Revised 8/2024
ENV 121 - Foundations of Environmental Science (4 CR.)
Course Description
Focuses on basic physical, chemical, and biological principles with an emphasis on the interactions between humans and the environment. Assignments require college-level reading fluency, coherent written and oral communication, and basic mathematical skills. Intended for students not majoring in science. This is a Passport and UCGS transfer course. Can be taken by itself or before or after ENV 122. Lecture 3 hours. Laboratory 3 hours. Total 6 hours per week.
General Course Purpose
The purpose of ENV 121 is to provide non-science majors with an introduction to the scientific principles of environmental science with an emphasis on the interactions between humans and the environment.
Course Prerequisites/Corequisites
Prerequisite: Satisfactory placement score for ENG 111.
Course Objectives
- Scientific Literacy
- Apply the scientific method to make informed decisions and engage with issues related to environmental science
- Develop, convey, and exchange ideas in writing on different topics in environmental science.
- Critical Thinking
- Evaluate different perspectives, opinions, and statements about environmental issues in terms of their logic, content, scientific merit, and biases.
- Civic Engagement
- Examine the role of environmental ethics in decision-making and environmental stewardship.
- Reflect critically about student roles and identities as citizens, consumers and environmental actors in a complex, interconnected natural world.
Major Topics to Be Included
- Principles of Environmental Science
- Define the purpose and scope of environmental science
- Differentiate between sound science and nonscience
- Apply the scientific method by completing an experiment
- Relate the history of environmental ideas to our current relationship to the environment
- Apply a systems approach to science
- Apply basic chemistry and thermodynamics to environmental processes
- Describe connections between climate change and environmental issues
- From Species to Ecosystem
- Differentiate among population, species, community, ecosystem, and biosphere
- Classify ecosystems as specific biomes (or aquatic zones)
- Interpret food webs and energy flow through trophic levels
- Discuss the limits on population growth
- Differentiate between exponential and logistic growth
- Explain how communities and ecosystems respond to disturbance, including invasive species, keystone species removal, and ecological succession.
- Evolution
- Describe how life is classified and species are defined
- Explain how evolution has led to the biodiversity we observe today.
- Describe the process of evolution and how it affects how species interact with each other and their environment
- Differentiate among the mechanisms of evolution (for example: gene flow, genetic drift, natural selection)
- Abiotic Environment
- Analyze how humans impact natural biogeochemical cycles
- Relate climatic conditions to the biotic environment
- Understand natural climatic processes
- Explain the impact of mineral resource extraction
- Understand basic principles of geology (rock cycle, tectonic plates, fossil fuel formation, soil structure)
- Conservation
- Describe human impacts on the environment with an emphasis on the biodiversity crisis (HIPPOC)
- Correlate human activities with the degradation of ecosystem services and emphasize our role in environmental stewardship
- Examine possible solutions to species and ecosystem conservation and biodiversity restoration
- Identify how restoration ecology and preserving landscapes can be used in conservation
- Human Populations
- Trace the history of human population growth
- Compare and contrast the factors determining population growth
- Analyze the factors determining the human population growth
- Describe demographic transition and its impact on environment
- Identify how human population size, density, and resource use affect the environment