I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Earth Science and the Environment

2. Course Prefix & Number:
ESCI 1454

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 4

Lecture Hours: 3

Lab Hours: 2

4. Course Description:

This course is a survey of the scientific underpinnings of contemporary environmental issues on the global, continental, and regional scales. For disciplines such as geology, meteorology and oceanography, it is an introductory course, but is also a course on practical applications of these sciences for inquiry into the human impact on Earth's concentric spheres.

5. Placement Tests Required:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

Name of Institution	Course Number and Title	Credits
Ridgewater College	ENVS 141 Environmental Science (close, but not equivalent)	4
MCTC	BIOL 1136 Environmental Science (close, but not equivalent)	4

III. Course Purpose

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:

• Goal 3 – Natural Sciences
• Goal 10 – People and the Environment

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and environments	Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and Environments as regards geoscientific and environmental issues.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

Expected Outcome	MnTC Goal Area
Demonstrate understanding of scientific theories as pertaining to geology, meteorology, and oceanography.	3
Submit a weekly written summary of their experimental results in laboratory.	3
Evaluate environmental issues and their impact on society from an earth science perspective.	3
Recognize the role natural resources, environment, and climate play in shaping society and culture.	10
Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious) that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges.	10
Critically evaluate environmental issues from a scientifically informed perspective. Distinguish good from bad environmental policy according to the theoretical underpinnings of the science in question.	10
Propose informed solutions to environmental problems.	10

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1.         Earth Materials

• Minerals
• Rocks
• Societies use of geologic materials

2.         Surface Processes

• Water erosion
• Glaciers and ice ages
• Wind erosion and dryland environments

3.         Interior Processes

• Plate tectonics
• Geologic structures
• Earthquakes
• Orogenic processes
• Igneous activity

4.         Earth History

• Geologic time
• The principles of geologic dating
• Fossils, fossilization, and biological evolution

5.         The Hydrosphere

• Waves and wave propagation
• The structure of the ocean water column
• The deep ocean floor
• Processes where ocean meets land
• The circulation of the ocean
• Tides
• The air-sea interface

6.         The Atmosphere

• Heating the atmosphere
• Earth-Sun relationships
• Moisture, clouds, and precipitation
• Atmospheric pressure
• Atmospheric circulation
• Air masses
• Weather patterns and storms.

7.         Earth’s Place in Space

• How the solar system formed: the nebular hypothesis
• Comparative planetology: A geoscientific tour of the solar system
• Stars and stellar evolution
• Galaxies and their classification
• The Universe

2. Laboratory/Studio Sessions

I.  Mineral Identification

II.  Rock Identification

III.  Radioactive decay and nuclear waste

IV.  The Ogallala Aquifer

V.   The Vostok Ice Cores and Milankovich Theory

VI.  Climate versus weather:  The American Dustbowl

VII.  Plate Tectonic Theory and Discovering Plate Boundaries

VIII.  Can Humans Cause Earthquakes? – Geothermal processes in the Pacific Northwest.

IX.   Land Development and Urgent Paleontology

X.  Shoreline Development and Erosion

XI.  The Ocean as a CO2 sink.

XI.  Ocean Pollution – The Pacific Garbage Patch

XII.  Climate Change and the Global Coral Death Crisis

XIII.  Overfishing and Coral Death

XIV.  Climate Change and Atmospheric Heating – What do the data reveal?

XV.  Climate Change and Severe Storms – What do the data reveal?

XVI.  Earth’s Use of Space: Tracking space junk

XVII.  Near Earth Objects.