Our Oceans: Human Impacts

3 Credits

Our oceans. They are stunningly beautiful, profoundly impacted by humans, and vitally important to human existence. In this course, we will ask “how do we impact our oceans, and how do they in turn impact us?” We will explore the biodiversity and ecology of our oceans, human impacts on ocean ecosystems, how ocean ecosystems impact humans, and solutions for ecological problems. Thus, this multidisciplinary course will touch on biology, sociology, engineering, and other fields to explore the issue of human impacts on the ocean from many angles. This course affords students the ability to critically examine and evaluate the principles of the scientific method, model construction, and use the scientific method to explain natural experiences and phenomena.