Cool Classes
Please send your suggestions to mailto:pmmckerc@ucsc.edu You can get more info by searching instructor, course number or title.
Fall '09
EE 80S - 01C Sustainability Engineering and Practice We 3:30PM - 4:40PM Earth&Marine B210
ENVS 292 (Fall 2009) Day and time: Wednesdays, 3: 15 - 4: 30 PM, starting September 30 Venue: College Eight Provost's Office
Topic: How do qualitative social scientists think and work? We will discuss the nuts and bolts of how scholars put together monographs and books. I will lead off with a couple of lectures on how I have approached my own research projects. We will then read Steve Pyne's brilliant new book on how to write nonfiction, and the proceed to disassemble and reassemble the work of scholars whose work are relevant to the graduate students attending the class. The last phase of the term will be devoted to discussing student projects.
Reading: Stephen J. Pyne, Voice and Vision: A Guide to Writing History and Other Serious Nonfiction. Harvard University Press, 2009.
Who can attend: Any graduate student who shows up for the first session, on September 30, at 3: 15, at College Eight.
Summer '09
BIOE 129 - Biology of Marine Mammals
BIOE 140 - Behavioral Ecology
EART 1 - Oceanography
EART 6 - Concepts in Environmentalism
EE 80J - Renewable Energy Sources
EE 181J - Renewable Energy Sources in Practice
ENVS 106A - Natural History of Birds
ENVS 143 - Sustainable Development: Economy, Policy, and Environment
ENVS 175 - Biotechnology: Social and Environmental Dimensions taught by Dustin Mulvaney
WRIT 103 - Rhetoric of the Natural Sciences taught by Joy Hagen
Spring '09
EE 80J: Renewable Energy Sources
Introduction to energy storage conversion with special emphasis on renewable sources. Fundamental energy conversion limits based on physics and existing material properties. Various sources, such as solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and fuel cells described. Cost-benefit analysis of different alternative sources performed, and key roadblocks for large-scale implementation examined. Latest research on solar cells and applications of nanotechnology on energy conversion and storage introduced. (General Education Code(s): T2-Natural Sciences.) A. Shakouri [1] Link
NATURE NOTES and SKETCHES
Saturday, May 16
Science illustration captivates viewers with its stunning beauty. At the heart of its appeal lies the illustrator’s enthusiastic attentiveness to the natural world—an outlook anyone can attain. This workshop introduces tools for capturing the colors, shapes, and stories of a day outdoors. Instructor recommends viewing the museum’s Illustrating Nature exhibit before and/or after the workshop. For age 14 and up; families and beginners welcome. SANTA CRUZ MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, East Cliff Drive Link email: programs@santacruzmuseums.org 831-420-6115. Other writing workshops offered by Sarah Rabkin, many as part of nature retreats.
Winter '09
CLNI 85: Global Action College Nine’s 2-credit class, taught in Winter quarter by your student peers.
Peregrine Falcons Return CLEI 20G Mon 5 pm College Eight Room 242. Learn how UCSC helped save these falcons and participate in the program. Class prepares student for Spring or Summer internships. Contact: Glenn Stewart [mailto: gstewart@ucsc.edu] More info
CLEI 20F - Justice on Earth 01-SEM(42524)
TuTh 4:00PM - 5:30PM Eight Acad 252 Joy Pehlke
SOCY 179 - Nature, Poverty, and Progress: Dilemmas of Development and Environment 01-LEC(44310)
TuTh 2:00PM - 3:45PM Earth&Marine B206 Ben Crow
CLEI 90 - College Eight Garden Internship 01-SEM(33019)
Tu 4:00PM - 5:30PM Eight Garden Candace Calsoyas
CLEI 170C - Law and Politics in California: Fundamental Perspectives and Current Controversies 01-SEM(43350)
Nature Literature ENVS 01-SEM(44493) TuTh 10:00AM - 11:45AM ISB 221 Sarah Rabkin
Community and Agroecology ENVS 91F 01-SEM(41802)
Th 4:00PM - 7:00PM Lower Quarry Sarah Rabkin
An Introduction to World Environmental History ENVS 173 -01-LEC(45158)
TuTh 6:00PM - 7:45PM ISB 221 Staff
EART 107 - Remote Sensing of the Environment 01-LEC(34396)
TuTh 12:00PM - 1:45PM Earth&Marine B210 Eli Silver
Writing 2 41865 Section 01& 2 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 10:00AM-11:45AM Hum & Soc Sci 350
Instructor: Archimedes, S.
