Course Overview
Class Information
📅 Meeting Times: Monday & Wednesday, 12:00 – 1:50 PM on Zoom
🎓 Credits: 4 credits — CON2 course, cross-listed as EJST and ENVS
✅ Prerequisites: None — though a deep interest will be helpful.
🎓 Credits: 4 credits — CON2 course, cross-listed as EJST and ENVS
✅ Prerequisites: None — though a deep interest will be helpful.
Course Materials
Weekly readings from the textbook, plus relevant articles, documentaries, and films provided throughout the semester.
📖 Energy and Society: An Introduction, 2nd ed. by Harold H. Schobert
Please keep up with the assignments and be prepared to engage in meaningful class discussions.
✦ Engagement Expectations
Be prepared to discuss and engage in class on a regular basis.
Many days will involve group work that doesn’t necessarily require Zoom — you’re invited to meet up with your groups in person if you prefer.
You are not required to keep your cameras on, but I would appreciate it as much as possible, especially when presenting. You will move into breakout rooms with your peers on a regular basis, so please be ready for that.
Many days will involve group work that doesn’t necessarily require Zoom — you’re invited to meet up with your groups in person if you prefer.
You are not required to keep your cameras on, but I would appreciate it as much as possible, especially when presenting. You will move into breakout rooms with your peers on a regular basis, so please be ready for that.
Course Goals
- Learn the basic operating principles of each common power source.
- Learn the basics of thermodynamics and energy transfer efficiency.
- Learn the general language and conversions of energy and power.
- Understand the environmental impact of each power source.
- Analyze scientific, social, and political aspects of energy.
- Understand the historical significance and reasons behind our energy infrastructure.
- Become a responsible consumer of news and electricity.
- Understand the relationship between fossil fuels and the Earth.
- Examine effects and injustice of various environmental policies and practices.
- Be able to interpret energy-based information and understand daily interactions with energy.
- Critically analyze news articles and communicate effectively with a group.
Course Outcomes
At the end of the course, each student should be able to:
- Explain the origins of energy and the issues that come with harvesting it.
- Understand the difference between energy and power, and be able to compare and contrast different units.
- Understand the basic physical and chemical principles that limit energy transfer in terms of the Laws of Thermodynamics and sustainability.
- Read/watch the news and understand the numbers and argumentation.
- Understand all of the current options for generating power and interpret strengths and weaknesses of argument.
- Explain and contrast the monetary, human, and environmental costs and injustices related to power sources.
- Gain an appreciation of the crucial connection between water and energy — water and power are deeply entwined.
- Appreciate the critical role that energy plays in society throughout history and in the current political climate.
- Distinguish the two arguments that regularly play into energy decisions: political power and vulnerability vs. environmental concerns — sustainability vs. national security.
Environmental Science Program SLOs Met
This course addresses the following Environmental Science Program Student Learning Outcomes:
- 1 Articulate the role of human beings in the context of environmental processes and issues.
- 2 Draw from different fields or disciplines to contextualize environmental processes, issues, and solutions.
- 3 Develop critical thinking by evaluating competing theories, values, and attitudes regarding environmental issues.
- 4 Identify, describe, and/or model biological species, communities, and their level of interactions.
- 5 Identify, describe, and/or model elemental and molecular structures of natural and exotic compounds, transport, pollution, and interactions in biogeochemical cycles.
- 8 Present and describe findings from literature and direct observations/experimentation through effective written, oral, and/or creative products, including tables and figures.
