[Course]: CEE 250: Environmental Pollution: Energy and Materials Balance

This course will count towards the ‘natural science’ perspectives and experience requirement for the Environmental Studies major or minor. Please note that, as the course is only 2 credits, taking this course will not complete the category requirement for the major (3 credits minimum)


Winter Quarter 2012

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering presents….

CEE 250   Environmental Pollution: Energy and Materials Balance (2 cr)

TTh 3:30 – 5:20pm  (SLN 11526)

Prereq:  MATH 120   (Meets NW requirement)

Professor Michael Brett  

This lecture course will introduce students to general concepts of Environmental Engineering and in particular Materials and Energy Balance.  These concepts will be presented within the context of local case studies, in particular the severe eutrophication and subsequent recovery of Lake Washington, nitrogen loading and hypoxia/fish kills in Hood Canal, and global climate change and its regional impacts on water resources and hydrologic cycles in the Pacific Northwest.   (Note:  CEE 250 does not count towards the upper-division requirements of the CEE major.)

This course is particularly useful for students interested in an introduction to environmental engineering, the environment, and/or in the sciences.


[course] Wild Rockies Field Institute

Earn credit living in your tent next semester! 

WRFI

The Wild Rockies Field Institute offers field-based, academic courses to undergraduate students, accredited through the University of Montana and transferable to other universities and colleges.

“Our 12-credit spring semester course, Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons and Cultureswill take you backpacking and canoeing through the American Southwest while you explore ancient and contemporary indigenous cultures, hone your naturalist skills, and learn about current land management strategies and challenges." 

Contact one of us at PoE to see the syllabus for this course or visit their website for other opportunities at WRFI <– click it! :]


[Course]: Community Literacy Program ENGL 298A/EDUC 401 C

Interested in education/teaching? Looking for a cool elective? See below!

ARE YOU A UW STUDENT INTERESTED IN:

* helping public school students succeed?
* getting real world experience to help you choose a major or a career path?
* completing classroom hours for the Education, Learning and Society Minor
 or for application to a Masters in Teaching program?
* improving your research, writing, and collaborative learning and
 presentation skills?
* Are you looking for an opportunity (in the words of Paul Farmer) to “use
 what you learn to transform yourself and your community”?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, the Community Literacy
Program may be just what you’re looking for.

HOW THE COMMUNITY LITERACY PROGRAM WORKS: Community Literacy Program (CLP)
is an 8 credit program linking English 298A and Education 401C. In English
298 you’ll meet on campus MW 10:30-12:20 in a writing-intensive seminar
focused on learning effective methods of working with public school students
in language arts, exploring some central challenges and opportunities for
public education, and using writing to inquire into, develop and communicate
your thinking about these issues.  English 298A is taught by CLP Director
Elizabeth Simmons-O’Neill in collaboration with College of Education
Language Arts faculty member Karen Mikolasy.  In EDUC 401C you’ll
put what you learn on campus into action, volunteering (4-5 hours a week, on
a schedule you arrange) at one of our partner public schools in Seattle or
Shoreline: Olympic Hills Elementary, Aki Kurose Middle School or Shorecrest
High School.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION: To sign up for the Community Literacy Program,
contact the Director, Dr. Elizabeth Simmons-O’Neill
(esoneill@u.washington.edu) for an Education 401C add code.  Once you are
registered in Education 401C, you will be able to register for the required
linked course, English 298A. English 298 can be used toward either the UW’s
10-credit “W” requirement or the 5 credit “Composition” requirement.

QUESTIONS?  Additional information is available at the program web site:
faculty.washington.edu/esoneill/clp. Please feel free to get in touch with
the Director, Dr. Elizabeth Simmons-O’Neill, if you’ve got questions.


[Course]: Environmental Innovation Practicum

Register NOW for Fall Quarter 2011 – 

UW ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION PRACTICUM (2 credits)

ENTRE 490/579, ENGR 498, ENVIR 450

Fall Quarter, Tuesdays 4-5:50 pm

Classroom: Mary Gates Hall 389(Douglas Forum BAEEC on 10/11, 10/25 and 11/1)

Instructor:  Deb Hagen-Lukens dlhagen@uw.edu

Prerequisites:  None

~Lectures are open to the public at 4:30~

Learn more at http://www.foster.washington.edu/centers/cie/eic/Pages/schedule.aspx

The goal of this practicum is to discover the universe of cleantech solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges and to raise your awareness of how you might be part of that solution.  You’ll form teams around problems you identify, and present your solutions to the class.  Although not required, teams are invited to go on to compete in the fourth UW Environmental Innovation Challenge competition to be held in Seattle March 29, 2012.

