Environmental Sustainability

Climate change and environmental sustainability are among the greatest challenges that we face in the coming decades. Urban offers many classes that address different aspects of our relations with the natural world, while building upon and making connections to students' prior knowledge from other disciplines. Many of our environmental sustainability classes include field trips as central components. Student understanding, classroom activities and major assessments all proceed from these field experiences.

These courses span multiple disciplines, including science, history, English. By taking Urban’s Environmental Sustainability classes, students will expand their knowledge, personal connection and contextualization of key sustainability challenges.

Courses

California Studies

California Studies focuses on how water affects the state of California in economic, environmental, political, and daily ways. This field-based class meets during both B & C periods throughout the term; students spend two full weeks traveling around California in late May. Most of us know little about our water supply beyond what we see fall between the tap and the drain. Where does the water in San Francisco come from? This class will trace San Francisco’s water supply back to its source through indoor pipes, city streets, reservoirs, treatment facilities, tunnels, pipelines and along rivers to the snowpack. As we meet with activists and policy makers, we’ll use visual art, science, and equity frameworks to interpret the conflicting uses and needs around water in California. (1 credit; fulfills Service Learning 12 requirement) (12th Graders only) (Meets during two class periods)

Cross-listed in Service Learning and Multidisciplinary Courses

Economics

Economics combines an exploration of basic elements of economic theory with an engagement with broader questions related to economic policy. The course starts by examining key microeconomic concepts such as supply and demand, elasticity, opportunity costs and externalities. We then expand on the concept of externalities to look at the environmental impact of economic activity and examine the ways in which policy can address that impact. We then explore the basics of financial instruments, as well as the nature of financial markets, examining what can happen when the excesses of financial markets go unchecked. Finally, we examine basic macroeconomic concepts such as GDP, unemployment and inflation, before students get a chance to explore a specific macroeconomic policy through independent research. (1/2 credit) (11th and 12th Graders only)

Marine Biology

Marine Biology is a field course that examines a wide variety of life forms inhabiting the oceans and their adaptations to specific habitats. Focusing on coastal California ecosystems, students will gain an appreciation for the abundance and diversity of marine life and complex food web relationships. The course will provide a brief introduction to the circulation and structure of the ocean, but the primary emphasis will be on ecological relationships among species. Students consider human impacts, particularly overfishing, on the marine environment throughout the course. The course emphasizes the application of scientific methods in various field studies along the northern California coast.

Prerequisites: Science 2A and 2B (1/2 credit)

UAS Environmental History

UAS Environmental History examines the settlement of North America and the expansion of the United States through the lens of the interactions between people and the land. Moving forward in chronology and as we sweep east to west across North America, students will examine the relations between Native Americans and settlers, the motivations behind westward expansion and the rise of industrialization. We will also examine environmental racism and the environmental justice movement. Students are encouraged to consider questions of land and resource use and the role of the market economy as they arise from an ethical perspective, as well as an historical one. Readings include Encounters with the Archdruid by John McPhee, Changes in the Land by William Cronon, and writings by Wendell Berry and Carolyn Merchant. (1/2 credit) (11th and 12th graders only)

UAS Environmental Science: Ecology

UAS Environmental Science: Ecology introduces students to the principal concepts and processes that operate in ecological systems. Beginning with simple interactions between water, the atmosphere, and basic life processes (respiration and photosynthesis), the course develops a dynamic view of ecosystems, covering the principles of energy flow and the cycling of matter, population dynamics, trophic interactions, ecological networks and community change. Throughout the course students consider human impacts on these global processes and environmental change. Both lab and fieldwork will provide opportunities for students to investigate these concepts and processes in-depth — students will gain experience in experimental design and statistical interpretation of data.

Prerequisites: Science 2A and 2B and instructor recommendation (1/2 credit)

UAS Environmental Science: Physical Resources

UAS Environmental Science: Physical Resources explores the complex relationships between humans and their environment. Recurring themes include interconnection of the systems that constitute our environment, material and energy cycling, and the question of what is sustainable. Specific topics include water resources, energy sources, local air pollution and global climate change. This class involves a field component, augmented by in-class labs and modeled simulations.

Prerequisites: Science 2A and 2B and instructor recommendation (1/2 credit)

Courses Offered in Alternate Years

The Naturalist as Writer: Environmental Change and Justice

The Naturalist as Writer: Environmental Change and Justice will consider questions such as, what is the nature of environmental crisis and injustice? What happens to human and non-human beings and our relations with each other in a state of climate change, extinction, environmental illnesses and inequities, and ecological degradation? How did we get into this place, and what are our options for building a different world? To consider how writing itself can form ecological consciousness, we will read fiction, poetry, philosophy and natural histories about environmental destruction and the possibilities of different futures. Readings include: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring; Sandra Steingraber, Living Downstream; Deborah Bird Rose, Wild Dog Dreaming; William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness, or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature; excerpts from foundational American environmental writers such as Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and John Muir; Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower; Rebecca Solnit, Savage Dreams; and Valerie Kuletz, Tainted Desert. Students will write short reading responses, short written and visual projects; a personal history of their interactions with nature; and analytical essays on the fiction, poetry and essays we read. (1/2 credit)