About
In the third Honors College seminar, students will learn about the many facets of environmental science and technology, using New York City as a template for the issues being faced by cities around the world. While there are numerous issues that we could examine, we will limit our focus to three pressing urban sustainability topics: transportation, parks, and food. How sustainable is New York City in terms of its transportation system, park system, and food system? To what extent do they hurt and/or harm the environment? Which groups have greater access to these systems? Which less? In what ways do they contribute to economic stability and/or instability? Throughout the course we will compare NYC to other cities to see in what ways NYC is doing better or worse than other cities. We’ll also pay special attention to experiments/innovations/alternatives that are taking place in our city.
A major component of the class will be thinking about how issues of environmental science and sustainability are communicated to the public and to politicians. We will examine the role between science and public policy decisions. To this end, students will work on collaborative research projects focused on communicating science. Team projects will be presented at an Honors College symposium at the end of the semester. These presentations will include websites and posters as well as short documentaries.
The course will include field trips, a visit to a museum, guest speakers, and four events at Macaulay Honors College throughout the semester (note the opening event is the evening of September 15th).
