Search for MHC courses in ISIS
| ARCH-280-01 (69337) Sustainable Practice |
Considering the first role of architecture is shelter, what can we learn from pre-Modern buildings, looking through a "sustainability" lens? This course will examine leading contemporary writings and projects of sustainable design. We will apply this "green" awareness to a reexamination of historic architecture - with attention to architecture's environmental, economic, cultural, and artistic contexts - and then speculate on lessons that might be adopted for current practice.
Meets Humanities I-A requirement
G. Schneider
Prereq. so,jr,sr. 8 credits in Architecture, Art
History, Art Studio, or Environmental St.; or permission of instructor.
(Upper-level students in those areas or Economics or American Studies
encouraged.); 4 credits; expected enrollment 12; Studio Fee $60. Studio
art experience not necessary.
ENVST-100-01 (69338) Intro Environmental Studies
This course uses lectures, films, discussions, and field trips to introduce students to the complexity of selected environmental problems. In addition to fostering understanding of their origins, the course focuses on potential solutions using basic ecological, economic, political, and cultural concepts.
Does not meet a distribution requirement
S. McCandless, L. Savoy
4 credits; expected enrollment 60
ENVST-241-01 (69339) Environmental Issues
In this course, we will explore the different facets of numerous environmental policy issues and review the substantive aspects, legal themes, and regulatory structure of the major federal environmental laws. The laws covered in this course include the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and others. The course objectives are for the student to learn the basic regulatory characteristics of the major laws and to become well-versed in the current environmental issues which we focus upon throughout the semester, such as global climate change, ocean degradation, energy resources, and biodiversity loss.
Does not meet a distribution requirement
T. Farnham
Prereq. Environmental Studies 100; 4 credits; expected enrollment 15
ENVST-333-01 (69342) Landscape and Narrative
Speaking- and writing-intensive course) Different stories or narratives--whether myth, literature, maps, or scientific theory--have been created about every region or environment on Earth as human attempts to describe and understand our connections with that place. How do braided strands of human history and natural history contribute to stories we tell of the land, and to stories we tell of ourselves in the land and of relational identity? In this reading and writing seminar we will reflect on how lifeways, homeplace, and identity of an individual or a community are linked with environment or the land. We will also create written and visual narratives of our own and explore creative environmental writing in reflection and action.
Meets Humanities I-A requirement
L. Savoy
Prereq. jr., sr., permission of instructor; 4 credits; expected enrollment 15
BIOL-331-01 (69207) Conservation Biology
This course focuses on advanced ecological theory applied to conservation. Class will combine lectures and discussions of primary scientific literature. Field trips will supplement our exploration of the concepts of rarity, coexistence, and population viability. A community-based learning aspect is possible for the final project in this class.
Does not meet a distribution requirement
M. Hoopes
Prereq. Biology 223 or permission of instructor; 4 credits; expected enrollment 24
BIOL-145-03 (71157) A Green World
First-year seminar This course examines the plant life in the woods and fields around us, the exotic plants in our greenhouses, and the plants we depend on for food. We will study plants living in surprising circumstances, settling into winter, escaping from gardens, reclaiming farmland, cooperating with fungi and insects, and fighting for their lives. We will find that plants challenge some conventional, animal-based assumptions about what matters to living things. In labs, students will seek to answer their questions about how plants grow in nature, by studying plant structure and function, ecology, and evolution.
Meets Science/Math II-B requirement
A. Frary
Prereq. fy; 4 credits; expected enrollment 24
This course will cover the fundamental factors controlling the distribution and abundance of organisms, including interactions with the abiotic environment, fitness and natural selection, population growth and dynamics, species interactions, community dynamics, and diversity. We will address variation across space and time. The course will combine observational, experimental, and mathematical approaches to some of the applications of ecological theory, including conservation, disease dynamics, and biological control.
Meets Science/Math II-B requirement
M. Hoopes
Prereq. An MHC Biology class or Environmental Studies 200 and a minimum of one semester of high school or college calculus or statistics; 4 credits; expected enrollment 44; Biology 223 and/or Biology 226 must be taken for the Biology major.
ARCH-205-01 (71092) Topic: Intro Architect Design
This introductory studio architecture course is a rigorous series of design investigations into architecture and the built environment. Students will develop and apply traditional and contemporary architectural skills (drawings, models) to interdisciplinary and significant design problems. Creative and indexical study and analysis will be used to generate and foster a broad range of concepts and language to solve architectural issues involving site, construction, inhabitation, function, form and space.
