Institution: American University of Armenia (2015-2016)
Instructors: Co-taught with two additional faculty per semester
# of semesters: 3
# of students: avg. 103 per semester (min. 49, max. 150)
Level: undergraduate
The course is designed for students to gain an understanding of basic principles of environmental sciences, including an introduction to the structure and functioning of ecosystems and their physical and bio-chemical cycles. The course will emphasize the importance of these processes for human health as well as human impact on these processes. As a science course, the course will teach students to use the methods of scientific inquiry to raise questions about global systems, their impact on humans, and human impact on them. Specific topics to be covered include but are not limited to biodiversity, quantity and quality of water, land and air resources, environmental conservation, human population trends and dynamic, food and industrial production, and waste and toxicity. Topics will be supplemented by Armenia and Caucasus-specific cases.