ENSC 220 - Warming Planet, Rising Seas, and Global Change

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-B1; Sustainability
Introduction to important environmental issues connected with global change, including climate change, greenhouse gases, extreme weather, sea level rise, ocean acidification, impacts on humans and other species. Critical analysis of media coverage of global change, climate science. Non-science majors welcome.

Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground, or Entirely Online, or Hybrid.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-B1 - Lower Division Physical Science, Overlay - Sustainability
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

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

Explain, in terms understandable to non-scientists, the processes, theories, and data related to climate change, greenhouse gases, ocean acidification, sea level rise, planetary albedo, and other important factors in global change.
Explain, in terms understandable to non-scientists, strategies used to mitigate and/or adapt to anticipated global change.
Demonstrate an understanding of scientific practices used to understand and predict global change, including climate models, land-based measurements, satellite measurements, data analysis, etc.
Articulate the benefits and limitations of predictive models such as those used to model climate change.
Critically analyze media and other popular coverage of global change related topics.

B1. Physical Science Learning Outcomes

Demonstrate knowledge of scientific theories, concepts, and data about the physical sciences;
demonstrate an understanding of scientific practices, including the scientific method; and
describe the potential limits of scientific endeavors, including the accepted standards and ethics associated with scientific inquiry.

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.