Postgraduate Course: Global Environment Challenges (PGGE11190)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | Postgraduate Courses (School of GeoSciences) |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This online course is only available to students registered on the Certificate in Global Health Challenges or the MSc in Global Challenges.
The course will provide an introduction to a range of "global environmental challenges" facing humanity. It will provide the necessary background to understanding the policies, politics, governance and ethics, and decision-making processes that underpin the causes of, and responses to, environmental change. It will include an appreciation of the social construction of the term ¿global environmental challenges¿ and the implications of this. The course objectives are:
¿ To introduce the fundamental concepts of ecosystems and sustainability;
¿ To explore a range of topical environmental change issues with global dimensions;
¿ To appreciate the interrelationships between human activity and environmental change;
¿ To encourage the capacity to critically appraise policy, and other interventions, taking account of issues such as ecological limits, social equity and justice, and processes of social change. |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | This online course is only available to students registered on the Certificate in Global Health Challenges or the MSc in Global Challenges. |
| Additional Costs | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Delivery period: 2014/15 Semester 1, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
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Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Learning and Teaching Activities |
| Additional Notes |
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| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Please contact the School directly for a breakdown of Assessment Methods
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
1. Insight into environmental challenges facing humanity and the ethical issues relating to the them.
2. Ability to critically appraise the arguments surrounding such issues and be able to communicate to others the reasons for and against a particular course of action in response to different environmental problems.
3. Ability to use library and other desk-based sources of information in understanding these issues and in supporting their arguments. |
Assessment Information
Each student will explore the course material in relation to a chosen case study location, identifying and commenting on local and national policies, initiatives, relevant data sources etc. They will share this with fellow students through an individual fortnightly blog. Students will draw on their blog to produce two assessed assignments:
i) Early in the semester, a context map identifying, and commenting on, key relationships between ecosystem services, human needs and activities affecting the ecosystem, in their case study area; (30%)
ii) End of semester: a critical review of an existing or proposed project in their case study area. Subject to the agreement of the course organizer, this may be fully or partially related to a task in their professional work. (70%)
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Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
The target audience are professionals who are working in areas related to sustainability, who are studying part time, and at a distance. The chosen approach aims to maximise the benefits of engaging with working professionals, in particular by relating the course topics to the particular needs and interests of students, and also by supporting students to bring their professional experience and expertise into the course and to share this with their peers.
It will adopt a systems approach around key topics to explore: a) how human activity is changing the environment; b) the effects of those changes on humankind; and c) how humans are responding to those effects. It will be organised around a number of key topics, such as climate change, energy, food, water etc. These will be considered in relation to a number of cross-cutting themes, to explore the relationships between the topic and, e.g. health, development, politics, values, and processes of social change. The course will consider the interrelationships between each of the key topics, and the relationships between impacts and activity as global, regional and local levels.
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| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
The course will be organised around a series of two week blocks, each of which consisting of the following elements:
¿ A brief study guide to introduce and put in context,
¿ A selected readings (and other resources such as videos),
¿ An online discussion forum, where students will discuss questions, posed in the study guide, relating to the readings.
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| Keywords | Global Challenges, Distance Learning |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Osbert Lancaster
Tel: (0131 6)51 4548
Email: osbert.lancaster@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Natasa Honeybone
Tel: (0131 6)50 2572
Email: natasa.honeybone@ed.ac.uk |
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