HIST 388 - US and California Environmental History

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-UD-C; Sustainability
An introduction to US Environmental History, with special emphasis on California topics. Focus is on the evolution of human cultural relationships with the natural environment, and with understanding sustainability as a historical evolving notion.

Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division Area C requirements.
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 with grade C- (CR) or better.
Equivalent Quarter Course: HIST 3505.
Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UD-C - Upper Division Arts or Humanities, Overlay - Sustainability
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Understand the evolution of the relationship between settlers and the environment in California from US statehood to present;
Understand environmental history as a record of environmental change as well as a history of evolving ideas about appropriate relationships with the environment;
Understand sustainability as an evolving concept;
Understand the roots of non-sustainable behavior as well as environmentalist movements that support sustainability;
Understand social justice as an aspect of environmental history and of an environmentally sustainable future;
Speak to contemporary issues with an understanding of their historical roots;
Use digital media to express the ideas, research, argumentation and analysis of a traditional scholarly essay;

UD-C. Upper-division Arts or Humanities Learning Outcomes

demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply the principles, methodologies, value systems, and thought processes employed in the arts and humanities;
analyze cultural production as an expression of, or reflection upon, what it means to be human; and
demonstrate how the perspectives of the arts and humanities are used by informed, engaged, and reflective citizens to benefit local and global communities.

Sustainability Overlay Learning Outcomes

identify the environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, either in general or in relation to a specific problem;
analyze interactions between human activities and natural systems;
describe key threats to environmental sustainability; and
explain how individual and societal choices affect prospects for sustainability at the local, regional, and/or global levels.