Earth & Environment
View courses in
- Earth & Environment
- All Departments
- African American & Black Diaspora Studies
- African Studies: Culture (in English)
- African Studies: East African Languages: Kiswahili (Swahili)
- African Studies: East, West & South African Languages: Amharic, Igbo, Mandinka, isiZulu
- African Studies: South African Languages: isiXhosa
- African Studies: West African Languages: Akan Twi, Wolof
- American Studies
- Anthropology
- Arabic: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Archaeology
- Astronomy
- Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Chinese: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Cinema & Media Studies
- Classical Studies: incl. Classical Civilization and Tradition (in English), Ancient Greek, and Latin
- Classical Studies: Modern Greek
- Comparative Literature
- Computer Science
- Core Curriculum
- Earth & Environment
- Economics
- Editorial Studies
- English
- First Year Experience
- French: Language, Literature, Linguistics, Culture (including courses in English)
- German: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Hebrew: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Hindi-Urdu: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- History
- History of Art & Architecture
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- International Relations
- Internships
- Italian: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Japanese: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Jewish Studies
- Korean: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Linguistics
- Literary Translation
- Marine Science
- Mathematics & Statistics
- Natural Sciences
- Neuroscience
- Persian (Farsi): Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Political Science
- Portuguese: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Psychological & Brain Sciences
- Religion
- Russian: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- SEA Semester
- Senior Year Development
- Sociology
- Spanish: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Turkish: Language, Literature, Culture (including courses in English)
- Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies
- Writing
-
CAS EE 100: Environmental Change and Sustainability
Introduces natural and social science concepts that underlie global environmental change and sustainability. Topics include climate change, biodiversity, energy, water, pollution, deforestation, agriculture, population growth. Sustainable development illustrated with ecological footprint based on student's lifestyle. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning. -
CAS EE 101: Natural Environments: The Atmosphere
An introduction to weather and climate. Topics include the controls of weather and climate, day-to-day variations in weather, severe storms, climates of the world, urban climate and air pollution, past climates and climatic change, and the impact of climatic variations on society. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I. -
CAS EE 105: Crises of Planet Earth
After covering the origin of the universe, earth and life, the course examines two topics: natural hazards, including earthquakes and volcanoes; and human impacts on Earth, including climate change, ozone depletion, pollution, and increasing demands on mineral and energy resources. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 107: Introduction to Climate and Earth System Science
Introduction to the Earth as an integrated system composed of interacting biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere subsystems. Major themes include earth system stability, instability and capacity for change on all time scales, including human-induced climate change. Carries natural science divisional credit (with lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 142: Introduction to Beach and Shoreline Processes
Coastal processes including tidal currents, wave action, longshore transport, and estuarine circulation; barrier island and spit formation; study of beaches, dunes, and marshes; effects of tectonics, glaciers, and rivers on beaches and coastal morphology. Cape Cod field trip. Carries natural science divisional credit (without lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning, Critical Thinking. -
CAS EE 144: Introduction to Oceanography
Examines the physical, geological, chemical, and biological processes that govern that oceans with a focus on how the ocean is impacted by and also moderates the pace of global change. Dynamic nature of the oceans on both a short- and a long-term scale is emphasized. Carries natural science divisional credit (without lab) in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Ethical Reasoning. -
CAS EE 150: Sustainable Energy: Technology, Resources, Society and Environment
Examines the social, environmental, and technological aspects of renewable and nonrenewable energy systems, their historical evolution and implications for the future. Discusses energy issues in context of globalization, climate change, and sustainable development. Explores lifestyle and policy decisions related to energy issues. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Scientific Inquiry I, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 201: World Regional Geography
Overview of the special combination of environmental, historical, economic, and organizational qualities of the regions of the Old World, including Western and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, East and South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Emphasis on current issues of regional and global development. Carries social science divisional credit in CAS. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry I, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 250: The Fate of Nations: Climate, Resources, and Institutions
Relationships among environment (e.g. climate), natural resources (e.g. energy, water), and human societies (hunter-gatherers to industrial economies). Principles from thermodynamics, climatology, ecology, and economics used to evaluate the role of environment and resources in the success and failure of societies. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS EE 270: Data, Models, and Analysis in Earth & Environment
Undergraduate Prerequisites: ES/EE 107 or GE/EE 100 (or equivalent), or consent of instructor.
