Form Data Submitted To

Form data submitted to http://www.gened.arizona.edu/gened/faculty/courseproposal/form.html:

001_Submitters_Email: [email protected] 001_Submitters_Name: Allan Matthias 002_Course_Title: Fundamentals of Environmental Science and Sustainability 003_Course_Description: This course is about how modern science and technology have increased our understanding of the Earth’s environment and improved our ability to solve the important environmental challenges facing humanity, including climate change, pollution, loss of biodiversity, and water shortages. 004_Current_Course_Number: SWES 210 005_Proposed_Semester_Fall: Yes 006_Proposed_Semester_Spring: Yes 008_Proposed_Semester_Year: 2008 009_Desired_Enrollment: 50 010_Class_Schedule: 3 hours; 11 to 11:50 a.m. MWF 011_Course_Format_Lecture: 100 012_Course_Format_Discussion: 013_Course_Format_Lab: 014_Course_Format_Practicum_Service: 015_Course_Format_Other: 016_Contact_Instructor: Allan Matthias; Dept. of Soil, Water and Environmental Science, 429 Shantz; 621-7226 (office), 520-979-1225 (cell phone) 017_Focus: No 017_Tier: Tier Two - Natural Sciences - Physical 019_Writing: Writing will be an integral part of this course. It will occur in the forms of in-class individual and group writings each week; 3 exams; 4 out-of-class problem assignments; and an out-of-class paper of about 1000 word length. In addition, students will have opportunity to communicate with classmates and instructor their ideas and comments about topics via email and D2L website.

For the out-of-class paper students will submit a draft version for review by instructor. An example of an out-of-class writing assignment is as follows (excerpt from an assignment in our NATS 101 course, Fall 2007): "Environmental Change in the Southwest" "Read and/or listen to the feature at the National Public Radio (NPR) website... Part 1 - Describe the recent hypothesis concerning the apparent disappearance of Anasazi culture in the 13th century. What evidence supports the hypothesis? Part 2 - Write your thoughts about the lessons we can learn from the disappearance of the Anasazi; Part 3 - List references in sufficient detail that others could find them.

The problem solving exercises will involve graphical analysis and interpretation of relationships between environmental variables. An example from recent research will be to have students graph data and look for relationship between long term variability of cosmic radiation and changes in biodiversity due to extinction.

Total writing for the semester will exceed 2500 words.

020_Diversity_Non_Western: 021_Honors: Students receiving honors credit will be required to prepare either a brief 5 page research paper or a poster on an environment related topic. The paper/poster will be presented to the class at the end of the semester.

022_Assessment: Assessment tools will be designed to evaluate student achievement of learning outcomes. Assessments will be in the forms of two exams and a final exam; weekly online quizzes on text reading materials; in-class and out-of-class writings; and problem solving exercises. In addition, informal (ungraded) assessment of learning during lectures will occur through ungraded conceptests.

023_Critcal_Thinking: Students will be encouraged to work collaboratively in small groups to address in-class writing assignments. These assignments will pose questions requiring students to actively discuss with their peers. Similarly, the conceptests will afford students an opportunity to defend their answers with classmates.

Review of environmental case studies will give students the opportunity to think about the pros and cons of solutions to environmental challenges, such as global climate change. I will encourage students to think about, for example, the ecological impacts of fossil fuel consumption.

Test questions will be formulated with intent of evaluating student knowledge and comprehension of fundamental environmental concepts. But more importantly the exams will also encourage students to analyze problems and synthesize ideas in the form of clear responses to essay questions.

024_Modes_of_Instruction: The course will include whole class and small group discussions about environmental topics. I plan to use a responder system to poll students on their answers to conceptest questions and to solicit their thoughts about environmental issues.

I will encourage students to talk with each other during class discussions and group writing exercises and to defend their opinions with facts.

Frequent class demonstrations will help illustrate environmental processes, such as the deflection of moving objects by the Coriolis force. Demonstrations are a good tool that I believe helps engage students in active learning.

I will temporarily install a datalogger and instruments such as solar radiation sensors on campus to record data for analysis by the class. Students will be encouraged to help set up and operate the equipment and learn how data are collected and processed.

025_Information_Literacy: Both the out-of-class writing assignment and the problem solving exercises will encourage students to evaluate the types information needed to properly address the questions and learning outcomes. Students will be required to access reliable information through a wide range of library and internet sources. Emphasis on use of peer-reviewed scientific literature will be stressed. A science librarian will be invited to speak to the class early during the semester about library resources and databases available for use in research for the out-of-class writing and other assignments. I will stress the importance of doing original writing and avoiding plagiarism. Turnitin.com will be used to help evaluate originality out-of-class writings. 026_Comments: The form seems quite reasonable. It would be helpful to be able to see more than two lines in the text fields. Overall, this is a convenient way to submit proposal. I was unable to submit the form from my laptop pc, but I believe it is a problem specific to that computer. It would be helpful if entries to this form could be saved before submittal. 026_Required_Readings: A new 3rd edition of environmental science textbook by Withgott and Brennan (2008) will be required. It will have a purchase price of about $107 for the print copy at the Student Union Bookstore. It will also be available for purchase in electronic book form at a cost of $71. Unfortunately, because it is a new edition, no used copies are yet available to students. Class Powerpoint presentations will be posted on class website on D2L before each class period. Students will be able to write notes on laptop computers during class. Reference materials, such as NOAA reports and journal articles will be available via e-reserve, D2L, or directly in electronic form from publishers (via UA library.). submit: Submit Form

Referring page: http://www.gened.arizona.edu/gened/faculty/courseproposal/form.html User address: 128.196.122.11