While working with an advisor students conduct research and write a thesis.

While working with an advisor in their concentration, conduct research and write a thesis.

This class will provide an overview of water topics and issues and is intended to provide geologists and environmental scientists with a working understanding of current water resource issues and challenges ranging from stormwater and flooding to stream restoration, water re-use and ecological restoration. Starting with an understanding of hydrology, streams, and related ecosystems, the class will look at the various ways we use and depend on water, the ways in which water resources are degraded, and practices to restore and protect the resource. Topics to be covered include green infrastructure, water and wastewater sources and water reuse, stream health, stream channel restoration, riparian buffers, floodplains, best practices, and the concept of “one water”. We will also cover current regulations, changing water policies, sustainability, and the implications of climate change

This course covers basic groundwater flow and solute transport modeling in one-,two- and three-dimensions. After first reviewing the principles of modeling, the student will gain hands-on experience by conducting simulations on the computer. The modeling programs used in the course are MODFLOW (USGS), MT3D, and the US Army Corps of Engineers GMS (Groundwater Modeling System).

The oceans cover over 2/3 of the Earth's surface. This course introduces basic oceanographic concepts such as plate tectonics, marine sediments, physical and chemical properties of seawater, ocean circulation, air-sea interactions, waves, tides, nutrient cycles in the ocean, biology of the oceans, and environmental issues related to the marine environment.

An introduction to Earth as a complex system through examination of its atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere, the interactions among these spheres, and of the human impacts on the planet and its responses.

While working with an advisor students conduct research and write a thesis.

From Rachel Carlson to Greta Thunberg – and whether via public blockades or behind-the-scenes boardroom votes – activism has been a driving force of change on environmental issues. This course will offer an overview of environmental activism, including players, strategies and tactics, and impacts. Students will explore various types of activists (e.g., grassroots, NGO, employee, investor) and the relationships between activism aimed at businesses vs. governments. The course will help students understand the historical roots of environmental activism, and what influence current demographics, public opinion, and technology have had, including on recent climate activism. Through case studies, news stories, academic readings, and class discussion, students will learn the various roles activists play, how activism impacts business practices and laws, and many of the ways companies relate to activists. Quizzes, case analyses, and other methods will be used to demonstrate mastery of the material.

Over the course of six Sunday field trips, we will travel from the barrier islands along the Atlantic Ocean in southern New Jersey to the Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania, visiting representative sites of the diverse landscapes in the region along the way. At each site we will study and consider interactions between geology, topography, hydrology, soils, vegetation, wildlife, and disturbance. Students will summarize field trip data in a weekly site report. Evening class meetings will provide the opportunity to review field trips and reports and preview upcoming trips. Six all-day Sunday field trips are required.

This course will provide an understanding of the Earth's climate system and how and why this has changed through time. The emphasis will be placed on spatial and temporal scales in the modern system while exploring the evidence for past change, possible mechanisms to explain these changes and the implications of these changes to past, present and future global climate. Students will learn to reconstruct the history and scales of climate change through the use of proxies; understand the mechanisms that act to drive climate change; show and understanding of the long-term natural climate variability on a global and regional scale; understand the importance of natural environmental change, against which to assess human impacts, recent climate change and issues of future environmental change.