CLIMATIC ENVIRONMENTS OF THE PAST

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: Sophomore standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Natural Science & Wellness Breadth - Physical Science Level - Intermediate L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Describe the major climatic events and trends during the Quaternary, spanning timescales from the last 50,000,000 years to the last 100 years. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Identify the physical processes controlling the behavior of the earth system and its components (atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, biosphere, etc.). Audience: Undergraduate 3. Discuss how climatic variability results from a combination of external forcings and internal dynamics within the earth system. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Recognize how paleoclimatologists collect, date, and analyze a staggering variety of paleoclimatic records, including ocean and lake sediment cores, ice cores, tree rings, corals, and speleothems. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Analyze and critically evaluate climate experiments that are simulated by earth system models. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Think and write critically, with particular attention to critically reading the scientific literature and critically employing the climate proxies and models used by paleoclimatologists. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Describe the major climatic events and trends during the Quaternary, spanning timescales from the last 50,000,000 years to the last 100 years. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Identify the physical processes controlling the behavior of the earth system and its components (atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere, biosphere, etc.). Audience: Undergraduate 3. Discuss how climatic variability results from a combination of external forcings and internal dynamics within the earth system. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Recognize how paleoclimatologists collect, date, and analyze a staggering variety of paleoclimatic records, including ocean and lake sediment cores, ice cores, tree rings, corals, and speleothems. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Analyze and critically evaluate climate experiments that are simulated by earth system models. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Think and write critically, with particular attention to critically reading the scientific literature and critically employing the climate proxies and models used by paleoclimatologists. Audience: Undergraduate