Topical modules provide a framework to integrate community and environmental issues in a progression from local to global scales. Interdisciplinary class and field work culminate in team projects, and essays motivate your individual efforts at conceptual integration. These modules provide a setting for you to integrate concepts from Earth Systems Science, Conservation Biology, and The Human Role in Environmental Change.

At the beginning of each module a lecture introduces major themes. Additional full-class meetings are used to organize project groups and introduce important concepts. These lectures will generally be on Mondays.

Weekly Round-ups

Weekly round-up sessions will occur on most Mondays at 9 am. Students and selected staff will review what was learned during the previous week and how the knowledge can be integrated. Creative, original approaches will be encouraged.

Most PMSL class meetings will be in small discussion groups (8-18 students) and will occur Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9-11.

During the following exercises you may conclude that people do not know how to manage their activities in a way that best preserves ecosystems and improves the quality of human life. This is true at almost any scale, but the problems are especially vexing at the global scale. Don’t despair. Your generation is poised to make significant changes and create renewed hope. The exercises will encourage you to gain knowledge, skills and practices that you can apply to these challenges, and thereby make your contribution, instead of feeling overwhelmed.

This module presents basic techniques for creating a student housing/ riparian management assessment and getting to know a community and its environment. You will be introduced or re-introduced to scientific methods in both natural and social sciences. You will also learn about the forces that shape the local landscape on different time scales, from geologic processes to human activity. Short, field-based projects will allow practice with field sampling and data analysis. An earlier sense of place and community will be revealed through reading and reflecting upon A Beautiful, Cruel Country. (This should be half-read by Feb. 7, completed by Feb. 13.) We will critically examine the concept of sustainability and evaluate various proposals for implementation of more sustainable practices and lifestyles. Other main outcomes for this module will be to learn the basic concepts of ecosystems as well as different management approaches.

In your projects, you may explore these questions:

How do human communities connect with the landscapes that they occupy and exploit?

How can complex planning options be compared?

How do organizations make decisions about managing ecosystems?

What kind of information is best to inform management decisions, and how can it be found?

Throughout this module there is an underlying theme that human communities and organizations are influencing local ecosystems in complex and sometimes unintended ways. We need to develop a "sense of place" in order to observe, predict, prepare for, accept or avert change.

After the team presentations culminate the student housing/ riparian management assessment projects, we move to the northern coast of the Gulf of California, where we will learn about arid coastal environments, intertidal ecology, and coastal development issues.

This week will bridge the gap between local and planetary scales. We will focus on issues connected with the Mexico/U.S.A. border and the northern Gulf of California region. There will also be time for refining and presenting the research projects that were conducted during the preceding week’s field trip.

The goal for this module is to apply the techniques and concepts we have studied for monitoring, modeling and managing local systems at planetary scales. Two issues that may lead to crises during your generation will be examined: climate change and sustainable energy. You will be introduced to concepts used to understand complex systems and phenomena at different scales. Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree, a description of cultural and economic globalization processes, will be juxtaposed with Ursula Le Guin’s Always Coming Home, a well-articulated vision of sustainable inhabitation. During this module you will travel to the Lower Colorado River and the Salton Sink in California, where you will see an environment shaped by active tectonics, pervasive aridity, and the politics of water management. While half the class is in the field, those remaining on campus will explore Biosphere 2 and industrial ecology.

At the conclusion of each module, student teams will give an oral presentation, which may consist of a standard presentation, a role play, or elements of both. Part of the grade for each module will be a team grade, based on creativity, content richness and accuracy, as well as presentation effectiveness.

Team members may also evaluate each other, and part of the grade for each module may based on these peer evaluations.

All students will be asked to write reflective essays that demonstrate conceptual integration. Possible topics for the major essays will be presented near the beginning of each module. Minor essays will be assigned periodically in conjunction with discussion topics.

Field Notebooks will be an important tool for you to record, interpret, and integrate your observations. To instill the habit and reward attention to your notebooks, your field notebook will comprise 25% of your PMSL grade.

Module 1 grades (32% of total PMSL grade):

Borders mini-module grade:

Module 2 grades (40% of total PMSL grade):

There will be opportunities for extra credit, including outstanding contributions to the weekly roundup, book reviews, extra essays, etc.

Due Dates and Presentations

Week 4 Sense of Place III

Week 7 CEDO trip

Week 8 Borders mini-module

Week 9

Spring Break

Week 11 Planetary Systems II

Weeks 12-13 California Desert/Biosphere 2

Note: Half of the students will be on the California desert field trip each week. Those remaining on campus will have the following schedule.

Week 14 Planetary Systems III

Week 15 Planetary Systems IV

Johanna Bernstein International Environmental Law

Sustainable Energy Use

Finalize Research Projects

Week 17 Graduation

Tu May 8 2-4 presentations: Planetary Systems Music & Art