STS 201
STS 201
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, AND BIODIVERSITY
CLIMATE CHANGE, ENERGY, AND BIODIVERSITY
SPRING 2017
SPRING 2017
Instructor Information
Instructor:
Dr. John D. Peles, Professor of Biology
Address:
308 Ostermayer Laboratory, Penn State Greater Allegheny, 4000 University
Drive, McKeesport, PA 15132
Phone:
(412) 675-9484
E-mail:
[email protected]
Availability:
E-mail (sent via ANGEL) is the preferred method of communication.
I
check e-mail regularly and will usually be able to respond to you within a few hours.
If
you have questions that cannot be answered in a short e-mail communication, please
let me know and we can set up a LiveChat discussion in ANGEL.
Of course, I also will
be available to meet in person or talk by telephone if necessary.
Textbook
There is no required textbook for this course.
A variety of materials will be made
available to you electronically.
Because the material covered by this course is a
component of the broader topic of environmental science, access to a textbook dealing
with this subject will be helpful.
The following is one of several excellent textbooks on
this topic:
Richard T. Wright. 2008.
Environmental Science,
10
th
edition. Prentice-Hall Publishers,
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Technology:
Internet access via Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer; Microsoft Excel
2007; Microsoft PowerPoint 2007; Microsoft Word 2007; Adobe Reader
Course Overview
Course Description:
STS 201 (GN) Climate Change, Energy, and Biodiversity
(3) ─
Studies of global warming, energy options, and biodiversity; their interrelations as
sciences and as societal issues
Course Goals:
In this course, we will study the topics of biodiversity, energy
resources, and global warming.
In particular, the goals of the course are to understand:
(1)
The importance of biodiversity
(2)
The influence of human population growth and economic development on the
decline of biodiversity
(3)
The negative impacts of fossil fuel use
(4)
Alternative energy sources
(5)
Scientific evidence for climate change
(6)
Causes and potential consequences of climate change
Each of these topics will be studied within the context of the interrelationships between
science, economics, culture, and politics.
ANGEL
:
This section of STS 201 is an online course with no direct meetings between
students and instructor.
All course activities will be conducted via the ANGEL course
management system (
).
The various features of ANGEL, and
instructions for their use in STS 201, are provided in a separate document.
Online Lessons:
Individual lessons will be provided in the form of PowerPoint
presentations that can be accessed via ANGEL.
These lessons are designed to
provide all of the details that you would receive in a classroom lecture on a particular
topic and will correspond to various chapters in the recommended textbook.
In
addition, lessons may contain links to internet sites where additional information on a
topic can be found.
An outline of topics covered in these lessons is provided on the
last page of this syllabus.
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