INS-301L IS: Environment † *

An upper-class course, to be taken after most other core requirements are completed, that provides students with guidance in their application of interdisciplinary knowledge to problem solving. Students are challenged to practice critical and creative thinking skills, and are expected to demonstrate competence in oral, written, and other creative modes of expression. In this course, students will demonstrate an ability to integrate and apply multiple disciplinary perspectives, with particular focus on ethical considerations, to selected environmental problems, issues, situations or cases. Students will explore basic ecological concepts such as sustainability; some of the impacts of human activity and decisions on the physical environment; ways in which scientific methods of inquiry, imaginative/artistic representations, and philosophical concepts such as stewardship help shape humans' understanding of and responses to the natural world. Attention will also be paid to cultural, social, political, economic, and other factors that influence human actions and relationships to the physical environment.