Courses

An inventory of plant life across major habitats - particularly in the local area of British Columbia - this course provides insights into the ecology of these environments. Local field trips highlight natural habitats, agricultural and horticultural crops, and managed forests. Critical assessment of planetary stewardship forms a common theme.

An overview of the fundamental earth science processes responsible for the creation, transformation, and ongoing physical development of the Pacific Northwest. These processes are studied in the context of the building of the North American continent through tectonic forces and surface dynamics. Topics include: geologic time, tectonics, volcanology, seismology, stratigraphy, glaciation, erosion, paleontology, paleoclimatology, and environmental issues. Field trips and field studies are included.

Introduction to the geological causes and characteristics of natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, landslides, floods, weather-related events, and climate change. The focus will be on understanding how the natural hazards affect us in everyday life and how we can predict the hazard, prevent, or moderate the hazard to avoid a natural disaster.

This course describes and explores Canada's physical and human geography focusing on the regional distribution of natural features and resources, population and settlements, economic activities and development, and cultural change. It emphasizes the diversity and interrelationships between the physical and human landscapes which have evolved over time, creating the identifiable regions and subregions within the country.

An overview of the various perspectives put forward in the West on the proper human relationship to the environment. We will investigate the metaphysics behind the fact/value dichotomy, the currently influential views on the human-nature relationship, various environmental ethical frameworks, the distinctive characteristics of moral reasoning and argumentation as they bear on the human-nature relationship, and the religious, economic, socio-cultural, and ideological factors contributory to the rise of the ecological crisis. We conclude by critically interrogating the conceptual substructures of some popular contemporary environmental frameworks.

A study of the life history and distribution of marine organisms in several major habitat types, including soft sediment and rocky substrate communities. Emphasis is on field and laboratory work in a survey of common local marine plants and animals and their relationships. Includes field work in the Lower Mainland, Gulf Islands, and/or Vancouver Island.

A study of the structure and dynamics of ecosystems. Consideration of plant and animal populations in relation to physical, chemical, and biological factors affecting their interaction and productivity. Considerable laboratory time is devoted to the study of local ecosystems, field sampling techniques, and field trips to ecological research areas.

Students are invited into understanding and using quantitative and computational inquiry to understand and discern computer-based spatial analysis as a mode of inquiry. Students develop confidence in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and accompanying computer- based, spatial analytical tools to model geographic problems using mathematical and computing notation. Students are provided with the opportunity to investigate the theory and practical utility of GIS through collecting empirical spatial data, analyzing quantitative data, conducting computational spatial analyses to answer meaningful geographic and environmental questions, making judgements based on quantitative information derived from these analyses, and communicating the results with purposeful, multi-audience cartographic products.

A thematic case study approach to Canadian Environmental History that highlights the nation's unique reciprocal relationships with nature as illustrated through ideas (Wilderness), material resources (Water) and social/ethical issues (Global Warming). Investigates how natural elements like climate, topography, plants, animals and diseases have influenced our choices about nature, and how cultural content, like clean/green energy initiatives, pipeline projects, save the whale campaigns, and fear of climate change, have shaped our perceptions of the places we inhabit. Critically engages the ethical decisions we make about the environment that may determine the future we wish to construct as Canadian and global citizens.