Environmental Studies

This course provides students with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to critically evaluate how an ecosystem is managed, through rigorously adopting methods from ecological sciences to develop an understanding of ecosystem health and environmental change, and interdisciplinary approaches to explore the multiple dimensions and trade-offs emerging from human-environment interactions. Through a mixture of case studies and real-life examples, students consider the challenges of and solutions for maintaining and supporting healthy ecosystems.

This course introduces the science of Physiological Plant Ecology with a strong focus on plant water relations and how recent climate change is affecting these. Plant Physiological Ecology teaches how plants function, grow, and survive in their ecosystems and how it underpins food security, ecosystem restoration, and the understanding of water as a resource. The course is set to inspire students to learn and think about how terrestrial ecosystems work and function, and what challenges they will be facing in the future.

The course discusses environmental studies as an interdisciplinary field, exploring their intersection with other disciplines. The core of the course is focused on the current environmental issues in a global context, primarily within the conceptual framework of Anthropocene and Post-Anthorpocene. The Czech context is presented through an analysis of the most burning environmental issues, including brown coal mining, air pollution, carbon emissions, waste management, landscape transportation, soil erosion, and energy production. The interconnection of social, economic, and ethical contexts of environmental issues is stressed throughout the course. The course consists of lectures, discussions, student presentations, group work, quizzes, and an excursion.

This course provides an Introduction on formation of tides; distribution patterns of organisms in sandy shore, mangrove and rocky shore habitats, as well as relevant surveying techniques.

At the end of this course students should be able to:
1.Describe the physical environmental factors (e.g., waves, tides) shaping the intertidal environment
2.Understand the basic factors affecting the distribution and abundance of intertidal organisms
3.Understand the factors limiting species distribution patterns on the vertical intertidal gradient and study the methods to measure and investigate these patterns
4.Design experimental studies to investigate patterns (e.g., zonation) and processes (e.g. competition) in intertidal areas
5.Plan a simple experimental and statistical study on intertidal ecology.
6.Review and critique scientific papers 

In this course concepts of sustainable development and design from an interdisciplinary perspective are introduced. Includes a broad orientation of different design principles and models of sustainable design, for example design with inspiration from nature and based on ecological systems and conditions. These examples are reviewed and problematized from a critical analysis and discussion with focus on ethics, power, risks and possibilities, idea-historical examples, different culture and world views, and aesthetics. In the course acquired theoretical knowledge is applied within a specific design principle on a field within the sustainability field. An interdisciplinary work process including technical, social, economical, ecological integrated, and sustainable systems is required. The project work offers the possibility to explore different creative presentations techniques.

The course examines the concept of sustainable development, the ecological foundations of human existence on Earth, and our way of using natural resources. Examples of themes covered in this course are ecosystem services, biodiversity, climate change, water supply, and energy systems. Lifestyle issues, leadership roles, and political strategies for a transition towards sustainable development are also addressed. Issues on ethics, health, cultural patterns, globalization, and technological development are discussed in connection with sustainable development. The course also includes studies of sustainability aspects and the implications of the national environmental goals at the local area. This course illustrates many issues including; energy production, water purification, waste management, education for sustainable development, effects of natural resource use, social and economic structure and local problems, solutions, strategies and visions. Students carry out independent in-depth work on any topic in the field of sustainable development.

The course is given as online education. Assignments are submitted in the e-classroom, and the student receives feedback from the teacher. In addition to the students' own literature studies, compulsory discussion forums and chat seminars are included.

The course covers the importance of film pre-production, scripting, and basic shooting. Through outdoor practice, different methods of shooting animals, plant, and landscape are learned. The course is designed into three parts: outdoor shooting, sounds recording, and film editing. At the end of the semester, the students turn in and present their film project to the class.