The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences hosts one of the top-rated earth and environmental science programs internationally. Faculty from all over the world bring their expertise and knowledge to our classrooms, preparing students to think critically and tackle the problems of Earth's unpredictable future.
For questions about specific courses, contact the department.
Courses
Dinosaurs explores how science works and provide practical knowledge about the history of life and how we have come to understand it. We learn how to analyze the evolutionary relationships of organisms and examine how dinosaurs came to be exemplars of a very successful group of organisms dominant on land for 140 million years. We will delve deeply into how direct descendants of small carnivorous theropod dinosaurs evolved into birds, still more diverse than mammals, dominating the air. The Mesozoic, a “hot-house world”, with no ice caps and was the kind of world we are hurtling towards because of our input of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and we will look at how their time is a natural experiment for our future. The non-avian dinosaur met their end in a remarkable cataclysm discovered by detective work that we will delve deeply into as a paradigm of the scientific method Finally, they are fun and spectacular - monsters more fantastic than any person has invented in legend or religion - and they are still with us!
This course will provide an introduction to food production, distribution, consumption, and waste management through four key lenses: agriculture and soil health; human health and nutrition; justice and equity; and food systems and climate change. Policy will be a unifying theme across all four lenses. The course will have a central focus on the NYC region but will include a global perspective. Students explore these units to imagine a food system that produces food in an ecologically mindful way while supporting our communities and the planet. Most units will culminate with a shared meal inspired by the topics explored that week. Students will engage with experts and practitioners in each field and explore a hands-on learning experience through field trips to locations including farm centers, community gardens, and food distribution centers in New York City and the Hudson Valley region. These field trips will be held on the following Fridays: May 26, June 2, June 9, June 16 and students will be expected to attend all field trips. The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture and the Columbia Climate School will be key partners in the course.