The seminar will consist of a selection of required readings and a series of industry experts who will speak on a specific cleantech topic each week. You will work in teams to present a proposed cleantech solution to an environmental problem. The final deliverable for the class is a 5-10 minute presentation.

Required Electronic Text: Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era ©2011

Course topics will include:

·         Environmental challenges and opportunities linked to cleantech.

·         How to translate an idea into an actual device/product/company (including intellectual property protection)

·         Market assessment (who would be the customer for this product or service?)

·         Local/national venture capital and angel firms now focused on cleantech endeavors, and other opportunities/resources at UW.

Feel free to contact me for more information.

Pam Tufts, Assistant Director

Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

ptufts@uw.edu  P: 206.685.3813


[course] – ENVIR 480: Transportation & Sustainability on Campus

ENVIR 480: Sustainability Studio
Transportation & Sustainability on Campus

Autumn 2011
Tu & Th 1:30-2:50, Fr 1:30-3:20

A 5-credit course focused on transportation & sustainability on the UW Campus, centered around a quarter-long team project.

*This course counts as Policy & Decision Making and/or Fieldwork for Perspectives and Experiences*

About the Class

Sustainability Studio is a hands-on exploration of making change for sustainability on our campus. This is an undergraduate class centered around student projects on the sustainability of UW campus operations.

Coursework and assignments involve both an overview of the concepts and methods of sustainability, and an opportunity for students to learn important skills in applied research, multi‐stakeholder collaboration, and professional communication.

About Transportation & Sustainability

In Washington State, transportation accounts for more than 40% of our total greenhouse gas emissions, making our transportation choices inextricably linked to bigger questions about climate change and sustainability.

Here at the University of Washington, an institution of more than 50,000, getting to and from the campus create more than 25% of the University’s emissions.

With a staff and a student body committed to sustainability, there are plenty of opportunities to advance more sustainable transportation—and this class is your chance to explore that!

For information about the course, please email Justin Hellier: hellier@uw.edu

To request an add code please complete a 4 question application on catalyst at: http://tinyurl.com/3tnsjz2.  Applications are reviewed upon submission.


[Course]: GEOG 205: Introduction to the Physical Environment

Still looking for a course for your autumn quarter schedule? GEOG 205 can help fulfill the ‘Land, Water, Air’ component of the ‘Earth Systems Literacy’ requirement for students that declare the major AUT/10 or later. For those that declared earlier, this course can fulfill the entire ‘Earth Systems Literacy’ requirement.

GEOG 205: Introduction to the Physical Environment    Autumn Quarter 2011

NW    5 credits

MTWTh, 11:30-12:20, plus Friday lab

Sln: 20758 (lecture); 20759:20761 (Fri quiz sections)

   We live on an extraordinary planet.  The activities and conveniences of modern civilization often dull our sensitivity to the miraculous workings of our planet.  The majority of us spend most of our time indoors, living in cities, and because of this our dependence on natural processes is not very obvious.  This reduced sensitivity to nature in our everyday lives is a downside of civilization.  On the positive side, over the past couple of decades the application of scientific methods has yielded an explosion of knowledge about the earth.  Accordingly, the objective of this course is to provide you with a broad introduction to a spectrum of dynamic knowledge about the Earth and the impact of humans upon it.  An understanding of many interrelationships amongst various elements of the physical environment is critical in studying the complex systems of the earth-atmosphere system.  Many of our present environmental problems have resulted because such relationships were not understood adequately if at all by the planet’s human inhabitants.

   The first half of the courses will focus on tectonic and geomorphic processes and features, including dynamic plate tectonics, mountain building, seismic, volcanic features and landscapes in the northwest.  Surface geomorphic processes and landscape features from chemical and mechanical weathering, mass wasting and mass movements to the erosion and depositional features of running water and wind will be highlighted using rich visual examples from the Pacific Northwest.  Human interaction via land-use change and dam construction with natural hydrologic cycles and water budgets, especially in urban areas, will be addressed.  Exploration of glacial and periglacial processes and landforms locally and globally will serve as a transition to the discussion of atmospheric processes and climate change. In this regard, the vivid, and scientifically based forecast for our planet in the next forty years, namely, Laurence Smith’s The World in 2050 – a distillation of cutting-edge research into the four world-changing forces of demographic trends, natural resource demands, climate change, and globalization – will be used along with first half of Robert W. Christopherson’s, Geosystems not only to develop an understanding of important and core atmospheric and climatic processes, but equally if not more importantly, to assist students to become more fully aware “…of the challenges and opportunities facing our world in the coming century.”

