CAS 102IN - Environmental Explorations

1. Utilize scientific methods, critical thinking, and systems thinking to formulate and answer questions related to environmental processes and challenges.
2. Explain the importance of interdependence and biodiversity in the context of a healthy environment for both human populations and non-human life.
3. Discuss the causes, impacts, and responses to environmental issues and their implications for ecosystem resilience.
4. Evaluate the efficacy of environmental practices, institutions, policies, and legislation in the US and internationally with a focus on sustainability.

1. Utilize scientific methods to formulate and answer questions, design and conduct experiments, and communicate sound conclusions.
2. Analyze environmental information and data, including fieldwork and laboratory data, using critical thinking, systems thinking and the scientific method to inform sound environmental decision-making.
3. Apply the concepts of systems thinking and sustainability to analyze and assess environmental problems and their potential solutions.
4. Identify and critically analyze local, national, and global environmental issues, applying relevant scientific concepts and evidence-based reasoning.
5. Explain the concepts of interdependence between organisms and articulate the importance of biodiversity for a healthy environment for both human populations and non-human life.
6. Analyze environmental system concepts, including biogeochemical cycles, energy flows, and conservation strategies and their implications for ecosystem resilience.
7. Evaluate the strategies of environmental conservation from diverse perspectives and ways of knowing, including Traditional Ecological Knowledge approaches, parks, nature preserves, wilderness areas, and restoration projects, considering their social, economic, and environmental impacts.
8. Evaluate the impact of environmental policy and environmental law cases.

1. Environmental Fundamentals
   1. Intro to environmental processes
   2. Environmental History overview
   3. Scientific Method
2. Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics
   1. Systems Thinking & Analysis
      1. Case Studies & Current Data
      2. Resilience
      3. Feedback Loops
      4. Leverage Points
      5. Social, Political, Geographic context
   2. Biogeochemical cycles & influences
      1. Hydrologic cycles
      2. Pre- and post-industrial carbon cycle
         1. Climate action
      3. Phosphorus and Nitrogen Cycles
      4. Social, Political, Geographic context
   3. Interdependence in Ecosystem Dynamics
      1. Energy dynamics
      2. Trophic levels & Interactions 
      3. Competition & Symbiosis
      4. Climate and other abiotic influences
         1. Health, toxicology, and bioremediation
      5. Agriculture and Food Systems
      6. Field Data Analysis
   4. Biodiversity Implications & Impacts
      1. Biomes
      2. Biodiversity trends
      3. Human influences
      4. Conservation/Preservation Strategies
      5. Field data analysis
      6. Social, Political, Geographical context
3. Environmental Challenges and Solutions
   1. Air
   2. Water
   3. Energy
   4. Geology
   5. Climate
   6. Population
   7. Field data analysis
   8. Social, Political, and Geographical context