BI 131 Environmental Science 1

Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 3
Credits: 4

Introduces basic principles of ecology needed to understand environmental science. Examines environmental issues associated with human population growth and investigates solutions to and mitigation of these problems.

Prerequisite: Placement into WR 115 (or higher), or completion of WR 090 (or higher) with a grade of C or better; or consent of instructor.
Student Learning Outcomes:

Distinguish between science and other “ways of knowing.”
Design a scientific experiment that conforms to the scientific method.
Describe the structure and function of ecosystem components.
Analyze population growth and distribution as inherent features of populations.
Evaluate the relationship between human population growth and other environmental problems.
Debate solutions to human population problems.

Additional General Education Outcomes

Analyze the development, scope, and limitations of fundamental scientific concepts, models, theories, and methods.
Engage students in problem-solving and investigation, through the application of scientific and mathematical methods and concepts, and by using evidence to create and test models and draw conclusions. The goal should be to develop analytical thinking that includes evaluation, synthesis, and creative insight.
Examine relationships with other subject areas, including the ethical application of science in human society and the relevance of science to everyday life.

Content Outline

Introduction to Environmental Science
- What is science and what is not?
- Design and implementation of a field-based experiment that evaluates edge effects
- Graphical summary and presentation of student-collected data using spreadsheet software
- Analysis of student-collected data including identification of trends, recognition of variability and drawing reasonable conclusions
- Comparison of experimental results to those in the scientific literature
- Sustainability and ecosystem management as guiding principles of modern natural resource management
- History of natural resource use and conservation including comparisons of different world views on the human-nature relationship
- Significant environmental events and their impacts on public opinion and governmental regulation
Ecological Concepts
- Ecosystem structure and function
  - Ecosystem definitions, components and processes
  - Aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
  - Analysis of climate data as predictors of terrestrial biomes
  - Energy flow and its application to human food production
  - Nutrient cycling and its application to forestry, agriculture and environmental degradation
  - Quantitative laboratory analysis of log decomposition as a process in nutrient cycling - includes formulation of hypotheses, measurement, evaluation of data and synthesis with a long-term database
- Communities
  - Evaluation of symbiotic relationships using local examples
  - Predator-prey interactions
  - Competition
  - Ecological succession and its application to forest and wildlife management
  - The application of community ecology concepts to ecological restoration efforts
- Populations
  - Characteristics of populations
  - Mathematical basis of exponential and logistic population growth
  - Limiting factors - density dependent and density independent
Human Populations
- Factors affecting population growth
  - Natality and mortality rates
  - Age distribution and sex ratios
  - Immigration and emigration
- Cross-country comparisons of population parameters
- Causes and consequences of regional differences in demographic characteristics
- Different approaches to human population control and related ethical considerations
- Evaluation of different viewpoints on human population growth
- Human population growth and its relationship to economic, societal and environmental problems
Laboratories
- Scientific Method I - Experimental design and hypothesis testing
- Scientific Method II - Data collection
- Scientific Method III - Analysis and interpretation
- Decomposition Lab - Measurement
- Decomposition Lab - Analysis
- Biomes
- Symbiosis
- Human populations
- Human population issues - student debate