    Often Friday’s recitation/lab time will be spent working in small groups on in-class assignments.  At other times recitation/lab time will be used both to reinforce the lecture material and to present new and/or additional material. The labs will, however, be used primarily for introducing and working on practical lab exercises.  For example, practical skills such as topographic map reading and interpretation, graphing, data plotting, and graph interpretation, and constructing and interpreting weather maps and symbols will be taught during these weekly Friday lab periods.

   The better you understand the Earth, the more you will be sensitive to it, the more you will appreciate it, and the more you will wonder about it.  Renewed appreciation, and particularly a rekindled sense of wonder, can help motivate all of us to live more carefully within the limits of our remarkable planetary home.


[course] – Developmental Psychology and the Human Relationship with Nature

 

AUTUMN QUARTER SEMINAR, 2011

PSYCHOLOGY 563

Students across the university are welcomed.  Contact instructor for an add code, if necessary.

INSTRUCTOR: Peter Kahn

Associate Professor

http://faculty.washington.edu/pkahn/

HINTS Lab Website: http://depts.washington.edu/hints

MEETING TIME: Friday, 1:30-4:20.  (4 credits). 

In this seminar, we investigate the following questions:

·         What are the evolutionary origins of the human relationship with nature?

·         How do people form environmental commitments and sensibilities, and reason about environmental issues?

·         Do animals provide a means by which children come to care about non-sentient nature?  And about other humans?

·         How does culture affect environmental commitments and sensibilities? 

·         Are there universal features in children’s relationship with nature? 

·         To what extent do we, as a species, still need direct contact with the “wild” – that which is untamed, unmanaged, not encompassed, self-organizing, and unencumbered and unmediated by technological artifice?

·         What is the significance of increasing children’s and adults’ exposure to nature through technologically mediated interactions: e.g., through watching the “Nature Channel,” or “farming” in Farmville, or “gardening” in a Telegarden, or bonding with a robotic pet?

Even partial answers to these questions have enormous significance in areas such as child rearing, education, land use and urban planning, and the design of the natural and human built environment. 

 


[course] – Innovation in Cleantech + Market Opportunity = Solutions for the Planet

Register Now!
Innovation in Cleantech + Market Opportunity = Solutions for the Planet 

ENVIR 450, ENGR 498, ENTRE 490/579

Fall Quarter 2011 (2credits)

Tuesdays 4:00-5:50 pm, Mary Gates Hall 389

Instructor: Deborah Hagen-Lukens, dlhagen@uw.edu

For registration information contact: Pam Tufts, ptufts@uw.edu.

No prerequisites, recommended for juniors, seniors and grad students

 

Unique interdisciplinary course designed for both graduate and undergraduate students focuses on what it takes to develop innovative cleantech solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. Weekly speakers include top national, international and local experts in natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, policy and law. Topics include alternative energy and energy efficiencies, green building, and transportation. Students will form teams, identify an environmental problem and possible opportunity to solve it. Interested teams are invited to enter the Spring UW Environmental Innovation Challenge.


[course] – URBDP 498A: Practical Ecology for Planners

URBDP 498A Practical Ecology for Planners
Summer 2011
Instructor: Julia Michalak
SLN: 13731

Course description:

Humans are transforming the ecology of our planet at a massive scale
and nowhere are these changes more evident than in the urban
environment…

Traditional ecological conservation approaches have focused
on separating and protecting “nature” from people. However, it is
increasingly clear that successful ecological resilience and
sustainability will not be achieved without improving the ecological
value and integrity of the lands where people live and work, the
so-called “domesticated landscapes.” In the coming decades, planners,
designers, and developers are poised to play a key role in improving
land use practices, development patterns and landscape designs. To do
so, they need a solid understanding of how ecosystems work and how
changes associated with urban development alter ecosystem structure and
function.

In this class, students will gain a working understanding of the
fundamental ecological theories relevant to urban and transportation
planning and design. The main areas covered include urban ecology,
landscape ecology, and behavioral ecology all of which we will explore
through the lens of the urban ecosystem. In addition, students will
learn some of the methods used to generate ecological knowledge through
a series of GIS and field lab exercises. We will use the UW campus as
our laboratory as we explore the structure and function of urban
ecosystems.

The general course structure will include Tuesday lectures/discussion
and Thursday GIS or field labs. No prior experience with GIS is
required. Assignments will include readings, photo and observational
journals, lab exercises and a final exam. The class is a full summer
term. Please contact Julia Michalak with any questions:
michalaj@u.washington.edu <mailto:michalaj@u.washington.edu>. Students
from all disciplines are welcome and encouraged to attend.“