ESCI 151 - Earth, Environment, And Humanity

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as GEOG 151) Catastrophic events such as hurricanes and tsunamis and the specter of global climate change affirm the centrality of Earth Science in a well-rounded liberal arts education. Understanding past events helps us comprehend what has happened and predict future events. In this course we examine past events and current natural processes to understand how this past and these processes affect human and other beings. We explore topics such as minerals and rocks, natural hazards and disasters, and changes to the hydrosphere and atmosphere over time. To do so, we learn some underlying principles of the natural world, from small things like the very building blocks of matter (atoms), to large things, like the cause and effect of regional forces that build mountains and make new oceans. The course takes a hybrid approach, partly as a normal lecture in the classroom during our meeting time, and partly as a lab/field trip/discussion. While serving as an introduction to the Earth Science major, this course emphasizes those aspects of the science that everyone should know to make informed decisions such as where and where not to buy a house, whether to support the construction of an underground nuclear waste repository, whether to build on floodplains and along coasts, and how to live more lightly on Earth. Jill Schneiderman.

Several lab exercises take place in the field.

Satisfies the college requirement for quantitative reasoning.

Two 2-hour periods; additional lab time required.

Course Format: CLS