Earth and Planetary Sciences

Starting Fall 2009

Global Environmental Change and Sustainability

Overview

The Global Environmental Change and Sustainability (GECS) major and minor are interdepartmental programs introducing students to the science of the Earth and its living and nonliving systems as well as how humans interact with Earth and its natural systems and how humans can use powerful tools, such as policy and communication to harm or help those systems. The goals are to advance awareness of the magnitude and consequences of these issues and to train the next generation of problem-solvers who will address the effects of global environmental change. Students' backgrounds are typically specialized within traditional disciplines; a primary purpose of this major is to develop the ability of students to venture beyond the confines of those disciplines. Students will be exposed to theory, research, and the practical applications of both throughout their coursework.

Curriculum for Major

The major in GECS will provide all of its students with a solid background in the study of both the environmental science and social science of our changing world with the core requirements for all majors. After completing the core requirements, students will be allowed to choose either the Science or Social Science concentration for more in-depth study in their area of greater interest. While allowing students to concentrate, however, both concentrations will continue to require some courses in both environmental science and social science; the proportion will depend on the concentration.

A key component of the GECS major will be senior projects, internships, and field trips that will give students “hands on” experience. These projects could be coordinated with other activities at JHU, including those of the Hopkins Sustainability Committee, and could also lead to greater outreach activities.

To further enhance the students’ perspective of the global nature of the issues and differences in world views of different cultures, the major will cultivate and nurture relationships with international institutions to provide a variety of culturally and academically challenging opportunities abroad to augment the JHU experience.

Course Requirements:

Requirements for the major will include a total of 23 or 24 courses and 78 or 75 credits respectively, depending on the concentration. These can be selected from a diversity of offerings available from different departments. GECS major students must take a “core” of 12 courses listed in Table 1 that will provide them with the foundations of global environmental science and sustainability. Core courses are offered through E&PS, Mathematics, Economics, Chemistry, Engineering, Psychology, Sociology, and Political Science. For electives, the major draws upon additional pertinent course offerings from these departments as well as from Anthropology, Biology, Physics, and History. Economics, Sociology, and Political Science are relevant to global environmental change and sustainability, both in their contributions to the problems we face and in their potential contributions to solutions to achieving sustainability. JHU is fortunate to have many courses from these disciplines with vitally relevant content. As such, these three disciplines contribute the majority of the Social Science Elective courses.

1. Core courses:  12 core courses required for all GECS majors are listed inTable 1 below.
2. Science Track core courses are listed in Table 2 below. In addition to these Science Track core courses, students choosing this track must take an additional 2 upper-level courses from Table 3: Major Electives in Earth and Environmental Science and 4 courses from Table 4: Major Electives in Social Sciences, 2 of which must be upper-level.
3. Social Science Track majors must take 2 courses from Table 3: Major Electives in Earth and Environmental Science, at least 1 of which must be upper-level, and 10 courses from Table 4: Major Electives in Social Sciences, at least 6 of which must be upper level.
4. Because GECS is inherently interdisciplinary, students fulfill the University’s distribution requirements by completing the requirements for the major.
5. Capstone Experience
1. Majors will be required to complete a senior capstone experience in conjunction with the Director and relevant faculty. The capstone will consist of a senior project, based on research, internship, or independent study, and will be a demonstration of integration and synthesis of knowledge and skills obtained during the 4-year program.
2. Majors will be encouraged to begin planning their capstone experience during their junior year and will be required to submit a proposal by the end of September of their senior year. Subsequent milestones will be designated throughout the senior year to ensure that all majors are making satisfactory progress on their projects.
3. Prerequisites for the capstone course include current status as GECS Major, completion of all core courses, and an acceptable plan for completing all requirements for the major by end of the senior year, or approval of Director.
4. Credit for work in earlier terms using standard research, internship, or independent study courses can be applied to the capstone experience.
5. All majors will make an oral presentation about their capstone experience to involved faculty, advisors, and parents at the end of their senior year.

Honors Program:
Majors with a GPA of 3.5 or above through their junior year will be eligible to do an honor’s thesis as part of their capstone project. Successful completion of the honor’s thesis will result in the conferring of a B.A. with Honors.

Curriculum for Minor

The GECS minor consists of seven courses (Table 5). All minors are required to take two core courses: Intro to Global Environmental Change provides the necessary content about the science of the Earth and its environments and Intro to Sustainability covers a thorough overview of the interactions between humans and the Earth’s systems and how those interactions could become sustainable. Students then have a choice of one of three other science courses that further explores a subset of interactions of humans with Earth’s living and nonliving systems, depending on the student’s area of interest. Students must choose two more courses from the list of Earth and Environmental Science Electives (Table 2) and two more courses from the list of Social Science Electives (Table 3)and two more courses from the list of Social Science Electives (Table 4 ).At least one course from each elective list must be upper level. A total of five Earth and Environmental Science courses provide the science basis of the minor, which is then rounded out with two relevant Social Science courses. Because students will be acquiring the methodological tools of their major discipline, this curriculum removes the science methodology required in the GECS major, while keeping the most important core content.

For more information contact:
Cindy L. Parker MD, MPH
Director, GECS Major
CIPARKER@JHSPH.EDU

Required Courses for all GECS Majors: Table 1
Science Concentration Core Courses: Table 2
GECS Electives in Earth and Environmental Science*: Table 3
GECS Electives in Social Sciences**: Table 4
Required Courses for GECS Minor: Table 5

Table 1: Required Core Courses for all GECS Majors:

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Table 2: Science Concentration Core Courses

Social Science Concentration
2 courses from Table 3: Earth and Environmental Science Electives; at least 1 must be upper level
10 courses from Table 4: Social Science Electives; at least 6 must be upper level

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Table 3: GECS Electives in Earth and Environmental Science*

 *These courses satisfy requirements for the MSc in Environmental Sciences and Policy

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Table 4: GECS Electives in Social Sciences **

**The list of acceptable Social Science Electives will be reviewed and updated annually by the Director, with guidance from the Advisory Committee. Courses no longer taught will be removed, although credit earned for courses that are removed will still count toward GECS major requirements as long as the course was on the list when it was taken, and new courses will be added. Relevant courses not included in the elective list may be able to be substituted for an elective with approval of the Director. Students wishing to make such a substitution should submit a substitution request in writing via email to the Director explaining the justification for the substitution and include the syllabus from the proposed course.

Table 5: Required Courses for GECS Minor

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