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Sustainable Earth

Sustainable Earth. A TOPICAL COURSE IN THE GEOSCIENCES ANDREW M. GOODLIFFE. What is “Sustainable Earth”. A 4 credit lecture and lab class (two 1:15 lectures, one 1:50 lab each week) Explores earth resources, utilization, and impact ~110 students, mostly non-majors (and non-scientists)

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Sustainable Earth

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  1. Sustainable Earth A TOPICAL COURSE IN THE GEOSCIENCES ANDREW M. GOODLIFFE

  2. What is “Sustainable Earth” • A 4 credit lecture and lab class (two 1:15 lectures, one 1:50 lab each week) • Explores earth resources, utilization, and impact • ~110 students, mostly non-majors (and non-scientists) • An elective for geology majors • Required for environmental science majors • Fulfils university natural science requirement • Many have taken or will take physical or historical geology • No prior geological knowledge assumed

  3. What does “Sustainable Earth” Cover?Foundation • Brief introduction to the earth and solar system • Planets, earth composition, earth history • Examination of population growth • The reason why are our resources under increasing pressure • Quick survey of rocks and minerals • Rocks and minerals as interpreted by a geophysicist (easily covered in 1-2 classes)

  4. What does “Sustainable Earth” Cover?Earth Resources • Water • Ground water storage, consequences of withdrawal, pollution, case studies (3 classes) • Soil • Weathering, classification, erosion (1 class) • Mineral and rock resources • Formation and exploitation of ore and rock resources, exploration methods, supply and demand • Fossil fuels • Formation, exploration and exploitation of oil, gas and coal, peak oil, hazards and environmental impact • Alternative Energy • Nuclear, solar, wind, water power, ethanol, hydrogen fuel cells, etc

  5. What does “Sustainable Earth” Cover?By-Products • Waste Disposal • Landfills, hazardous waste disposal, sewage treatment, recycling • Water Pollution • Surface and groundwater, organic and inorganic pollutants, thermal pollution • Air Pollution • Acid rain, carbon and sulfur gases, particulates, lead, ozone • Climate Change • Ice ages, global warming, El Niño, desertification • Environmental Law and Policy • Mineral rights, law of the sea, EPA, approach to geological hazards

  6. Why Offer “Sustainable Earth” • Provide non-majors with a natural science course that is highly applicable to their lives • Educate our students with respect to the limitations of non-renewable and renewable resources • Educate our students with respect to the consequence of resource utilization • Provide students with an environment in which they can form educated opinions on often controversial topic • Produce citizens that can make intelligent business/policy decisions • And, along the way, they learn an awful lot of geology!

  7. Does this work? • Short answer….. YES • This has been offered as an entirely new course for three semesters • Offered in addition to physical and historical geology, not instead of • An opportunity to design a class from the ground up around modern pedagogical methods and instructional technology • Students are very engaged in class – very active discussions are common • Students are familiar with many of the topics and often have strong opinions – they have an investment in the subject matter • Compromises – yes • Non-majors taking this class are not exposed to the full range of geological topics – this is OK • Some subject matter departs significantly from geological curricula – this is also OK

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