About Planet Earth

Planet Earth is a registered semester-long innovative course through the Texas Education Agency and not offered anywhere else in the district. The course content is interdisciplinary and focuses on the complex, dynamic relationship between the physical planet and its life, tracing it through the Earth’s geologic history. Some of this emerging, integrative science is being referred to as geobiology at the college level. The course is project-based and includes as major components multiple field trips and a semester-long biodiversity study, through which students experience hands-on geologic and biologic field work. The course relies on reading and discussion of primary source materials rather than a textbook, and writing and public speaking are emphasized.