Learning Goals

Goal 1

Students graduating from the major will understand and analyze the varied perspectives offered by the social and natural sciences regarding the causes and consequences of social, ecological, and environmental change. This includes interactions among natural resources, climate, population, energy use and technology, health, forces of globalization, social institutions, and cultural values.

Graduates should be able to:

1.1 Describe major patterns and drivers of natural resource use, pollution, and climate and environmental change.

1.2 Identify different approaches to the governance and management of human activities that affect the environment, both in the United States and abroad, including institutions, property relations, management regimes, politics, and policies.

1.3 Explain characteristics of human populations, including population growth, demographic transitions, social stratification, consumption, and indicators of human welfare.

1.4 Describe technological trends affecting human well-being and the environment including energy use and development, biotechnology, and geospatial and communication technologies.

1.5 Evaluate major issues in health, including race, gender, and socioeconomic position, food and nutrition access and policies, cultural factors, and understanding of risk and vulnerability.

1.6 Discuss the dynamics of development and globalization, including historical antecedents, current trends and pathways, and local responses to global forces.

1.7 Explain how social forces, cultural values, and behavior affect human environmental interactions, including issues such as political and economic relations, inequality, access to resources, and interactions between human diversity and biological diversity.

Goal 2

Students will acquire the skills to use appropriate conceptual and methodological tools to structure inquiries about human-environment interactions.

Graduates should be able to:

2.1. Assess the relevant contexts for addressing environmental problems at the appropriate spatial, temporal, and organizational scale(s).

2.2. Identify the relevant biological, historical, sociocultural, governance, and political issues that need to be addressed.

2.3. Identify what constitutes valid and relevant evidence to address the question and demonstrate an ability to understand and work with quantitative information.

2.4. Conduct ethical primary and secondary research using appropriate methods and considering relevant community norms.

2.5. Analyze and interpret evidence.

2.6. Identify appropriate governance tools to manage human-environment impacts and be capable of engaging with regulatory, legislative, and other democratic processes.

2.7. Apply this understanding to identify policies and plans that address the problem.

2.8. Identify different decision-making processes and criteria for selecting from among alternatives.

2.9. Evaluate the alternatives' environmental and differentiated social consequences.

2.10. Identify relevant audiences, determine communication goals, and communicate the results in oral and/or written form in a manner effective for each targeted audience.

2.11. Work effectively in team settings.

Goal 3

Students will undertake their work guided by ethical considerations. They will identify their own values with respect to environmental, health, and food issues. They will evaluate and address the ethical dimensions and implications of related problems, assessments, plans, and communication, including their differentiated social impacts.