Courses taught by Jennie C. Stephens
Environmental Science and Policy
International Development, Community, and Environment
Clark University
EN 101 Environment, Society, and Technology (undergraduate only)
Technological development has contributed to both the cause of and the solution to many environmental problems. The complexity and uncertainty associated with environmental science has challenged societal efforts to protect environmental systems from negative human impacts. Through detailed analysis of three case studies, this course will explore the complex societal associations among environmental science, technological development, and attempts to reduce environmental impacts. Potential case studies to be used to explore these issues include: climate change mitigation, stratospheric ozone depletion, and water resource management. Formal lectures, readings, written assignments and class discussion will be included, as well as a weekly laboratory component that will involve environmental field sampling and field trips. This course fulfills the natural science perspective requirement.
Offered every year / Spring Semester
EN 103 The Sustainable University (undergraduate only)
Institutions of higher learning, through both their curriculum and their management and operations, have a unique institutional capacity to educate and demonstrate environmental responsibility in their communities. This course will explore the environmental challenges facing society by focusing in on the college campus and the evolving movement of campus sustainability. Students will contribute to ongoing projects at Clark, including developing and maintaining a campus greenhouse gas inventory, while also engaging in new efforts to promote sustainable practices and sustainable education at Clark and in the surrounding Worcester community. Topic areas to be investigated include climate change and energy (energy conservation and renewable energy), recycling, composting, green buildings, environmentally friendly purchasing policies, and more. This seminar is open to both beginning and advanced students and will involve both individual and group projects.
Offered every year / Fall Semester
EN 124 Global Warming: How to Respond? (first-year seminar, first-year undergraduate students only)
As global temperatures are increasing, sea level is rising, polar ice sheets are melting, and more intense storms are occurring, the mounting scientific evidence linking these changes to human activity has resulted in a shift in the global warming debate; rather than debating whether or not human activity is driving climate change current debate revolves around how society should respond. In this seminar students will explore this debate by delving into the potential and the obstacles of various different societal actions that could be taken to reduce the risks and impacts of global warming, and explore how different countries and communities are responding. Shifting energy infrastructure toward renewable energy, designing transportations systems and community plans to reduce automobile reliance and associated emissions, and maximizing energy efficiency in buildings and industry are among the societal actions that will be investigated. An additional category of responses involves preparing for adaptation to inevitable or already occurring changes in climate. Students will learn about the many, complex technological, institutional, political, educational, and societal challenges associated with building the capacity for implementing the level of global change required to have an impact on minimizing the risks associated with our changing climate. Semester-long student projects will involve developing a proposal for implementing specific climate change response strategies at a specific scale, either local, regional, national, or international, emphasizing the connections between local action and global change.
Offered occasionally / Fall Semester
EN 206/IDCE 30205 Climate Change, Energy, and Development
(graduate-level course, advanced undergraduates with permission only)
This course explores the environment-energy challenge of development with a particular emphasis on climate change. Human burning of fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation is changing the earth’s climate by changing the composition of the atmosphere. As demand for energy increases in both developing and developed countries and the risks associated with climate change are becoming more evident, the challenges of confronting climate change are mounting. The challenges of climate change mitigation measures and the associated conflicts between developed and developing countries will be explored as will the uneven distribution of climate change impacts in the developing world. Adaptation to climate change as well as mitigation will be discussed.
Offered every year (currently in the fall semester)