Environmental Studies

This course introduces some of the diverse topics around sustainability and the future of the environment. The focus in the first half of the course is to identify and explore various global issues that currently need to be addressed to ensure sustainability. Topics such as population, migration, health, cities, water, food, and the digital age are included. Economic and biological aspects are not covered in any depth even though they too are complementary and equally essential in providing robust ways forward. Any student with interests in these areas would be warmly welcome to participate and to contribute. The second half of the course focuses on the need to provide sustainable energy, and alternative energy sources are introduced since decisions currently are being, and will need to continue to be, taken to replace conventional fossil fuels.

This course explores how the current global framework of sustainable development, particularly within the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russian Aggression in Ukraine as well as other conflicts in the world, play on the implementation of SDGs. It also studies how sustainable development has evolved in the global development discussion. The course aims to instruct students on various aspects of sustainable development and key global environmental issues, including how to work towards a more sustainable society.

The International Internship course develops vital business skills employers are actively seeking in job candidates. This course is comprised of two parts: an internship, and a hybrid academic seminar. Students are placed in an internship within a sector related to their professional ambitions. The hybrid academic seminar, conducted both online and in-person, analyzes and evaluates the workplace culture and the daily working environment students experience. The course is divided into eight career readiness competency modules as set out by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), which guide the course’s learning objectives. During the academic seminar, students reflect weekly on their internship experience within the context of their host culture by comparing and contrasting their experiences with their global internship placement with that of their home culture. Students reflect on their experiences in their internship, the role they have played in the evolution of their experience in their internship placement, and the experiences of their peers in their internship placements. Students develop a greater awareness of their strengths relative to the career readiness competencies, the subtleties and complexities of integrating into a cross-cultural work environment, and how to build and maintain a career search portfolio.

Through examples of natural resources (minerals, oil, water, and rare earths) this course assesses the current situation of these resources at the quantitative level. It demonstrates various and often competing uses of these resources by our societies, and the current quantitative and qualitative problems in different regions of the world. The course investigates the tensions (past, present, future) that exist around these resources due to their distribution in relation to need, and sometimes due to their scarcity. It highlights the complexity of managing these resources, as will the complexity of the solutions to be implemented.

This is an introduction to the field of Environmental Science, with a focus on ecosystems and biodiversity. The course focuses on how human disturbances affect individuals, populations, and communities. The course also discusses which mechanisms organisms have developed to deal with these stressors. In addition, the course examines the key methods which are available to study environmental impacts (e.g. field, modelling and lab studies), to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of these tools when assessing environmental impacts. Students develop a population model, and use the model to assess impacts of anthropogenic stressors in the population of animals. Students also conduct a group research project, which includes basic study design and data collection. Students gain theoretical insights in the classroom, and apply this knowledge during the research project.

This course introduces the appropriate use of specific terminology for ecology and provides an awareness and understanding of interactions between the environment and the living beings. It covers the initial approach of ecology and main ecological notions related to terrestrial and marine systems as well as animal and plant domains. Topics include ecology in history, ecological factors, structure and dynamics of populations, and community ecology and structure of ecosystems.