course explores global food from many disciplinary, geographical, and thematic perspectives. We will also interact with local food institutions, address in a limited way our own food practices, and cook and eat a bit too.Al

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Across more than 60 counties in Minnesota Territory / Minnesota State, poor farms were the birthplace, workplace and resting place for several thousand unpaid inmates. Poor farms may have been all but forgotten. But having grounded an early vision of welfare within the colonial land rush, poor farms can reveal much about the aims and contradictions of government in a settler colonial society. In this research-based course, we will unearth local poor farms through original collaborative research. We will draw on insights from labor history, food studies, legal geography, Indigenous studies and field trips. Students in the course will develop skills for archival research, direct observation, analysis, writing, design and public presentation.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Food and literature go hand in hand. From early on, food has been represented in literature, painting, and more recently in films. Rabelais, Balzac and Zola in pre-20th century literature have represented food in their novels. Marcel Proust, Marguerite Duras, Calixthe Beyala, Kim Thuy, Marie Ndiaye, Delphine Vigan, Maryse Condé, and many French and Francophone writers and filmmakers have also been inspired by food (or the lack of), the environment, and sustainability. We will learn from their books and films. The transformation of the environment and its impact on food and sustainability resonate in many French and Francophone texts. The course includes some culinary materials : recipes, chef blogs, scholarly and general articles, literary texts and films (fiction and documentaries) about diverse aspects of transnational francophone food — including diversity and sustainability, health, and hunger. This course will also connect with a baker with whom we’ll have regular sessions to learn and digitally document sustainability, food across the francophone world and experiential learning. This course counts for the French Major and the French Minor. Prerequisite(s): FREN 305 or permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class is a broad survey covering topics such as genetics, evolutionary mechanisms, adaptation, primate studies, the human fossil record, and human variation. All of these areas will be placed within the framework of the interaction of humans within their environment. The course is divided into three sections: human genetics, human ecology and primatology, human evolution and adaptation.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Seasonal and annual patterns of temperature and precipitation influence the development, success and collapse of civilizations. Regional climate determines numerous things about how humans adapt to survive there, including the type of shelter needed, the length of the growing season, and the availability/scarcity of freshwater. Using a combination of scientific and historical records, this course will provide a brief introduction to the climate system and will then focus on how changes in climate affected several societies throughout history. In the latter part of the course we will discuss observed global warming in the modern world, what the potential benefits and consequences of it may be, and whether or not there are lessons to be learned from our ancestors.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

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 hours lecture 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

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 hours lecture 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

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 hours lecture 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

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 hours lecture and one three-hour laboratory each 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:

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 hours lecture and one three-hour laboratory each 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:

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 hours lecture and one three-hour laboratory each 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:

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 hours lecture and one three-hour laboratory each 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:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course introduces you to the study of human-environment interactions from a geographic perspective, with a special emphasis on food and agriculture.  We examine environmental issues in a variety of geographic contexts (Global South and Global North) and the connections between environmental problems in different locations.  Beyond agriculture, we also explore other sectoral issues in relation to farming and food security.  These themes include: human population growth, consumption, biodiversity, climate change, and environmental health.  We try 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, we not only explore a range of agricultural and environmental issues, but also 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
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Fresh water has become one of the most fiercely guarded local and global resources as the climate changes. This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying water resources. With a focus on the Mississippi River, whose headwaters are in northern Minnesota and whose banks are a mile from campus, we will examine historical and emerging challenges to the equitable and sustainable use of waters. We will also meet with local artists, activists and scientists whose work centers around imagining how rivers heal and take fieldtrips that include paddling the river! We will address a range of controversial topics including energy production, indigenous rights, and cultural preservation.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Geomorphology is the study of physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur on the surface of a planetary body. We will be examining the processes that turn solid rock into transportable material, the transport mechanisms themselves (whether beneath glaciers, down hillslopes, or in rivers), and the patterns of deposition, many of which are unique to the processes that created them. These processes range from the very large (volcanism and mountain-building) to the microscopic (frost cracking of rock, soil creep, and chemical weathering along mineralogic grain boundaries). Some processes occur frequently across geographic boundaries and throughout geologic time (like rainsplash), while others are stochastic in nature and dramatic in their geomorphic signature (like glacial outburst floods). We will focus on the roles of rivers, glaciers, and mass movements in shaping landscapes, but will examine wide-ranging landscapes such as arid environments and coastal regions. The study of current surface processes on the Earth will be examined with an eye toward understanding the evolution of landscapes over geologic timescales. Prerequisite(s): GEOL 160 or GEOL 165 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Geomorphology is the study of physical, chemical, and biological processes that occur on the surface of a planetary body. We will be examining the processes that turn solid rock into transportable material, the transport mechanisms themselves (whether beneath glaciers, down hillslopes, or in rivers), and the patterns of deposition, many of which are unique to the processes that created them. These processes range from the very large (volcanism and mountain-building) to the microscopic (frost cracking of rock, soil creep, and chemical weathering along mineralogic grain boundaries). Some processes occur frequently across geographic boundaries and throughout geologic time (like rainsplash), while others are stochastic in nature and dramatic in their geomorphic signature (like glacial outburst floods). We will focus on the roles of rivers, glaciers, and mass movements in shaping landscapes, but will examine wide-ranging landscapes such as arid environments and coastal regions. The study of current surface processes on the Earth will be examined with an eye toward understanding the evolution of landscapes over geologic timescales. Prerequisite(s): GEOL 160 or GEOL 165 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials