Earlham College
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Environmental Studies Sustainability Learning Outcomes include: • Develop a critical understanding of environmental issues • Develop an understanding of systems and multi-perspective thinking • Examine environmental issues particularly through the lenses of justice, power, and ethics Environmental Science Sustainability Learning Outcomes include: • Ability to apply scientific thinking (i.e. the scientific method) to environmental problems, with understanding of the complexities and constraints human cultures and societies impose on solutions to those problems • Understanding of the complexity and inherent multidisciplinary nature of environmental issues • Ability to view life decisions through a ‘sustainability filter’, especially those involving transportation, food, and housing

Biology Ecological Biology is a required course for the major and includes the following learning outcomes: 1. Students will develop skills in reading, writing and oral scientific communication 2. Students will be able to design, implement and draw conclusions from a scientific study 3. Students will be able to identify and explain the natural world through relevant evolutionary and ecological mechanisms. 4. Students will be able to create and utilize conceptual and quantitative models of ecological systems. 5. Students will learn best practices through the use of technology in gathering and evaluating information from the scientific literature 6. Students will continue developing global awareness, including an understanding of the natural world as a context for humanity 7. Students will develop a sense of place at Earlham and within the Whitewater Valley Biological Diversity is a second course required for the major and has the following learning outcomes: • Be able to interpret evolutionary relationships (phylogenies) • Be able to identify organisms to major taxonomic groupings, especially common local organisms • Be able to recognize “function” from “form” for an organisms’ anatomy and physiology • Be able to reconstruct the evolutionary history of major adaptations and syndromes. • Become aware of the conservation concern for various taxa, and how we can mitigate their decline Geology Earth & the Environment is a requirement for the GEOL major and minor. It's course outcomes include: -Describe Earth materials and environments, and communicate global environmental change effectively. - Record and interpret data and evidence of Earth’s past and present, and use them to predict Earth’s future. - Explain how geologic processes impact humanity and how Geoscience assists in human-landscape problem-solving. Peace and Global Studies Global Dynamics and World Peace is a required course for the major and includes the following in its description and outcomes: Course Description: What does "peace" mean? Is sustainable peace possible? How can we contribute to peacebuilding? This course addresses these questions by examining current global dynamics, including violence, environmental destruction, and "globalization." The word "globalization," in turn, is used here as shorthand to refer to another set of dynamics present in the global system today, including poverty, efforts at poverty reduction, free trade agreements, and international migration flows. How best can we understand what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to as "the interrelated structure of reality?" Using a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses (including but not limited to history, sociology, political science, philosophy, and economics), we will look at different perspectives concerning the ways these dynamics are (or are not) related and what can be done to address the complex set of problems humanity faces today. Course Objectives: This course is primarily designed for sophomores who are majoring in Peace & Global Studies. …The objectives of this course are the same as one of the principal sets of objectives I have for PAGS majors generally. I want PAGS majors to be clear-eyed regarding the constraints that face liberation movements and postcolonial societies and to have an analysis of the source of those constraints. PAGS majors should have reasoned understandings of what constitutes peace and of what constitutes justice, an analysis of ways of moving toward greater justice and peace, and of the kinds of problems that arise in that movement.