ENV 399: Special Topics in the Environment & Natural Resources

The purpose of ENV 399 courses is to offer advanced and/or related topics not adequately covered in any regular course available to qualified students interested in natural resources, environmental science or engineering. A student may repeat this course with different topics for up to twelve (12) credit hours. Prerequisite: Depends on the topic offered or permission of instructor.

ENV 399 Course Topics Proposed for Summer 2011:

Field Botany (4 credit hours, MWF)

Preferred Co-requisite: ENV 492 Wildlife Ecology and Management

Please note that if student takes only Field Botany or ENV 492, student will not be allowed to register for another course in Session 1 due to overnight field trips associated with this course.

Plants are the base of the biological food chain and the key player in nutrient cycles of the planet, and as such knowledge of the plant community is important for beginning ecologists to learn about. The course would start with an introduction to plant life cycles which would include microscopic observation of plant structures - very especially flowers. Lab instruction would be followed by field trips to sites throughout the region around Aiken concentrating on sites within the Savannah River Site. Collections made either in the morning or afternoon would be followed by sessions in lab preparing specimens and identifying and recording collection locations. Pairs of students would be expected to build a plant collection of at least 50 species representing 25 families. Each student will carry a field notebook to the field and take notes. Notes will be transcribed in the evening and during lab into a formal field journal.

Ideally two overnight field trips would be planned. One to Sapelo Island and the other to Coweeta in the mountains. Collections would be made in both locations if possible but if not then field notes would be taken on observations in the field, and the new ideas that emerge from student field study.

Textbook: Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas, Radford, Ahles, and Bell.
Handouts of Plant Structure and Function

Current syllabus (pdf file).

Environmental Remediation (3 credit hours, TTh)

This course will examine the principles of environmental chemistry which apply to the remediation of contaminated soil and water, including the properties of soils systems and the factors controlling mass transport, partitioning, and chemical fate. Current and emerging remediation technologies and their limitations in soil and groundwater restoration are reviewed.

Prerequisites:

• One semester of science or Instructor permission.
• All students are required to pass a General Employee Training (GET) multiple choice exam as a condition of retaining your internship. A 3-4 hour training course will precede the exam. Passing the exam is not difficult and only requires your attention during the training course.

Current syllabus (pdf file).

Human Ecology/Social Impact Analysis 3cr, Session and Days TBD)

How do we best maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of social change? Or, how can we better anticipate the social consequences of project development? This course will focus on the ecology of human societies and the social impact of development on communities and regions. The ecology of human societies is about connections between ecological and human social, cultural, and organizational processes. It is a very broad and general subject that crosses numerous scientific disciplines. It therefore has to be approached in a broad and general way, with an emphasis on both theoretical ideas and experiential learning.

Prerequisites:

• One semester of science or Instructor permission.
• All students are required to pass a General Employee Training (GET) multiple choice exam as a condition of retaining your internship. A 3-4 hour training course will precede the exam. Passing the exam is not difficult and only requires your attention during the training course.

Current syllabus (pdf file).