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ES 106: CRITICAL THINKING ABOUT HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS |
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Syllabus
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Contact Information: Class Meeting Time and Location: Tues/Thurs, 11:00-12:15, PHELPS 3515 Instructor: William Freudenburg TA: Priya Verma All course content, material and organization © 2008 by William R. Freudenburg This class responds to one of the key concerns identified in recent surveys of Environmental Studies students and graduates—a desire for courses that focus on solutions, and not just problems. In the process, it responds to a pair of facts that are often overlooked. First, from poisons in the groundwater below us to holes in the ozone above, virtually all “environmental” problems involve the actions of a single species—homo sapiens—and thus the potential solutions need to focus on human behaviors, as well. Second, it's not enough to “study” all of the other species in the environment, but then just to call for “educating the public” when it comes to human beings. Instead, the human components of environmental problems and solutions—specifically including “lessons learned”—need to be studied with at least as much care and precision as we expect for all other species. As a way of helping students to gain a real-world “feel” for the seductiveness of common misconceptions—and about the importance as well as the difficulty of moving beyond them—the course requirements include hands-on involvement in small-group projects. The grading for these projects will be based largely on how well you take into account the information and lessons from lectures and readings, both of which will focus on what has now been learned about analyzing potential human/social “causes” and “solutions.” As an integral part of the course, you and a small number of the other students from your Discussion Section will be expected to select an environmental problem you see as being important, and then to identify and move toward implementing actual, concrete “solutions,” based in part on your own analysis of the relevant “causes.” By the end of the course, your group will be expected to report on the progress you have made toward implementing the actual, concrete steps you identify, as well as reporting on the unexpected as well as expected challenges you have needed to face, on the ways in which you have dealt with those challenges, and on any additional “lessons” that you see as being worth the attention of your fellow students. You can expect your group project to involve intensive work with a small number of fellow students, with most groups having 4-6 members. “Intensive work” means that you should expect that a fair amount of research and discussion will need to take place outside of the scheduled class meeting times. The project will end with a presentation to the class as a whole and the submission of a written report that responds to any class input you may receive. As spelled out in the section on “grading,” your final class grade will depend as heavily on your contributions to Discussion Sections and to group projects as on your exam performance.
1. Gardner,
Gerald and Paul Stern. 2002. Environmental Problems and Human
Behavior, 2d Ed. Boston: Pearson (“G&S” in listings
of required readings). (1st Edition is sometimes also available,
used, and cheaper; the differences between editions are sufficiently
small that the older version is also acceptable). |
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Author: (Dr.
William Freudenburg freudenburg@es.ucsb.edu) |
