Instructor:
Mike Benedetti
Office: 220 DeLoach Hall
Phone: 962-7650
Email: benedettim@uncw.edu
Office Hours: 1:00-3:00 MW, or
by appointment
Course Purpose. One
objective of this class is to investigate
the range of human impacts on environmental systems, including plants
and animals,
soil and water, the atmosphere and cryosphere, arid lands, and the
coastal zone.
The class readings and discussions will give students an opportunity to
think
critically about these topics in an earth science context. The
other,
equally important objective of this class is for every student to write
a
high-quality research paper that investigates a specific or local
instance of a
general environmental issue.
Readings. The
required readings for this class are from Andrew Goudie, The
Human Impact on the Natural Environment, 6th ed., 2006. Goudie, a
professor
at the University of Oxford (England), is one of the foremost
geographers
addressing global environmental issues. In addition to being greatly
informative, this book offers a terrific example of a clear, concise,
and
thorough literature review. Students are encouraged to use the book as
a source
of ideas and references for their research papers.
Class Discussions
and Writing Assignments. We will cover roughly one
chapter per week in class discussions. Students should come to
class
prepared with questions, comments, or points to raise during
discussion. Although the class is fairly large, all students
should have
an opportunity to participate in the discussion – please raise your
hand to
participate in the discussion. Class will usually begin or end
with a
short writing assignment about the chapter reading.
These assignments will be used to spark the
discussion or to summarize your thoughts on a topic.
These will be collected at the end of class
to supplement the class participation grade.
There are 12 chapter readings scheduled, so students who
consistently
attend and participate in class discussions will be rewarded
Abstracts. Each
student will prepare 3 abstracts of works cited in The
Human Impact. (Up to two additional abstracts may be
submitted for
extra credit.) To complete these
assignments:
Research Paper. The final draft of
the research
paper will be no more than 10 pages long (not including figures and
list of
sources). Rather than writing lengthy papers, we will work to
write
papers that are well-researched, logically organized, and concise. We
will spend
class time working on the step-by-step process of developing a
prospective
topic, searching for sources, creating a bibliography, developing a
thesis
statement, preparing an outline, writing a rough draft, and revising
the draft
to a final copy. There will also be
several
“days off” from class meetings to give students extra time to work on
the paper
assignments or to meet with Dr. Benedetti.
Course Grade. Roughly
half of the grade will come from the research paper and assignments
leading up
to it; the remainder will be derived from class discussions, abstracts,
and
writing assignments related to the readings.
Participation in Class Discussions
15%
Writing Assignments on Readings
15%
Abstracts of Sources Cited
15%
Bibliography
5%