The Consumer Society
What does it mean to be living in a consumer society? Does consumerism encourage us to be greedy and materialistic or can it be creative and liberating? What effect does our seemingly bottomless desire for things have on the environment, on the well being of workers, and on our psychological health? To what extent are our desires – even our identities – shaped by advertising campaigns? Our readings will examine some of these questions and many others relating to contemporary debates about the impact of commercial culture on our lives. Through spirited discussions and reflective reading, students will be encouraged to become thoughtful critical thinkers, alive to the pleasures of writing and analysis. All students will engage in class discussions, participate in collaborative group work, write several informal papers, draft and revise several formal essays, and complete the course with a multi-stage research paper.
WRIT-2-10 also section 49 41873 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 02:00PM-03:45PM Kresge Clrm 325
Instructor: Terhaar,T.L.
Global Warming, Biodiversity, and the Environment
Global warming threatens to change the natural and human environment. Sea levels may increase, global surface temperatures are increasing, and major weather events will very likely increase. Some of these events may be abrupt or irreversible. How will we cope with these changes?
This course allows students to explore a specific scientific issue related to a major ecological problem: global climate change and the loss of biodiversity on planet Earth. Students will select a research topic on biodiversity loss and then complete several writing assignments that navigate the process of writing a major research essay. Each student follows the same process as a scientist or policy analyst reviewing the current state of knowledge on an environmental issue. Individual writing assignments will be revised and then incorporated into the final research essay. Non-science students are particularly welcome in the class.
WRIT-2-20 41882 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 06:00PM-07:45PM Crown Clrm 203
Instructor: Rava,A.
Our Relationship to the Animal Kingdom
What is the nature of the relationship between human beings and the animal kingdom? In this composition course, we will explore the interdependence of humans and animals through critical reading and analytical writing. While animals are a vital and meaningful presence in our collective and individual lives, our attitude towards them is ambivalent and our treatment of them contradictory. We will investigate a wide variety of texts, including pieces by Frans de Waal, Jane Goodall, J.M. Coetzee, George Orwell, and Isaak Dinesen. Studying and writing about our perceptions of and relationships with animals will help us make ethical determinations about animals’ rights and welfare in human society.
WRIT-2-21 43242 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 04:00PM-05:45PM Eight Acad 242
Instructor: Todd,J.A.
Exploring the Human Place in Nature
How might people live in physical, mental, and spiritual harmony with the rest of nature? Both Euro-American and indigenous American nonfiction texts will inform our developing understanding of how we as humans can take our appropriate place within nature. Students will enhance writing and rhetorical skills while exploring such questions as these: What assumptions about the nature of nature hamper our capacity to live harmoniously within it? What's the relationship between our own bodies and that of the Earth? How can we, both as a community and individually, make positive contributions to the natural processes that support all life? Students will do extensive informal writing and will share feedback on their academic essays both outside of class and in instructor-facilitated writing groups.
WRIT-2-28 41889 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 12:00PM-01:45PM Merrill Acad 132
Instructor: Carlstroem,C.M.
The Human Predicament
In this course we will read and discuss works by writers from a variety of disciplines, all of which consider forces that shape us as humans—as a species, as members of particular cultures, and as very different individuals—considering physiological, material, historical, and personal circumstances: the raw materials of human identity. By examining the authors' purposes and strategies for effective writing, their formation of arguments, framing of subjects, use of evidence and examples, as well as stylistic choices, we will practice and refine our writing techniques while using them as inspiration for our projects. Students will write informal logs and several formal essays, including a science-oriented research paper and literature, social science, or history essays. Texts include essays by Stanford endocrinologist and baboon field researcher Robert Sapolsky, which explore the complex interplay of biology and culture in humans and other primates; a whirlwind history of the world by Jared Diamond, which examines the material foundation for disparities in nations’ standards of living; and a novel by Margaret Atwood which illustrates the disparate forces of culture, history and individuality converging in the life of an individual.
WRIT-2-32 & 33 41893 Rhetoric & Inquiry MWF 11:00AM-12:10PM Eight Acad 242
Instructor: Hagen,J.A.
Understanding, Writing, and Communicating About Bioethics
By engaging in collaborative inquiry into the writing of scientists and the field of bioethics, students will develop their abilities to read critically, engage in research, and communicate complex arguments and information for a variety of audiences. Discussions, in class and in writing, will focus on questions such as: How do social contexts affect scientific writing? Do scientists have a moral responsibility to anyone? Should scientists engage social and ethical concerns? Examples of the controversial issues we will discuss—to be determined by students—include the uses and effectiveness of pesticides, stem cell research, genetically modified organisms, gene therapy, reproductive rights, animal research, medical marijuana, and the use of human subjects in research. Readings will show us how scientists, policy-makers, and others communicate in different media and to different audiences. In turn, students will write in different ways for different readers and reflect upon how our own readers and social contexts affect what we say and write, and how we choose to say it. Like those who engage in scientific inquiry and writing, students in this class will collaborate throughout the quarter on group research and writing projects.
