Curriculum for Applied Sustainability Degree

Students will examine how the political vision developed by our forefathers, based on maximum exploitation of seemingly unlimited natural resources, has shaped policy and management and has led to current pressing environmental, economic and social issues. Students will explore the history of US environmental policy and its role in forming domestic and international policies and laws. The evolution of the concept of sustainability and how that is shaping natural resource policy and management both nationally and globally will be considered in-depth.

Students will study the multidisciplinary approaches necessary for successful investigation of environmental, social and economic issues and how they pertain to sustainability. Topics such as food systems, energy, water use and community management of resources are explored and evaluated through social and natural sciences Students will discuss and investigate past and current efforts aimed at addressing complex problems to examine potential solutions. Students will explore systems thinking and develop their own personal credo of sustainable living.

Students examine the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of energy and matter through the lens of the local bioregion. Students explore the six ecological levels and analyze the effect of human interactions with these systems. Emphasis will be placed on interdependent relationships between and within ecological communities. This course includes two laboratory hours per week.

Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? provides a survey of the development and conceptualization of ecotourism, as well as an exploration of the possibilities and pitfalls of 21st century ecotourism. Building on specific global case studies, including the Galapagos Islands, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya, South Africa and close to home here in the United States and Vermont, our course will take a balanced both/and approach to ecotourism to deepen our understanding of ecotourism as a global phenomenon. We will also consider the future of ecotourism, in light of our 21st century Age of Limits and new emerging technological and political possibilities for human civilization grappling with emerging environmental realities like climate change and peak oil.

Central to effective conservation and management of ecosystems is a deep understanding of the ecological needs and life histories of the wildlife that inhabits these landscapes. This course focuses on the ecology, life history, conservation, management, and study of wildlife, with particular attention to Vermont's vertebrates and their habitats. The course provides a survey in the scientific techniques used by wildlife biologists (e.g. camera traps, tracking, etc.) to detect, gather data, study, and understand wildlife. Students will explore the impact of legal, cultural, and scientific management tools used at the local, state, and federal level to control human-wildlife interactions. Topics discussed include symbiosis, foraging patterns, plant-animal interactions, reproduction, habitat assessment, population abundance and density estimates, disease and parasite management, and endangered species restoration.