Environment

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Plant Diversity and Ecology — BIO2240.01

Spring 2018
Instructor: Kerry Woods
Credits: 4
Plants define the biological environment. All other organisms depend on plantsʹ capacity for photosynthesis. Plant structure and chemistry have shaped animal (including human) evolution, and we directly depend on plant products for food, medicine, structural materials, and many other things. Yet few people can name even the dominant plants in their environment, explain what
Science and Mathematics Environment

Plant Diversity and Ecology — BIO2240.01

Spring 2019
Instructor: Kerry Woods
Credits: 4
Plants define the biological environment. All other organisms depend on plantsʹ capacity for photosynthesis. Plant structure and chemistry have shaped animal (including human) evolution, and we directly depend on plant products for food, medicine, structural materials, and many other things. Yet few people can name even the dominant plants in their environment, explain what
Science and Mathematics Environment

Plant Ecology and Floristics — BIO4112.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Kerry Woods
Credits: 4
An intensive quantitative and field-based study of local plants and plant communities.   Work will include intensive documentation of local natural areas with intensive field-work involving plant identification, community sampling, and environmental measurement/description.  In addition, there will be opportunity to learn and apply tools like dendrochronology
Science and Mathematics Environment

Plastic Pollution and What Students Can Do About It — APA2176.01

Fall 2019
Instructor: Judith Enck
Credits: 2
Plastic pollution is gaining international attention for the damage it is doing to human health, fish and wildlife, the climate, the ocean and communities. This class will explore the dimensions of the problem, the root causes of plastic pollution and the need for innovation. The class will be taught in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action and will have a major focus
CAPA Environment

Plastic Pollution and What You Can Do About It — APA2176.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Judith Enck
Credits: 4
Plastic pollution has emerged as a major environmental, health and economic issue with direct links to climate change. 9 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year. In the next decade, there will be 1 lb of plastic in the ocean for every 3 lbs of fish.  Plastics are made from chemicals and a by-product of fracking. And we can't recycle our way out of this
CAPA Environment

Plastic Pollution: What Can We Do About It? — APA2164.01

Spring 2019
Instructor: Judith Enck
Credits: 2
The cover on “National Geographic” had a powerful artist rendering of an ocean iceberg, with a giant plastic bag hidden below the surface of the water. The magazine cover headlined: “Planet or Plastic? 18 billion pounds of plastic ends up in the ocean each year. And that’s just “ the tip of the iceberg.” Take a look at that edition of National Geographic (June 2018). If the
CAPA Environment

Political Ideologies in Action: American Conservatism — SCT2107.01

Fall 2017
Instructor: John Hultgren
Credits: 4
Contemporary American conservatism has moved a long way from its historical roots in the ideologies of classical conservatism and classical liberalism. How did we get from Edmund Burke to Steve Bannon? From the Federalists to the Freedom Caucus? To gain insight into these questions, this course will explore four traditions within American conservative thought: (1)
Environment Society Culture and Thought

Pop-Up: Understanding PFOA in Our Water — POP2257.02

Spring 2016
Instructor: David Bond, Janet Foley, Tim Schroeder
Credits: 2
The water supply of Hoosick Falls, NY, Bennington’s western neighbor, has been contaminated with Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) by past industrial activity. PFOA is an “emerging contaminant” that is correlated with a range of health problems. This course will investigate the social and physical aspects of this ongoing disaster, from how the regulation of chemicals in the US
CAPA Science Mathematics and Computing Environment

Population and the Environment: From Population Bomb to Environmental Justice — ENV2172.01

Fall 2021
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
What is the connection between human population and environmental change? This seemingly simple question is one with a long and complicated history that is filled with inequality, violence, and suffering as well as with cases of justice, inclusion, and hope that demonstrate the real possibilities for positive and transformative change. This course will explore exactly what is
Environment

Population Ecology and Ecological Models — BIO4116.01

Spring 2023
Instructor: Katie Montovan
Credits: 4
This course provides a theoretical and quantitative exploration of the processes and principles associated with population dynamics. We will learn about key ideas in population ecology (such as density dependence, competition, evolution, predation, and parasitism) and then learn about how to represent these theories as mathematical models. We will learn to use the programming
Science and Mathematics Environment

Projections — ARC2120.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Donald Sherefkin
Credits: 4
This course will combine an introduction to both the history of architecture as well as its systems of representation. A thematic history of architecture will be presented through slide lectures and readings. Studio work will employ sketching, hand drawing with tools and digital modeling. The studio work will inform the understanding of the work that is presented in the history
Visual Arts Environment Society Culture and Thought

