PHYS 307 - Social Impact Through Sustainable Solar Design

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-UDB; Sustainability
Topics include: hands-on instruction of solar energy and design, energy poverty, and social justice impacts of solar energy. Construct stand-alone solar energy system designed for delivery of energy to the energy poor. Opportunities to teach solar science in local schools. Discussion Units: 2; Lab Units: 1.

Strongly Recommended Preparation: Upper division status (greater than 60 earned semester units) and completion of lower division Areas B1-B3.
Prerequisites: Completion of GE Areas A1, A2, A3 and B4 with grade C- (CR) or better.
Repeatability: May be repeated for credit for a maximum of 6 units.
Possible Instructional Methods: On-ground or Hybrid.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-UDB - Upper Division Science Inquiry and Quantitative Reasoning, Overlay - Sustainability
Cross-listed: ENVT 307.
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

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

Identify and describe the environmental and social justice aspects of solar energy as compared to fossil fuel based sources, including using advanced quantitative skills to analyze the impacts on environmental sustainability
Use scientific and engineering methods to design stand-alone off-grid solar based systems using power analysis and electrical circuit theory, taking into account the choices required to maintain a sustainable energy supply
Describe threats to environmental sustainability, in the context of energy as well as the corresponding interactions between society and the environment and the impact that solar energy has on alleviating these threats.

UD-B. Upper-division Science Inquiry and Quantitative Reasoning Learning Outcomes

demonstrate advanced and/or focused science or quantitative content knowledge in a specific scientific field, using appropriate vocabulary and referencing appropriate concepts (such as models, uncertainties, hypotheses, theories, and technologies);
apply advanced quantitative skills (such as statistics, algebraic solutions, interpretation of graphical data) to scientific problems and evaluate scientific claims;
demonstrate understanding of the nature of science and scientific inquiry and the experimental and empirical methodologies used in science to investigate a scientific question or issue; and
apply science content knowledge to contemporary scientific issues (e.g., global warming) and technologies (e.g., cloning), where appropriate.

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.