Earth & Space Sciences

This course presents an understanding of how the complexity of matter has evolved from its simplest forms during Big Bang to the rise of intelligent life that is capable of understanding its own place in this fabulous development. Topics include the formation of the elements during Big Bang, supernovae, and red giants; dust formation, stellar winds, and the re-circulation of cosmic material; the formation of the solar system; planets around other stars; the physical-chemical basis for life; the rise and development of life on the Earth; conditions for finding life beyond Earth; and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

This course investigates the Earth’s environment over its geological past. It dives into historical geological timescales to better understand the climate and geography of the planet and its interactions with organisms.

The primary goal of this course is to understand Earth’s geologic and surface processes with respect to landscape formation, functioning, land degradation, and human impacts to the environment. The course features an integrative systems approach while introducing fundamental concepts from Earth science disciplines (physical geography, geology, geomorphology, hydrology). A guiding principle is to investigate why, how, when, and where materials, landforms, and natural resources are created, degraded, and changed by the action of tectonics, gravity, water, winds, and waves from high-mountain settings to the coastal zone. Introduced concepts are reviewed in the context of a range of potential topics, such as plate tectonics, volcanism, rocks and minerals, soils, climate, mass wasting, karst, water resources, river systems, coastal processes, and associated natural hazards.

The course includes compulsory field trips to the environs of The Hague to learn how concepts reviewed in class apply to what is commonly perceived as "the abiotic environment". Field activities include the training of observational and sampling skills. Basic laboratory analysis of soil and/or sediment samples introduce students to testing methods and reporting on self-produced environmental information.

With accelerating trends such as climate change, water scarcity, energy depletion, social injustice, economic crisis, resource wars, and other challenges, there is a growing need for sustainable alternatives. This course connects guest lectures that describe the severity of the challenges, workshops that discuss the possible sustainable responses, and solutions to those challenges within the context of a specific global city or region. Students have the opportunity to link global challenges to their own local and cultural backgrounds through case studies.

This course offers a broad overview on the fossil record of plants with special emphasis on evolution and biodiversity changes since the Palaeozoic. In this course basic principles of plant evolution from the Palaeozoic to present-day are discussed. The major steps of terrestrialization are placed into a comprehensive overview on feedbacks between large-scale geosphere processes such as plate tectonics, atmosphere-biosphere interactions, and the global carbon cycle through time. The second goal is to critically reflect on natural dynamics of biodiversity versus modern biodiversity loss, the human induced “mass-extinction” of the 21st century. The course includes assignments such as rock and fossil labs, computer aided labs, and a one day practical held in the botanical garden.