The culmination of the Environmental Studies major. Students, while working with an advisor in their concentration, conduct research and write a thesis.

In 2007, Penn became one of the first universities in the country to commit to creating a more sustainable campus. President Amy Gutmann's press release on February 7, 2005 announced that Penn would develop a comprehensive sustainability plan by 2009. In President Gutmann's speech, she stated that Penn's sustainability plan would, "Include completing a comprehensive inventory of all its greenhouse gas emissions; purchasing at least 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources; adopting an energy efficient appliance purchasing program; committing to a policy that new construction be built to the US Green Building Council LEED Silver standards, or equivalent; and providing access to public transit for faculty, students, and staff."


How has Penn's "environmental footprint" changed? The students will build on the work of others, document existing efforts at Penn, and benchmark against other universities. The course will explore the issues mentioned above and and will also address issues such as storm-water management, the greening of campus, and leadership in the nearby community. The students will establish baseline data and measurement strategies so that success can be measured, and then will develop strategies to collect and analyze additional data. Included in the course will be the concepts of environmental management systems, secondary impacts (e.g., commuting habits of Penn employees), pollution prevention, and life-cycle analysis. Each student or group of students, will select an area of focus for their research exercise (e.g., energy, recycling, green buildings) and develop a report that can be used by the Penn administration to advance Penn's efforts toward sustainability. The students a cumulative class report summarizing their ideas for improvement. This report will be delivered the President's Office.

This course will provide an overview of the cross-disciplinary fields of civil engineering, environmental sciences, urban hydrology, landscape architecture, green building, public outreach and politics. Students will be expected to conduct field investigations, review scientific data and create indicator reports, working with stakeholders and presenting the results at an annual symposium. There is no metaphor like water itself to describe the cumulative effects of our practices, with every upstream action having an impact downstream. In our urban environment, too often we find degraded streams filled with trash, silt, weeds and dilapidated structures. The water may look clean, but is it? We blame others, but the condition of the creeks is directly related to how we manage our water resources and our land. In cities, these resources are often our homes, our streets and our communities. This course will define the current issues of the urban ecosystem and how we move toward managing this system in a sustainable manner. We will gain an understanding of the dynamic, reciprocal relationship between practices in an watershed and its waterfront. Topics discussed include: drinking water quality and protection, green infrastructure, urban impacts of climate change, watershed monitoring, public education, creating strategies and more.

Asthma as a pediatric chronic disease is undergoing a dramatic and unexplained increase. It has become the number one cause of public school absenteeism and now accounts for a significant number of childhood deaths each year in the USA.The Surgeon General of the United States has characterized childhood asthma as an epidemic. In ENVS 408, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of urban asthma, the debate about the probable causes of the current asthma crisis, and the nature and distribution of environmental factors that modern medicine describes as potential triggers of asthma episodes.


Penn students will collaborate with the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) on a clinical research study entitled the Community Asthma Prevention Program. The Penn undergraduates will co-teach with CHOP parent educators asthma classes offered at community centers in Southwest, West, and North Philadelphia. The CHOP study gives the Penn students the opportunity to apply their study of the urban asthma epidemic to real world situations.

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities, impaired hearing, behavioral problems, and at very high levels, seizures, coma and even death. Children up to the age of six are especially at risk because of their developing systems; they often ingest lead chips and dust while playing in their home and yards.


In ENVS 404, Penn undergraduates learn about the epidemiology of lead poisoning, the pathways of exposure, and methods for community outreach and education. Penn students collaborate with middle school and high school teachers in West Philadelphia to engage middle school children in exercises that apply environmental research relating to lead poisoning to their homes and neighborhoods.

Application of student and faculty expertise to a specific environmental problem, chosen expressly for the seminar.

This course is a hands-on introduction to the concepts and capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS). Students will develop the skills necessary for carrying out basic GIS projects and for advanced GIS coursework. The class will focus on a broad range of functional and practical applications,ranging from environmental science and planning to land use history, social demography, and public health. By the end of the course, students will be ableto find, organize, map, and analyze data using both vector (i.e. drawing-based) and raster (i.e. image-based) GIS tools, while developing an appreciation for basic cartographic principles relating to map presentation.This course fulfillsthe spatial analysis requirement for ENVS and EASC Majors. Previous experiencein the use of GIS is not required.

Directed study for individuals or small groups under supervision of a faculty member.

Directed study for individuals or small groups under supervision of a faculty member.