• Winter quarter 2003, 5 credits
• Lectures: T/Th 9.30 -10.20 am, OTB 205 (Ocean Teaching Building)
• Labs: either  T/Th 10.30 am -12.20 pm or T/Th 1.30 pm - 3.20 pm, OTB 206
• Course web-page: http://oceanweb.ocean.washington.edu/courses/envir202

In this hands-on course you will study the way our physical environment works and works with us. The context is a survey of 20th Century environmental change: air, water, earth and their inhabitants. Aimed at non-science majors, the format allows you to experience classical science "taken outdoors." This course will broaden your perspective on environmental issues and help you make informed choices as an active member of society.

There are no formal prerequisites. Students with a mix of backgrounds tend to do quite well with this format. An active interest about the natural world and human relationships with it is important.

The course will utilize lecture, reading, discussion, presentations, and lab experiments while focusing on three primary units: Energy, Air, Water. Additional topics, of which most fall into one or more of the primary units include transportation, food supplies, pollution, climate, land surface processes, global sustainability and others. Each unit will include readings from the text, which is basically historical. Lecture periods will develop the 'science core', and extend into ideas of the Earth system that border on philosophy. Evolution of life and evolution of our planet form the backdrop for our study of the current environment. During lab periods there will be a group of experiments for each topic. You will work with a partner carrying out about 6 distinct experiments during the term; meanwhile you will see what other 'teams' are doing with their experiments (which will differ from yours). You will present your experiment to your section at the end of each unit. Also there will be quizzes over the at the end of each of the three units. Each of the three units will have an also have an essay project that will require research outside of the text.

• Familiarize yourself with environmental issues from scientific and historical points of view, stressing the changes seen in the past century
• Learn scientific ideas that show how the Earth system works and help in assessing environmental problem areas (the many 'hot spots' that threaten ecosystems and humans)
• Learn to explore ideas in the laboratory, both observing and building experiments, and understanding the great and small of the environment: problems as big as the Earth and as small as one molecule will be explored
• Develop group problem-solving skills ('a railway tank car filled with sulfuric acid has overturned near a small town on a river: you are called in to decide what to do...')
• Improve oral and written communication skills
• Develop a collection of experiment-, library- and web skills relating to the environment

• You are expected to attend lecture and lab periods and to be an active participant (inquiry- and experiment based science requires your presence!)
• Reading: from the text and handouts as assigned and as needed for your research essays.
• Lab projects: ideas, set-up procedures, measurement procedures and recording, analysis, and conclusions, finding sources of information. Each student, with one lab partner, will choose from a list of experiments and work on two such experiments during each of the three units. In addition to these 6 experiments every pair will build and test a solar box cooker and study the experiments carried out by others.
• Essays: for each unit, you will choose from a list of topics provided. There will be a rough draft due date, and a final due date. The essays will require reading outside of the text. Topics may include social, economic, historic, political aspects of the environment as well as the lab experiments themselves.

• Participation (25%) will be evaluated by observing your contribution to in-class activities and your oral presentations, which will follow labs and discussion groups.
• Quizzes (25%) will be given at the end of each unit covering the science core, reading and lectures.
• Lab books (25%) will be collected at the end of each unit. Guidelines will be provided for successful lab books, but will contain an extensive diary on lab projects (procedures, tables, sources). We urge you to write rough records of your experiments in your books, plus a summary and analysis afterward.  Include notes from your observation of other experiments.
• Essays (25%) will take you from the science in the lab to the analysis of real-world situations. Using library and web resources, rather specific environmental questions will be addressed.   Length will be approximately 5 pages (1.5 line spacing).
• There is no final exam, and the class will not meet during exam week.
• The course will be graded on a curve (i.e., competitively). The mean will be set ~3.0. We will post the class mean and standard deviation of grades for each essay and quiz.

Something New Under the Sun: an Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World by J.R. McNeill, W.W. Norton Co., NY, 2000.

The "Links" section of the course web site will be continually updated.