Summer 2023 course will be held at UM Biostation
This newly designed and remotely-taught course 4-credit course will leverage the power of place-based learning to understand the scale, complexity, and challenges of earth and environmental processes that impact student’s communities, the state, and the world.
Earth 296 will be taught as a series of one week modules, with each module covering a specific topic in the Earth and environmental sciences. The course will have a low instructor to student ratio, and students will be engaged in collecting data through both physical trips to their local surroundings and through on-line resources that pertain to both the regions where they live, and across the globe. Student cohort groups will be created for each module to build community. These groups will regularly communicate with faculty and graduate student instructors through lectures, tutorials, demonstrations, and discussions. In this course, students will actively engage the natural world to elucidate the importance of Earth and environmental sciences in all of our lives while simultaneously developing scientific thinking and problem-solving skills. Example modules for Earth 296 include:
- Introduction – Earth and Environmental Sciences in our community and on our planet
- Earth’s place in the Universe – the Earth as a rocky planet and a life raft
- Beneath our feet and back in time – what geology underlies our feet, when did it form, and how do we know?
- Water flow: where does it go? – Examining lakes, rivers, and streams; runoff and rainfall and the societal impact of record high Great Lake levels
- Why the Great Lakes are not the Great Plains – the glacial geology of Michigan and its impact on our landscapes, waterscapes, and ecology
- In an instant – Volcanic eruptions can change our planet’s climate and life. What are the links between plate tectonics and volcanism? How do we understand the dangers posed by volcanoes and their hazards?
- How solid is the ground? – The surface of the Earth is modified by climate and tectonics, including earthquakes at plate boundaries and inside continents.
- What is a “Michigan” winter? – impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes region and the world
This course will be offered as an introductory level earth science course that will fulfill the Earth Introductory Geology prerequisite and the LSA Natural Science distribution requirement. We anticipate that it will also fulfill the PitE field experience requirement and at least one other PitE requirement.
Instructors: Instructors for summer 2020 include:
Professor
Res. Sci. and Lecturer
Prerequisites: No prerequisites are required. Graduating high school seniors and university students are encouraged to apply. Entering first-year students could arrive on campus in the fall term with 5 hours of science credit already earned.
Fulfill Requirements:
Satisfies 5 LS&A Natural Science credits.
This 5-credit course counts toward the 60 credits of math/science required for a Bachelor of Science degree. For those majoring in Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES), this course satisfies the Earth and Environmental Science Category 1 OR Category 2 prerequiste. It also satisfies the introductory geology/geoscience requirements for all five minors in EES. For the PitE major, this course satisfies the Natural & Earth Systems Science Core OR the Intro Geo Sciences requirement AND the PitE Practical Experience requirement.
Fees & Tuition: In addition to tuition, a tentative program fee of $25 will apply which covers the cost of course materials and shipment. Current tuition rates can be found at the U-M Registrar website. Non-UM (guest) students are charged upper division rates. If you are unsure how to calculate your tuition cost, please contact us, and we would be happy to help. Tuition and program fees will be billed electronically to your student account in the 2nd week of June and will be due by June 30th.
Frequently Asked Questions: Please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page for answers and additional information. We’ll be updating this page on a regular basis. Please feel free to contact us directly with any additional questions or concerns. Phone: 734-615-8600/ Text Message: 734-352-7689/ Email: campdavis@umich.edu
