A team of us students in the sustainable development program are trying to revamp our core science course. For a group of mathematically sophisticated, intellectually bold, and cutting-edge-research-focused people, our current “introduction” to science is far too lax and disorganized. We want to put it on surer ground.<\/p>\n
The class needs to go into quite a few topics; minimally, it needs to include climate, hydrology, ecology, and public health. Disasters, energy, rocks and soils, and agriculture would be nice too.<\/p>\n
The goal of the class is to prepare us to struggle through any sequence of PhD-level classes in a science of our choice, and to let us engage academic papers written by, well, anyone. The first response that we got from the Earth Institute post-docs, when we asked their advice, was that a class like this is impossible. But then, we’ve been doing exactly that with far worse for years.<\/p>\n
We decided that we should start the first class with Thermodynamics, as a foundation for the rest. I’m in charge of writing up the topics for that day.\u00a0 I think there are a few other pieces that are similarly foundational to all environmental science: dimensionality, stocks and flows, equilibria, industrial ecology, and path-dependence.\u00a0 I’m not sure how it all fits together, but here’s what I’ve got so far.<\/p>\n
Dimensionality<\/p>\n
Thermodynamics<\/p>\n
Stocks and Flows<\/p>\n
A team of us students in the sustainable development program are trying to revamp our core science course. For a group of mathematically sophisticated, intellectually bold, and cutting-edge-research-focused people, our current “introduction” to science is far too lax and disorganized. We want to put it on surer ground. The class needs to go into quite … Continue reading A Foundation for Environment Science<\/span>