State University of New York at New Paltz
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

Geography with an Environmental Concentration * Students will learn to define basic concepts and theories in environmental geography; * Students will learn to apply analytical methods used in environmental geography, including: - Distinguishing human from nonhuman factors of environmental change - Linking social and physical processes at multiple scales - Using logic and arithmetic in problem-solving activities - Identifying social causes of human impact on the environment - Thinking critically about environmental issues, including considering relations of power behind negative human impact and the social repercussions of environmental degradation - Asking what motivates people to act on or think about environments in particular ways - Identifying problematic assumptions in popular notions Environmental Studies * Define environmental problems * Describe the social causes of environmental problems * Evaluate possibilities for a “green” economy * Explain how social inequalities relate to environmental risk * Describe political struggles that have emerged around the environment Environmental Geochemical Science * Students will develop a deeper understanding of the interaction between technology and the natural environment that hosts it so that our society can work toward building a sustainable civilization, providing for human needs while still preserving the earth's unique natural heritage.

Ecology Course, required for Environmental/Organismal Biology: * Students will understand how humans interact with ecological and evolutionary processes. * Students will learn the physical, chemical, and biological organization of aquatic ecosystems and increase quantitative literacy in ecological interpretation of aquatic ecosystems and problem solving. * Students will learn to make scientific predictions about how ecological processes affect human well-being and how human activities affect ecosystems at local, regional, or global scales. * Students will be able to evaluate strategies for environmental solutions and sustainability from a scientific perspective. * Students will be able to describe the important abiotic and biotic factors that determine the structure, composition, function, and dynamics of ecological systems. * Students will be able to make scientific predictions about how ecological processes affect human well-being and how human activities affect ecosystems at local, regional, or global scales. Learning Outcomes for the Introduction to Managing Sustainability, a required course in the Sustainability Track of the Management Major: * Define the core concepts of sustainability and explain how they translate to a business context. * Identify and select tools appropriate to analysis of sustainability issues and to generate solution pathways for businesses. * Develop and argue the business case for solving sustainability problems or pursuing opportunities framed by actual experiences of diverse organizations. * Identify and assess information sources pertinent to sustainable business practices. * Communicate to prospective employers how sustainability knowledge can add value to an organization. General Biology II, required for all biology students Students should be able to: Draw the shape of human population growth over the last 8000 years Interpret age-structure pyramids for growing and shrinking populations Explain how a human population’s age structure affects its growth rate Explain the concept of an ecological footprint Explain the concept of global carrying capacity