Prerequisites: Enrollment limited. Students must sign up for course in 404 Altschul during the program-planning period of the previous spring. Note BC1001 is not required for an environmental policy major. Laboratory fee $30.

Integrated study of the Hudson River ecosystem with emphasis on its natural history, physical dynamics, chemistry and pollutant history, the structure and functioning of ecosystems and energy flow and nutrient cycling. Includes a reading of Robert Boyle�s The Hudson River: A Natural and Unnatural History, Rachel Carson's "Flood Tide", and Farley Mowat�s Never Cry Wolf.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: High school algebra. Recommended preparation: High school chemistry/physics, and one semester college science. Enrollment limited.

Studies formation of winds, storms, and ocean currents. Recent influence of human activity: global warming, and climate change. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: EESC V2100 or facility with computers. Enrollment limited.

Studies plate tectonics: Origin and development of continents, ocean basins, mountain systems on land and sea. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, diamonds, oil. Land-use planning for resource development and conservation. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited; students must sign up in 404 Altschul during the program-planning period of the previous term. Five required field trips.

Problem-oriented, hands-on approach emphasizing the tools, techniques, and observational skills necessary for the understanding of forest ecology and deer management. Field and laboratory work as well as data analysis and interpretation. Field Methods utilizes the outdoor resources of the Hudson River Valley, especially the forest environment at Black Rock Forest, a 4,000-acre preserve near Cornwall, N.Y.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited. Required field trip on first Friday of the semester.

Hands-on approach to learning environmental methods. Students take a one-day cruise on the Hudson River to collect environmental samples. These samples are then analyzed throughout the semester to characterize the Hudson River estuary. Standard and advanced techniques to analyze water and sediment samples for nutrients and contaminants are taught.

Prerequisites: One year of college science or EESC V2100 or permission of the instructor.

Acquisition, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of environmental data, assessment of spatial and temporal variability. Focus on air and water quality issues. Uses existing and student-generated data sets. Basic principles of statistics and GIS, uses standard software packages including EXCEL and ArcGIS. Includes a Saturday half-day field trip.

Prerequisites: One year of college science or permission of instructor. Alternate years.

Studies environmental policy implications of energy resources, production, and use in the United States. Present and potential use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), nuclear fission, fusion, biomass, hydropower, wind, solar, and geothermal energy.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited to 12 students. One year of college science or permission of instructor. Alternate years.

Discussion of global forest distribution and links to climate, forest ecology, paleoecology, role of forests in the global ecosystem, and case studies of forests in relation to environmental change. Resources, including biodiversity, medicinal/ethnobotany; conservation and management strategies; role in carbon cycle.

Prerequisites: Alternate years.

Policy-oriented approach to waste management issues. Cradle-to-grave analysis of product and waste streams. Analysis of municipal solid waste, landfills, incineration, recycling. Sewage waste and sewage treatment.

Prerequisites: CHEM BC1601, BIOL BC2002, or permission of instructor. Alternate years.

The study of anthropogenic contaminants within our natural environment and their subsequent effects on biological organisms. Effects to be examined: the molecular scale (biochemical pathways of metabolism and detoxification), the organismal scale (target organs, behavioral effects), and the ecosystem scale (species viability). Lectures and hands-on activities are used to teach the material.

Prerequisites: Senior majors (juniors with permission of instructor). Provides credit for the senior thesis. The Senior Research Seminar can be taken in the Spring/Fall or Fall/Spring sequence.

Guided, independent, in-depth research culminating in the senior thesis. Includes discussions about scientific presentations and posters, data analysis, library research methods, and scientific writing. Students review work in progress and share results through oral and written reports.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited. BC1001. Course is not required for an environmental policy major. Laboratory fee $30.

Interdisciplinary, integrated study of groundwater, radionuclides, toxics, and human health in the context of a semester-long, detailed exploration of a simulated brownfield and local community. Includes a reading of Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: High school algebra. Recommended preparation: High school chemistry/physics, and one semester college science. Enrollment limited.

Studies formation of winds, storms, and ocean currents. Recent influence of human activity: global warming, and climate change. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: EESC V2100 or facility with computers. Enrollment limited.

Studies plate tectonics: Origin and development of continents, ocean basins, mountain systems on land and sea. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, diamonds, oil. Land-use planning for resource development and conservation. Laboratory exploration of topics through demonstrations, experimentation, computer data analysis, and modeling.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited.

Examines role of life in biogeochemical cycles, relationship of biodiversity and evolution to the physical earth, vulnerability of ecosystems to environmental change: causes and effects of extinctions through geologic time (dinosaurs and mammoths) and today. Exploration of topics through laboratories, demonstrations, computer data analysis, modeling, and field trips.

Lab Required.

Prerequisites: Enrollment limited; students must sign up in 404 Altschul during the program-planning period of the previous term. Four required field trips.

Interdisciplinary study of shoreline processes and the larger ecosystems of which they are a part. Problem-oriented, field-methods course providing hands-on experience with tools and observational methods in a variety of outdoor environments. Involves sampling and identification techniques for rocks and minerals, fossils, water, soil, flora, and fauna, the creation of a field collection.

Prerequisites: EESC V2100, physics, or permission of instructor. Includes a weekend field trip. Alternate years.

Hands-on study and discussion of the basic physical principles of the water cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and subsurface flow), as well as environmentally relevant applications based on case studies. Special focus on the New York City area, the arid Southwest, and the developing world. Coverage of contemporary global water resources issues, including pollution control, sustainable development, and climate change.

Prerequisites: One year of college science or permission of instructor. Alternate years.

Human transformation of the terrestrial environment since Paleolithic times. Physical process involved in human-environment interactions. Guidelines for sustainable development using present and past examples of environmental use and abuse.

Process-oriented introduction to the law and its use in environmental policy and decision-making. Origins and structure of the U.S. legal system. Emphasis on litigation process and specific cases that elucidate the common law and toxic torts, environmental administrative law, and environmental regulation through application and testing of statutory law in the courts. Emphasis also on the development of legal literacy, research skills, and writing.