Syllabus: The New Environmentalists

Summer 2023
By Sam Byrd

ESCI 495/ BIOS 495
Seminar: Topics in Environmental Science

DEPARTMENTS
Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and BioSciences

DESCRIPTION
This capstone course integrates topics that span environmental sciences, allowing students to explore various areas that may be the seeds of future career paths. Topics include the interconnection between human health and the environment, environmental issues from international perspectives, and the students’ own interests in local and global environmental issues.

In this seminar, students explore the intersection of environmental issues and well-being under the guidance of lead teachers Carrie Masiello, a biogeochemist who studies Earth’s carbon cycle, and Amy Dunham, a bioscientist who researches the ecology of tropical rainforests. They are assisted by Eric Wuesthoff, a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology.

“This class gives students the opportunity to synthesize what they have learned [in the major] and to explore topics in the environment that they’re really interested in,” Wuesthoff says. The goal is for students to generate ideas about what they want to do in their careers going forward. They even interview alumni to learn about different career possibilities in environmental sciences and the often-winding career paths that people take after college. Dunham adds, “We try to get people at different career stages so they can get a better understanding of what it may look like a couple of years after college versus others who are more established.”

This semester, Rice students had the unique opportunity to discuss environmental issues via live video with students at the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar. The island nation, whose official languages are Malagasy and French, provided an ideal international course component, as Dunham has engaged in ecological research there for more than two decades.

“The Malagasy students were very excited to practice and engage in scientific discussions in English,” Dunham says. “The experience was enriching for everybody, and I am excited to keep up long-term learning engagements between our universities. Places like Madagascar are often excluded from conversations about global environment, but its scholars and students have a lot of knowledge and experience that we can learn from.”

Sophomore M. Graham Waterstraat adds, “This class is exciting because you get to speak to people from a different continent about ongoing scientific and environmental issues, especially ones that uniquely affect them. I think one of the great things about interdisciplinary majors generally is the opportunity to hear from so many different perspectives.”