WRIT-2-37 42419 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 12:00PM-01:45PM Soc Sci 2 167
Instructor: Thorn,D.D.
The Emerging Africa: Beyond the Four D’s
Charlayne Hunter-Gault, an award-winning American journalist who recently moved to Johannesburg, South Africa to work for NPR and CNN, stated in an October 2006 interview that Americans “aren’t getting the information they need to understand Africa. . . . If all you hear about is hunger, drought, disease and conflict, people conclude that Africa’s problems are intractable and that nothing in Africa ever changes.” In this course, we will examine two pervading notions of Africa as a lost continent: first, that Africa is lost from our view, or as in Hunter-Gault’s criticism of American media, only partially—and usually negatively—viewed; Second, that Africa is somehow hopelessly lost due to what she calls “the four d’s. . . . death, disease, disaster and despair.” In this composition course, we will examine these "four d’s," but we will also strive to discover, through research, critical reading, and analytical writing, other more complex and balanced visions of an Africa emerging into our view. We will research varied texts—literary, visual, travel, historical, political, cultural, scholarly—to find a new set of “d’s” of our own, with the intention of composing original, informative, and elegantly written essays. Goals of this course include helping you become a discerning reader, an incisive thinker, and an assured and effective writer capable of participating in the scholarly discourse of the university. The course will encourage you to create new strategies for generating and supporting ideas, improve your skill and confidence as a researcher and writer, and expand your understanding of the writing process through active revision—all while you articulate your own emerging knowledge of this enigmatic continent.
WRIT-2-45 & 46 44355 Rhetoric & Inquiry TTh 04:00PM-05:45PM Kresge Clrm 323
Instructor: Somers,R.E.
The Meaning of Food
A food movement of national proportion has heated up in our own backyard, involving a network of activists, farmers, farm workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers. The course examines the myriad current debates between the fast food and organic food industries, agribusiness and sustainable farming, ending on a savory note as we examine the reasons for today’s piqued interest in farmers’ markets, celebrity chefs, and Slow Food. While studying both popular and scholarly works, including such giants of food writing as Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle and celebrity restaurateur and activist Alice Waters, students are asked to consider how food shapes culture and how they, as consumers, affect this paradigm. With whetted appetites, students will experiment with a rich menu of writing genres, beginning with a food memoir. Assignments also include an analysis of contemporary texts, food reviews, and a research paper on a food-related topic of the student’s choice. To avail ourselves of the opportunities on campus and within the Santa Cruz community, we will also visit a Farmers Market and the UCSC Farm. The course uses a reader and one text—Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Fall
EE 80S Sustainability Engineering (open to all) Shakouri
Blood and Oil 01-LEC(23940) ENVS 144 TuTh 2:00PM - 3:45PM J Baskin Engr 152 Alan Richards 09/25/2008 - 12/05/2008
ENVS 80B - The Ecological Forecast for Global Warming
01-LEC(21138)
TuTh 10:00AM - 11:45AM J Baskin Engr 152 Michael Loik 09/25/2008 - 12/05/2008
CLTE 91 Intro to Nuclear Policy Weds 5-6:45 Soc Sci II Rm 179 dohirsch@ucsc.edu
Periodic
SOC 115 Collaborative Design for Sustainable Technology with Melanie DuPuis
Education for Sustainable Living Program Student-run course, great guest lecturers. Appears to be offered in Spring, mostly.
CMPS 80J: Technology Targeted at Social Issues
UC and the Bomb Student-run course. City on the Hill article UCB syllabus with readings
EE 80J: Renewable Energy Sources (Typically Spring)
Introduction to energy storage conversion with special emphasis on renewable sources. Fundamental energy conversion limits based on physics and existing material properties. Various sources, such as solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, and fuel cells described. Cost-benefit analysis of different alternative sources performed, and key roadblocks for large-scale implementation examined. Latest research on solar cells and applications of nanotechnology on energy conversion and storage introduced. (General Education Code(s): T2-Natural Sciences.) A. Shakouri
Summer 2008
History of Santa Cruz Mountains
Political Ecology and Social Change: Natural Resources, Energy and Agro-Food Systems (ENVS 158-01 #71622) 7/28-8/29 9-12 TTh UCSC Extension Moffet Field. Dustin Mulvaney dustin.mulvaney@gmail.com email to get syllabus
