Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

Origin of Earth, continents, and life. Continental movements, changing climates, and evolving life.

An introduction to processes and forces that form the surface and the interior of the Earth. Topics include, changes in climate, the history of life, as well as earth resources and their uses. Field trips required.

Urban forests provide ecological and socio-economic benefits ranging from improving air, water, and soil quality to creating wildlife habitat to enhancing thermal comfort and the health of individuals and whole communities to increasing property values and more. We will explore research on the nature, function, and value of urban forests. We will investigate reforestation efforts in Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York, and Pittsburgh with projects typically involving deer control, invasive plant removal, planting of native trees and shrubs increasingly propagated from local seed sources, maintenance, and monitoring. We will learn about the myriad advocacy and education programs supporting urban forests. Speakers from the US Forest Service, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, and TreePittsburgh will expand our understanding of these important ecosystems. Five weekend field trips to Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and NYC will illustrate the character of urban forests and reforestation projects. Students will research and present on an urban forest system (from Philadelphia or elsewhere) and research a topic of interest related to course content.

This course explores the nature and use of raster-based geographic information systems (GIS) for the analysis and synthesis of spatial patterns and processes through 'cartographic modeling'. Cartographic modeling is a general but well defined methodology that can be used to address a wide variety of analytical mapping applications in a clear and consistent manner. It does so by decomposing both data and data-processing tasks into elemental components that can then be recomposed with relative ease and with great flexibility.