Race, Class, Environment — SCT4102.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: John Hultgren
Credits: 4
What is the relationship between racism, economic inequality, and environmental degradation? Are these modes of injustice the consequence of a single overarching structure (e.g. capitalism or colonialism) against which resistance should be aimed? Are they formed by overlapping, but relatively autonomous, structures that nonetheless form a Gordian knot of oppression? Or are they
CAPA Environment Society Culture and Thought

Rare and Common: Advanced Reading in Conservation and Ecology — BIO4321.01

Fall 2024
Instructor: Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
Credits: 2
Quantifying and monitoring the abundance of particular organisms is often the major endeavor in conservation and ecology research. We work to protect endangered species, facilitate the recovery of threatened species, reduce invasive species, and restore historically present species, but we also understand that even absent human pressures, some species are more rare than others.
Science and Mathematics Environment

Reading and Knitting the Forested Landscape — BIO2242.01

Spring 2026
Instructor: Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

Why would a forest ecology course include an assignment to knit a wool hat? In this class we will explore the lasting impact of sheep on the Vermont landscape, from the earliest settler-colonizers through today’s small batch fiber mills and second growth forests studded with stone walls. Sheep, and especially a 19th century boom in merino

Environment Biology

Reading and Knitting the Forested Landscape — BIO2242.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
Credits: 4
Why would a forest ecology course include an assignment to knit a wool hat? In this class we will explore the lasting impact of sheep on the Vermont landscape, from the earliest settler-colonizers through today’s small batch fiber mills and second growth forests studded with stone walls. Sheep, and especially a 19th century boom in merino sheep, radically altered Vermont’s
Science and Mathematics Environment

Reading and Knitting the Forested Landscape — BIO2242.01

Spring 2024
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
Why would a forest ecology course include an assignment to knit a wool hat? In this class we will explore the lasting impact of sheep on the Vermont landscape, from the earliest settler-colonizers through today’s small batch fiber mills and second growth forests studded with stone walls. Sheep, and especially a 19th century boom in merino sheep, radically altered Vermont’s
Science and Mathematics Environment

Reading and Writing the Natural World — LIT4133.01

Spring 2016
Instructor:
Credits: 4
John Burroughs wrote that “Until science is mixed with emotion and appeals to the heart and imagination, it is like dead organic matter; and when it is so mixed and so transformed, it is literature.”  Using this directive, students would be asked to document their own observations of the natural world; field notes and almanac will serve as raw material from which to
Environment Literature

Reading Wilderness — LIT2236.01

Spring 2015
Instructor: Akiko Busch
Credits: 4
For generations, the passage west and the idea of wilderness have provided resonant subject matter for American writers. In the words of Wallace Stegner, "the wilderness idea is something that has helped form our character and certainly shaped our history as a people." The course will explore how our understanding of wilderness has evolved from perceived notions of untouched
Environment Literature

Redefining Economic Development — PEC4103.01

Spring 2014
Instructor: Robin Kemkes
Credits: 4
Using both theory and empirical analysis, this course will explore the diversity of economic progress across developing nations, confront existing challenges and consider multiple perspectives on desirable policy approaches. We will begin with an introduction to traditional measures of development including income, health and education, followed by a comparison of domestic
Environment Social Science

Resilience and Food Access in Bennington, VT — APA2241.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Tatiana Abatemarco
Credits: 4
What is a resilient community food system? How is community health impacted by food access and quality? This class will explore these questions through community engagement and research with a focus on sustainable food system interventions in Bennington, Vermont. Resilience is the ability for a system to adapt to changing circumstances, including poverty, climate change, and
CAPA Environment

Resilience, Farming, and Food Access — APA2338.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Tatiana Abatemarco
Credits: 4
What is a resilient community food system? How is community health impacted by food access and quality? How can we build food systems to adapt to changing climate, poverty, and health crises? What farming systems and practices best support community and ecological resilience? This class will explore these questions through the lens of resilience theory, which describes how
CAPA Environment Society Culture and Thought

Resilience, Farming, and Food Access — APA2338.01

Spring 2021
Instructor: Tatiana Abatemarco
Credits: 4
What is a resilient community food system? How is community health impacted by food access and quality? How can we build food systems to adapt to changing climate, poverty, and health crises? What farming systems and practices best support community and ecological resilience? This class will explore these questions through the lens of resilience theory, which describes how
CAPA Environment

Scanning Electron Microscopy Research Methods — ES4107.01

Fall 2025
Instructor: Tim Schroeder
Days & Time: TU 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 2

Scanning electron microscopes are a fundamental tool in the physical and life sciences. When equipped with an X-Ray spectrometer, a SEM can provide rapid physical and chemical data of specimens on extremely small scales. This class with cover the theory and practical applications of SEM imaging and analysis for advanced science students who have their own

Environment Earth Science Physics Chemistry Biology