Environmental Science Track

The goals of the two-semester biology introductory sequence are: (1) to provide an understanding of the unifying themes in modern biology, (2) to introduce the diversity of life at all levels of organization, and (3) to illustrate the methods and modes of scientific inquiry currently used in the biological sciences. During the fall semester (BIOL 101) the focus is on fundamental principles of evolution and genetics, whereas in the spring (BIOL 102) the diversity of life, from cells to organisms, is explored. The fall and spring courses do not have to be taken in sequence but both are pre-requisites for all advanced courses in biology.

Corequisites: Must register for lab for BIOL 101.

Course Designation/Attribute: SP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

During Advanced Biostatistics, students will build on the basic statistical skills they gained in Introductory Biostatistics and learn to apply more advanced techniques to real data. Students will also learn to read biostatistical literature, which will build their ability to learn other statistical techniques on their own. Students will learn a variety of techniques that are frequently used by Biology Faculty at Clark University, and so will enhance the skills students have to effectively do research in the department. Students will learn to do these statistics in the statistical computing language R, which has become the standard in the sciences for conducting complex statistical analysis. Students will get the opportunity to analyze data generated in Clark Biology laboratories to reinforce their learning and get valuable hands-on experience doing statistics.

Prerequisites:BIOL 106 OR GEOG 110, or permission of the instructor

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every other fall

Provides an overview of ecology as a scientific discipline. The primary emphasis is on efforts to explain and predict the distribution and abundance of organisms, how ecological communities are composed and why they vary in time and space.

Prerequisites:BIOL 101 or BIOL 102 AND Statistics (BIOL 106, ECON 160, PSYC 105GEOG 110, SOC 202, PSCI 107 or  MATH 123) OR Calculus (MATH 120, MATH 124, BIOL 121)

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

This course will ignite your interest in environmental science and policy by engaging the urgent challenges of our times: conserving forests, sustaining food systems, and responding to climate change. We will ground our understanding of these complex environmental issues through case studies of New England and Ethiopia, as well as a location chosen by the class. The course integrates biophysical and social sciences with Indigenous and other place-based knowledge systems. Throughout the semester, we read classic and cutting-edge research papers, listen to podcasts, and watch short films. We engage a wide range of perspectives through discussions, small group activities, student presentations, and guest lectures. While deepening our understanding of complex environmental problems, we focus on solutions. Students learn to write policy briefs that summarize scientific knowledge and evaluate alternative policy options.

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annual -Fall

This course introduces the structure and function of the earth system, with a focus on how the Earth system sustains life. Topics include (1) connections among terrestrial surface, oceans, and atmosphere and (2) how these connections create and sustain climates, biomes, and ecosystem services.

Course Designation/Attribute: SP

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year.

Overview of what governs the hydrological cycle’s major components of precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, surface water, and groundwater.  Core principles of physical hydrology will be introduced including rainfall-runoff processes, surface and subsurface storage and flows, and land-atmosphere exchange.  Students will also learn about human influences on the water cycle, and consider management of water resources at field to watershed scales.  Upon completion of this course, students will:

• Understand the essential elements of hydrological processes and how these govern the distribution of water in the earth system.
• Be able to solve the surface water balance and analyze its controls in different environments.
• Have the basic skills needed to explore water resource issues, such as quantitative understanding of the likelihood of extreme rainfall and flooding events, flow directions and rates in surface and ground waters, or land use/land cover effects on hydrological processes.
• Have new appreciation for fundamental tools and terms used in the field of hydrology including mass balance, steady-state, flux-gradient relations, continuity, dimensional analysis, and probability.

RECOMMEND GEOG 104 or GEOG 102. A background in one or more of the following courses would also be helpful: physics (PHYS 110/PHYS 111), calculus (MATH 120/MATH 121), or statistics (GEOG 110).  Three of the lab sessions will require extended hours.

Prerequisites:  

Anticipated Terms Offered: Fall

This course is a general introduction to climatology and the interaction between earth’s climate and the hydrologic cycle. We will emphasize the essential controls of weather and climate, patterns and dynamics of the global climate (including insolation, temperature, evapotranspiration, precipitation, and atmospheric circulation), and the drivers of climate and hydrologic change. We will examine large-scale modes of climate variability (such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation), as well as hydroclimate extremes (droughts, floods). Finally, the course will have a focus on developing a deeper understanding of how climate data are collected, analyzed, and disseminated, and how models have become important tools to improve our understanding of these systems.

Prerequisites:GEOG 104 or GEOG 102

Anticipated Terms Offered: Annually

Considers the relationships between spatial patterns in landscape structure (physical, biological and cultural) and ecological processes. Role of ecosystem pattern in mass and energy transfers, disturbance regimes, species’ persistence, applications of remote sensing and GIS for landscape characterization and modeling are examined. Prerequisite: GEOG 190 – Introduction to Geographic Information Science. GEOG 116 – Forest Ecology is strongly recommended.

Prerequisites: GEOG 190

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year

Explores ecosystem responses to global environmental changes and how they feedback on the earth system. Students will learn about biophysical controls on energy, water, and carbon cycles, and how biogeography, vegetation physiology, and local to global climates influence surface-atmosphere exchanges, which then feedback on biogeography and climate. The course introduces the theory, remote sensing, and computational modeling of biophysical, biogeochemical, and ecosystem dynamical processes active in shaping the terrestrial biosphere. Students will be exposed to methods of land surface and ecosystem process modeling through computer tutorials with numerical simulation, and will train some basics of writing computer code. Can fulfill the Geography or Earth System Science Capstone.

Prerequisites:GEOG 104 or GEOG 116 or GEOG 119 or GEOG 205 or GEOG 232 or GEOG 263 or BIOL 216

Anticipated Terms Offered: Offered every year