Introduces key questions, types and sources of data, and analytical methods in earth and environment, and introduces students to an array of quantitative methods from both the natural- and social-science disciplines. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 300: Earth's Rocky Materials
Utilizing an Earth Systems approach, this course begins with the mineral phases of the core and mantle. Crustal mineralogy and petrology follow, examining how minerals and the rocks that contain them are produced by magmatic, metamorphic, hypothermal, and surface processes. Weekly two-hour labs and a required field trip. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry II, Quantitative Reasoning I. -
CAS EE 302: Remote Sensing of Environment
Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS GE/EE 100 or GE/EE 101 or ES/EE 105 or ES/EE 107 or BI 117 or PY 105.
Introduction to sensor systems, methodology of remote sensing, and basic concepts of image analysis. Presents the ways in which remotely sensed data can be used in scientific investigations and resource management. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Scientific Inquiry II, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS EE 304: Environmentally Sustainable Development
Traces the emergence of sustainable development as the defining environmental challenge of our times. Surveys and evaluates policies for balancing ecological sustainability and economic development in various parts of the world and at the global level. Also offered as CAS IR 304. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 305: Rock Deformation and Structure
Undergraduate Prerequisites: ES/EE 107.
Foundations of rock deformation and structural geology in a plate tectonics context. Emphasizes identification and analysis of rock structures in hand sample and in the field, collection and interpretation of 2D and 3D structural data, and synthesis of geologic histories. -
CAS EE 309: Intermediate Environmental Analysis and Policy
Undergraduate Prerequisites: GE/EE 100 and EC 101.
Introduction to economic and environmental theory critical to the formulation and evaluation of environmental resource policy. This theory is applied to real- world analysis of climate change, population growth, oil supplies, energy use, and globalization. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry II, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 310: Climate and the Environment
Undergraduate Prerequisites: MA 123 or equivalent; PY 211 or equivalent; and either GE/EE 100, ES/EE 105, or ES/EE 107.
Understanding physical processes of the atmosphere, ranging in scale from tornadoes to global winds. Emphasis on providing physical explanations of atmospheric phenomena and impact of weather on humanity. Satellite and weather modification technology. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Creativity/Innovation. -
CAS EE 317: Introduction to Hydrology
Undergraduate Prerequisites: ES/EE 105 or ES/EE 107 or ES/EE 142 or ES/EE 144; MA 121, 123, or 127, or consent of instructor.
Introduction to the science of hydrology and to the role of water as a resource, a hazard, and an integral component of the Earth's climatic, biological, and geological systems. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in the following BU Hub areas: Scientific Inquiry I, Quantitative Reasoning I, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS EE 347: WATER RESOURCES & THE ENVIRONMENT
Examines global water resource systems, with emphasis on questions of culture, development, gender, social inequality, politics. Analyzes social relations and historical legacies that shape water infrastructure, distribution, and meaning. Cases from Africa, Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, South America. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Social Inquiry II, Critical Thinking. -
CAS EE 351: Paleoclimatology and Paleoceanography
Undergraduate Prerequisites: ES/EE 105 or ES/EE 107 or ES/EE 142 or ES/EE 144. GE/EE 101 recommended.
Examines causes and effects of climate change throughout Earth's history. Topics include ice age climates and glaciations; oceanic history; linkages between Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets; tectonic effects; ice-core, coral, and marine sediment records; El Ni?o; terrestrial extinctions. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Quantitative Reasoning II, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS EE 365: An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Undergraduate Prerequisites: MA 115 or EC 203 or equivalent.
Practical hands-on computing experience using GIS for analyzing data from maps and other sources. Analytical functions unique to GIS are emphasized, as are applications in archaeology, land use planning, environmental monitoring, and other fields. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Quantitative Reasoning I, Scientific Inquiry II.
