I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Minnesota and the Environment

2. Course Prefix & Number:
ENVR 2410

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

4. Course Description:

Minnesota and the Environment is a place-based study of environmental issues and the relationship between Minnesotans and our natural and built environment. The course will explore the difficult and controversial issues specific to Minnesota, but with an understanding of the global and historical context from which they arose. Other topics studied include environmental economics and Minnesota’s energy sector and extractive industries, water quality and Minnesota’s unique relationship with water, our agricultural sector and its impact on the environment, and unique climate change impacts in the upper Midwest. Each topic will be overlain with an awareness and context that eleven Native Nations share the geography with Minnesota.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

Reading College Level CLC or Reading College Level

Score:

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:

Within the Minnesota State system, there are no course equivalencies other than curricular content overlap with Bemidji State University's robust environmental studies program which has a number of place-based environmental studies courses, especially as they relate to regional Ojibwe culture.

However, outside the Minnesota State system, there is a growing body of coursework that links place-based education or pedagogy of place with the environmental studies curriculum. The best example within the Midwest is at Earlham College in Indiana.

• ENSU/EDUC 320 Pegagogies of Place (3 credits) 
• ENSU/JPNS 376 Power, Society and the Environment in East Asia (4 credits)
• ENSU/POLS 399 Sustainable Cities in Europe (3 credits)
• INTD 0340 Environmental Issues of New Zealand (5 credits)
• JPNS/ENST 231 Japanese Culture & the Environment (3 credits)
• PLEASE NOTE: ENSU = ENVIRONMENTAL AND SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES / ENST = ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Several other Minnesota State Institutions (e.g. Fond du Lac Community College, St. Cloud State University, M State) have smaller environmental studies courses, but those also include topics that will be covered in Minnesota and the enviorment including natural resource management, watershed management, wildlife management, extractive industries, agricultural industries and the renewable energy sector.

"Place-based education is the process of using the local community and environment as a starting point to teach concepts ... across the curriculum. ... this approach to education increases academic achievement, helps students develop stronger ties to their community, enhances students’ appreciation for the natural world, and creates a heightened commitment to serving as active, contributing citizens. Community vitality and environmental quality are improved through the active engagement of local citizens, community organizations, and environmental resources in the life of the school." (Place-based Education: Connecting Classrooms & Communities by David Sobel, 2004).

 

III. Course Purpose

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

• Goal 2 – Critical Thinking
• Goal 10 – People and the Environment

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Demonstrate oral communication skills	Participate orally in class conversations and present about environmental issues in both a live and recorded format.
Demonstrate written communication skills	Articulate and defend a position in writing on a particular environmental issue.
Demonstrate interpersonal communication skills
Discuss/compare characteristics of diverse cultures and environments	Discuss and compare characteristics of diverse Minnesota cultures and their unique environments and environmental challenges including, but not limited to, the eleven Native Nations that share a geography with Minnesota.

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

• Gather factual information and apply it to a given problem in a manner that is relevant, clear, comprehensive, and conscious of possible bias in the information selected (Goal 2);
• Imagine and seek out a variety of possible goals, assumptions, interpretations, or perspectives which can give alternative meanings or solutions to given situations or problems (Goal 2);
• Analyze the logical connections among the facts, goals, and implicit assumptions relevant to a problem or claim; generate and evaluate implications that follow from them (Goal 2);
• Recognize and articulate the value assumptions which underlie and affect decisions, interpretations, analyses, and evaluations made by ourselves and others (Goal 2);
• Explain the basic structure and function of various natural ecosystems and of human adaptive strategies within those systems (Goal 10);
• Discern patterns and interrelationships of bio-physical and socio-cultural systems (Goal 10);
• Describe the basic institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, religious); that are evolving to deal with environmental and natural resource challenges (Goal 10);
• Evaluate critically environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships, ecosystems, and institutions (Goal 10);
• Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems (Goal 10); and
• Articulate and defend the actions they would take on various environmental issues (Goal 10).

V. Topical Outline

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

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Minnesota Physical and Human Geography Review
2. Minnesota Water: Pollution and protection
• At the top of three continental watersheds: Minnesota's accountability to downstream communities
• Mercury contamination in our lakes and rivers from afar: Who is accountable?
• Minnesota's pristine water: Will it be sold to Phoenix?
• Does everyone have access to Minnesota's clean water?
3. Minnesota's Energy Sector
• How does Minnesota meet its electrical and heating needs, and it is sustainable?
• Minnesota's Renewable Energy Leadership and Booming Clean Energy Sector
• Energy Dependence: Will Minnesota always be a Net Energy Importer?
• Pipelines and politics: risks or rewards?
4. Minnesota's Mining Sector
• History of Mining in Minnesota
• Copper-nickel mining - can we have new mines and protect our environment too?
5. Minnesota's Agricultural Sector
• Producer and polluter - the challenges of monocropping
• New agricultural models - can they scale?
• The Dead Zone in the gulf: Fertilizer runs down hill
6. Climate Change in Minnesota
• Will Minnesota become Kansas?
• Climate canaries in Minnesota: Predicting how climate change will affect the State
7. Minnesota and a Legacy of Environmental Injustice
• Native Nations: Sharing the geography of Minnesota
• Three legs of the same stool: racial, equity and environmental justice
8. Minnesota's Wild Places: A legacy preserved for you and posterity
9. Minnesota's Biodiversity: Successes and failures
• The state of the state's biodiversity
• Comeback kids: the success stories of Minnesota conversation
• Gone from Minnesota forever: the species that may never return
10. The Built Environment: Where does nature end and “civilization” begin?