Environmental Course Offerings, Opportunities, and Resources
Environmental Composition Courses
Courses with Environmental Components
Representative Thesis Opportunities
Representative Research Opportunities
Environmental Course Offerings, Opportunities, and Resources
Environmental Composition Courses
Courses with Environmental Components
Representative Thesis Opportunities
Representative Research Opportunities
Courses offered to first-year students to fulfill the composition (W) requirement |
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| Course Name and Number | Description (Professor) | When Offered |
| The
Ecology of Endangered Species Biology 100W |
Students will investigate the reasons why species become endangered, the ecological justifcations for the preservation of biodiversity, and current theories for ways to manage rare and endangered species. (Peroni) |
Occasionally |
| This
planet is on loan from the children of our children's kids. Economics 100W |
Using economic analysis, the class will examine pollution control, natural resource use, and sustainable development policies. (Martin) | Alternate spring semesters |
| Writing
the Environment English 101W |
English 101W Instruction in expository writing and the research paper. Focuses on environmental topics and has a service learning component. (A. Ingram) | Occasionally |
Environmental Courses |
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| Course Name and Number | Description (Professor) | When Offered |
| Issues
in Environmental Biology |
An introduction to the basic principles of biology with an emphasis on the effects of environmental change on organisms. The focus will be on effects at the organismal level and above (populations and communities), but will also include effects within organisms. (Paradise) | Occasionally |
| Ecotoxicology |
An ecologically-oriented examination of the study of toxins in various environments. (Paradise) | Alternate springs |
| Ecology Biology 321 |
Ecology of plant and animal populations and communities. Course includes investigative field labs and some weekend field trips. (Paradise, Peroni) | Annually in the fall |
| Amphibian
and Reptile Conservation Biology 361 |
A seminar style course in which we focus on issues relating to the biology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles. (Dorcas) | Alternate falls |
| Environmental
Issues Seminar Biology 361 |
Students explore the ecology behind several current environmental issues (e.g., greenhouse effect, endangered species preservation, wilderness and land use, management of toxic wastes). Each student investigates a specific topic, presents a lecture on this topic to the class, and writes a literature review on the subject. Discussions are used to identify common misconceptions or gaps in knowledge for a particular environmental issue. (Peroni) | Alternate springs |
| Genetically
Modified Organisms Seminar Biology 362 |
Genetically modified organisms are splashed across headlines and sound bite but many people only know the caricatures. What does it mean that something is genetically modified? How do scientists modify the genes of an organism? What are we genetically modifying? and Should we being doing that? Along these lines we will read articles about GMOs that are currently available and their potential implications to our health and well being as well as the health and well being of the environment. Within one of these topics, you will develop an individual topic which will be the focus of your final webproject. (Bernd) | Annually in the fall |
| Chemistry
of the Environment Chemistry 104 |
Within an environmental context, the basic principles of general, analytical, organic, and polymer chemistry will be presented. Specific topics include the pollutants of air, water, and land; toxicology; recycling; and an introduction to green chemistry. (Brown, Hauser) | Alternate Springs |
| Topics in Environmental and
Green Chemistry Chemistry 304 |
Introduction to environmental chemical principles and methodology. Course topics include selected aspects of the chemistry of air, water, and soil environments; identities, sources, properties, and reactions of pollutants; green chemical approaches to the prevention of pollution; environmentally benign synthetic methodologies, design of safer chemical products, alternative solvents and catalyst development, and applications of biosynthesis and biomimetic principles. Prequisite: Chemistry 202. No laboratory. (Brown) | Alternate years; next offered Fall 2004 |
| Environmental
and Natural Resource Economics Economics 226 | The primary goal of this course is for you to learn how to use economic analysis to ask and to answer questions concerning ecological, environmental, and natural resource issues. You will read a lot (quantity and variety), write several short papers, and discuss the material in depth, not so that you will memorize a lot but so that you will learn how economists approach these issues by actually thinking like an economist. I assume that you have an interest in environmental policy and have studied (only) the prerequisite economics course, Introductory Economics (Economics 101). (Martin) | Alternate springs |
