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CS92PROD
Research Methods in Environmental Studies

ENVS 201
Fall 2016 not offered
Certificates: Environmental Studies

This course is designed to introduce students to critical methods for conducting research on environmental issues. Students will gain in-depth experience with methods and paradigms of inquiry from multiple lenses including arts, humanities, and the social and natural sciences as a primer for performing research in the ENVS major. This iteration of the course will center on the issue of the rivers. We will explore theory and practice of river ecology, human-river interactions, and management at various levels of organization from individuals to populations, communities, and ecosystems. We will focus on the Connecticut River, its ecology, culture, and history as a means for understanding the role of rivers as both natural and cultural systems. This course will employ diverse methodologies for exploring the human-river connection as a social-ecological system. Students will undertake project-based learning through the use of group exercises in class, individual homeworks and a semester-long interdisciplinary research project. Course-related research will be conducted through multiple pathways for examining today's pressing riparian environmental issues and sustainable river management. Using this question as a teaching tool, we will introduce myriad research methods from across the curriculum, ranging from archival historical methodology to the statistical methods of the natural and social sciences. In the process, students will learn and apply the four stages of scholarly research: (1) question formulation; (2) research design; (3) analysis; and (4) synthesis.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS ENVS
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: [E&ES197 or BIOL197 or ENVS 197] OR E&ES199
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (DANC)(ENVS-MN)(ENVS)

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
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