Meets Humanities I-A requirement
S. Brown
Prereq. One semester of Drawing I, design or sculpture is recommended. Requires materials fee TBD.; 4 credits; expected enrollment 12
GEOG-107-01 (70693) Intro. to Physical Environment
A systematic introduction to the processes operating on the surface of the earth, their spatial variation, and their contribution to the spatial patterning of life on earth. The course stresses interactions among climate, landforms, soils, and vegetation and examines human impacts on environmental systems.
Meets Science/Math II-C requirement
T. Millette
4 credits; expected enrollment 60
GEOG-304-01 (69385) Topic:Regional Plan:UrbanPark
This course examines the role of urban parks in America. It explores their role as places of natural beauty, sources for improving public health, recreation opportunities, civic identity, and shared community interaction and public engagement. This class has a significant practical component with several local field trips and park design critiques.
Does not meet a distribution requirement
T. Millette
Prereq. Any 200-level geography course; 4 credits; expected enrollment 15
ARTH-100-01 (69102) Topic: Architecture
A survey of architecture as a functional and expressive medium from the ancient world to the present. Accommodating domestic life, religious ritual, political, commercial, and leisure activities, architecture both shapes and reflects the natural environment, technology, social values and visions. While the history of Western architecture constitutes the primary focus, the course will include buildings from around the world.
Meets Humanities I-A requirement
M. Davis
4 credits; expected enrollment 50
ENVST-321-01 (69340) Topic: Agroecosystems
This interdisciplinary science course examines agricultural ecosystems through the study of nutrient cycling, soil processes, hydrology, and plant ecology. The course focuses on reading the primary scientific literature regarding issues of nutrient management, environmental impacts of agricultural practices on adjacent ecosystems, and contributions of agricultural systems to global climate change. Conventional, low-input, and organic agricultural practices are analyzed from the standpoint of environmental impacts. Field trips explore the application of agronomic practices in organic and low-input production systems, with an emphasis on local approaches to sustainable agriculture.
Does not meet a distribution requirement
B. Hooker
Prereq. at least 8 credits of biology, chemistry, or environmental science, or permission of instructor; 4 credits; expected enrollment 15
ENVST-344-01 (69748) Biogeochemistry/N Ecosystems
(Speaking- and writing-intensive course) Global climate models and recent evidence show that ecosystems in the northern latitudes are extremely sensitive to climate change. This interdisciplinary science course examines boreal, subarctic, and arctic ecosystems through the study of nutrient cycling, plant ecology, hydrology, soil processes, and biosphere-atmosphere interactions. Topics include fundamentals of biogeochemical cycling of major elements such as carbon and nitrogen at scales from the microscopic to global, sensitivity and feedbacks to climate change, and disturbance processes such as fire and permafrost degradation.
Does not meet a distribution requirement
B. Hooker
Prereq. at least 8 credits of 200-level lab science and permission of the instructor. Global Biogeochemistry (Chem 232) recommended.; 4 credits; expected enrollment 15
ENVST-200-01 (70593) Environmental Science
(Community-based learning course) Most of our society's environmental problems are complex and interdisciplinary in nature. Environmental science is a course designed to teach integrative thinking, the "scientific method," and problem solving. Lectures will be drawn from a variety of scientific fields including ecology, hydrology, chemistry, geology, and biology with an emphasis on ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. The course will use case studies of regional environmental problems, practical hands-on problem solving, and landscape analysis. Training in field and laboratory techniques is an integral part of the course. Priority given to environmental studies majors.
Meets Science/Math II-B requirement
J. Bubier
Prereq. One 100-level lab science; one course in statistics is recommended; 4 credits; expected enrollment 24
ENVST-210-01 (70596) Political Ecology
This course will explore the historical, political, economic, social, and cultural contexts in which human-environment interactions occur. We will cover critical topics and trends in the field of political ecology, from its early manifestations to more recent expansions. Using case studies from the global south and north, we will discuss factors that shape social and environmental change across scales from the personal to the global, and we will examine the role of gender, race, class, and power in struggles over resources. Students will become familiar with the academic debates in which political ecologists are engaged, and they will apply the concepts discussed in a case of their choice.
Meets multicultural requirement; meets Social Sciences III-A requirement
C. Corson
4 credits; expected enrollment 30
ENVST-340-01 (70599) Political Econ of Int'l Consrv
This course uses concepts from political ecology to study the relationship between global political economy and environmentalism. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have charted the rise of a neoliberal economic paradigm in global political economy during the past 40 years. Drawing on a range of literature, we will reflect on changing perceptions of the market in international conservation policy during this time period. We will consider the political and ecological impacts of changing ideas, and associated conservation practices, including natural resource limits to growth, sustainable development, community conservation, market-based approaches, and corporate social responsibility.
Meets Social Sciences III-A requirement
C. Corson
Prereq. Environmental Studies 210; 4 credits; expected enrollment 15