| Economic Development Economics 233 |
Models and strategies for economic growth and development with concentration on the contemporary developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. (Hess) | Fall 2004 |
| Economic Growth and Sustainable
Development Economics 336 |
Determinants and consequences of economic growth; theories and policy implications of sustainable development. Prerequisites: Economics 203 and either Economics 105 or Economics 204. (Hess) | Offered regularly; Spring 2004 |
| Studies
in Literature and the Environment English 389 |
Special topics in environmental literature, such as American nature writing, the Thoreauvian narrative, ecocriticism, and ecoliterature. (A. Ingram) | Alternate years |
| Wild Lives - American Environmental
Narratives English 489 |
Seminar on first-person narratives by Americans of the 19th and 20th centuries about natural history, wilderness, and environmental activism. (A. Ingram) | Spring 2001, Spring 2003 |
| Adventures in Literature
and Wilderness |
Team-taught by Professor Annie Ingram, Ed Daugherty, and Mike Goode. Combines an academic curriculum in environmental reading and writing with an experiential curriculum in wilderness leadership training | Spring 2002 |
| Nature's World: Topics in Global
Environmental History History 258 |
People have always had to contend with nature, but only recently have historians begun to explore the changing relationships between people and the environment over time. This course takes a global view of human interactions with the natural world, mixing broad themes with detailed case studies in an effort to understand the complicated ways that people and the environment have mutually shaped one another in different places and at different times. The course also emphasizes the historical discipline's methodological tools and analytical techniques as ways of exploring key issues in people's evolving interrelationships with the natural world. (Wells) | Fall 2004 |
American Environmental History |
People have always had to contend with the natural world, but only recently have historians begun to explore the changing relationships between people and their environments over time. In this course, we will examine the variety of ways that people in North America have shaped the environment, as well as how they have used, labored in, abused, conserved, protected, rearranged, polluted, cleaned, and thought about it. In addition, we will explore how various characteristics of the natural world have affected the broad patterns of human society, sometimes harming or hindering life and other times enabling rapid development and expansion. By bringing nature into the study of human history, and the human past into the study of nature, we will begin to see the connections and interdependencies between the two that are often overlooked. (Wells) | Fall 2004 |
America & the Automobile |
In the early twentieth century,
automobiles were newfangled playthings of the very wealthy; by century’s
end, they had become necessities of the modern world. This momentous change
brought with it a cascading series of consequences that completely remade
both the American landscape and American life. This course will explore
the ways that cars and roads have shaped Americans’ interactions with
the natural world, and will seek historical explanations for the country's
extreme dependency on its cars. In the process, we will engage with current
debates among environmentalists, policymakers, and local communities trying
to shape the future of the American transportation system and to come to
grips with the environmental effects of a car-dependent lifestyle. (Wells) |
Spring 2005 |
| Physics of the Environment Physics 103 |
A study of the physical laws and processes that underlie environmental phenomena with a special focus on energy and radiation. Technical, economic, and social consequences of these laws and processes will be examined to better delineate the complex decisions related to environmental issues. (Cain) | Once per year |
| Religious
Ethics of Food Religion 247 |
Food practices - what food to eat, how to prepare it, when and where to consume or how fast - are significant components of nearly all religious traditions. After exploring some of the ways eating has been a spiritual practice in the Jewish and Christian traditions, our focus turns to contemporary food production and to some of the challenges it poses for religious understandings of eating. (Poland) | Irregularly, next will be Spring 2004 |
Courses with Environmental Components |
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| Course Name and Number | Description (Professor) | When Offered |
| Earth Art-From Lascaux to Lutyens
Art 230 |
The world history of garden design as a manifestation of humanity's ever-changing relationship with the natural world. Important gardens and their creators will be studied in light of the theology, politics, architecture, painting, theatre and stage design, poetry and philosophy that shaped them. (Ligo) | Spring 2004 |
| Principles
of Biology II Biology 112 |
Introduction to organismal and superorganismal biology. Topics include evolution, ecology, conservation, and animal physiology (Dorcas; Paradise; Peroni; Stanback) | Every semester |
| Developmental
Biology Biology 306 |
Investigates cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate animal development covering topics such as fertilization, cleavage, gastrulation, axis specification, and organogenesis via analysis of classical and modern experiments. Laboratory emphasizes direct experimental manipulations of early embryos including student-designed research projects. Prerequisite: Biology 111 and 112. Biology 301 or 308 recommended. One laboratory meeting per week. (Lom) | Annually in the Spring |
| Vertebrate
Field Zoology Biology 322 |
Natural history of vertebrates concentrating on the evolution, adaptations, behavior and ecology of various vertebrate groups, from the fishes through the mammals.(Stanback) | Annually in the spring |
| Biostatistics
and Experimental Design Biology 341 |
Biological research including experimental design, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, scientific writing, and the use of library resources, computer spreadsheets, and statistical software. (Peroni) | Spring
2000 and alternate springs |
| Imaging
the Earth |
The use of Geographical Information Systems and related technologies to examine the spatial relationships between organisms and their environment. (Ringle, Dorcas) | Irregularly |
| Animal
Physiology |
Introduction to the physical and chemical principles governing the lives of animals with an emphasis on understanding the physiological problems animals face, how those problems vary in relation to animals' environments, and the processes by which animals solve their problems. (Dorcas) | Every fall semester |
| Animal
Behavior |
Introduction
to principles of animal behavioral from an evolutionary perspective concentrating
on the adaptive nature of social systems. Laboratories include observations
of animal behavior in the laboratory and in the field, experimental design,
data analysis, and modeling of social organizations. (Case) |
Every spring semester |
| Chemistry and Society Chemistry 105 | Introduction to the science of chemistry and its relation to modern society. The laboratory provides experience in the scientific approach to problems with an emphasis on the evaluation and interpretation of experimental data. (Striplin) | Every fall semester |
| Chemical
Equilibrium Chemistry 215 |
Aqueous and non-aqueous chemical equilibrium with applications in biochemistry, environmental chemistry, forensic chemistry, archaeological chemistry, and consumer chemistry. (Blauch, Hauser, Striplin) | Every Semester |
| Principles
of Instrumental Analysis Chemistry 371 |
Introduction to analytical methods including spectrometry, electrochemistry and separations. (Blauch, Hauser) |
Fall Semester |
| Settlement
of the American West, 1800-1900 |
An examination of three controversial issues connected with the settlement of the American West -- gender, race, and environment. (McMillen) | Irregularly |
Consumer Nation |
Of all the strange beasts that have come slouching into the 20th century,” writes James Twitchell, “none has been more misunderstood, more criticized, and more important than materialism.” In this course, we will trace the various twists and turns of America’s vigorous consumer culture across the twentieth century, examining its growing influence on American life, its implications for the environmental health of the world, and the many debates it has inspired. (Wells) | Spring 2005 |
Representative Theses |
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| Student | Title, Department (Faculty Mentor) |
| Noelle Thomas '06 | Industrial EcologyCenter for Interdisciplinary Studies (Martin, Paradise) |
| Caroline Hartridge '05 | Relationship between resource use and environmental studies curricula at southeast US colleges Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Gay, Paradise) |
| Ben Nelson '05 | Environmental Studies Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Stanback & Menkhaus) |
| Molly Pickall '05 | Environmental and Social Analysis Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Martin & Lozada) |
| Leslie Cook '04 | Effects of the Pesticide Malathion on the Development of Zebrafish, Brachydanio rerio (Lom) |
| Annie Snider '04 | English Honors Thesis on "Anthropocentric Biocentrism?: The Role of Human Relationships in the Poetry of Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, and Adrienne Rich" (A. Ingram) |
| Terra Gill '03 | The Creative Experience: Gaia Theory, Siddha Yoga Meditation, and a Personal Earth Ethic Center for Interdisciplinary Studies(A. Ingram & Mahony) |
| Sarah Schmidt '02 | English Honors Thesis on "Marriage as a Sacrament of Life and Land in Wendell Berry" (A. Ingram) |
| J.D. Willson '02 | The Effects of Habitat Disturbance on Stream Salamanders: Implications for Watershed Management. (Dorcas) |
| Shane Lindsay '01 | Effects of Cattle on the Reproduction and Morphology of Pond-dwelling Turtles. (Dorcas) |
| Jill Neumayer '01 | Why have
conservation efforts failed in Madagascar? Deciphering Conservation in Zahamena
PN, Madagascar Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Martin, Menkhaus) |
| Amanda Walker '98 | Economic
and Social Advantages of Wetlands Used for Wastewater Treatment Center for Interdisciplinary Studies Honors Thesis (Martin, Williamson) |
| Nathaniel Cook '00 | Translocation Meets Resistance: Characterizing herbicide resistance in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii tip mutants Biology Senior Thesis (Bernd) |
| Meredith Judy '00 | Suburban
Sprawl and Davidson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (Martin, A. Ingram) |
Representative Research Opportunities |
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| Researchers | Project (Professor) |
| Kate Williams '06 | Studies of the Heterogeneous Reaction of 1-Hexadecene Aerosols and Ozone Using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (Hauser) |
| Francois Trappey '06 | Ozone as a Reactive Atmospheric Trace Gas in the Study of Organic Aerosols (Hauser) |
| Sarah Hatfield ‘04, Morgan Check ‘04 | Nest predation in suburbia:
effects of predator guards, effects on bluebirds (Stanback) |
| Diana Chemotti '03 | The Pesticide Malathion Disrupts Xenopus anterior-posterior axis formation (Lom) |
| Kristine Grayson '02 | Monitoring Overwintering Body Temperatures in Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta) and Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina). (Dorcas) |
| Maury Gage '02 | Land use patterns and their effects on sedimentation and aquatic insect biodiversity in headwater streams in the north Charlotte area. (Paradise) |
| Lauran Halpin '02 | The Effects of Habitat Fragmentation and Urbanization on Box Turtles (Terrapene carolina). (Dorcas) |
| Megan Seifert ‘01 | A comparison of bluebird reproductive parameters on golf courses vs. rural habitat (Stanback) |
| David Stroupe '01 | Herpetofaunal Biodiversity of the Ramah Creek Conservation Easement. (Dorcas) |
| Ross R. Cocklin '01, M. Jason Todd '01 | Using automated recording systems to monitor anuran calling behavior: a comparative survey. (Dorcas) |
| Aaron N. Rice T. '00, Luther Roberts IV '00, and Justin G. Pritchard '00 | Historical Trends and Perceptions of Amphibian and Reptile Diversity in the Western Piedmont of North Carolina. (Dorcas) |
| Daniel Cooke '99 | Integrating
Green Chemistry into the Sophomore Organic Chemistry Course (Brown) |
| David
Brown Daniel Cooke '99 |
Integrating
Green Chemistry into the Sophomore Organic Chemistry Course |
|
L. Amanda Walker '98 Dave Martin |
The
Viability of Wetland Use to Provide Wastewater Treatment in India Click here for an Adobe copy of the version presented at the 1998 Southern Economic Association meetings. |
| Environmental Action Coalition | See the Associated Colleges of the South SCDC Progress Report on the EAC's Sustainable Development Clinic |
| The Davidson College Ecological Preserve - Established in the Spring of 2001, the DCEP provides unique experiences in teaching and research for Davidson College students and faculty. The preserve, encompassing about 200 acres of forested land adjacent to the Davidson College campus, includes a variety of habitats and provides homes for many animals and plants. |
| Environmental Action Coalition - See the Associated Colleges of the South SCDC Progress Report on the EAC's Sustainable Development Clinic |
| The Herpetology Laboratory at Davidson College - Numerous opportunities for involvement in conservation and research on amphibians and reptiles |
| The Biology and Conservation of North Carolina's Amphibians and Reptiles - a student developed and maintained web site describing the fascinating amphibians and reptiles found in North Carolina and how we can preserve them. |
| Central Carolina Amphibian and Reptile Initiative - The mission of CCARI is to conserve amphibians and reptiles of the central Carolina region. |
For a link to Davidson's other academic programs, click here.
© Copyright 2003 Department of Biology, PO Box 7118, Davidson College, Davidson, NC 28035-7118; Page maintained by Chris Paradise