Suggested Courses

Introduction to the methods of analyses available to archaeologists and allied scientists for reconstructing ancient environments. Topics include a review of dating methods; the Earth's environments and causes of environmental change; geological approaches to reconstructing past landscapes; and use of ancient plant and animal remains for interpreting past environments. Tours of key dating and paleoenvironmental labs on the UA campus.

This course introduces a variety of environmental thought linking the political sphere and the biosphere. It examines ecological economics, environmental history and ethics, theoretical ecology, ecofeminism, political ecology in anthropology and intellectual property law.

Critical survey of scientific methods used in archaeology and art history. Emphasis on the potential and limitations of these techniques for reconstructing human behavior.

Critical survey of scientific methods used in archaeology and art history. Emphasis on the potential and limitations of these techniques for reconstructing human behavior. Graduate-level requirements include one substantial critical review of the literature on some archaeological application of archaeometry.

Fundamentals of occupational safety, emphasizing regulatory requirements and best-practices targeted to eliminate major sources of occupational injuries. Hazard identification, behavioral safety, and incident investigation will be discussed.

Introduction to the principles of occupational and environmental health, with emphasis on industrial hygiene aspects of recognition, evaluation, and control of environmental and industrial health hazards.

Fundamentals of occupational safety, emphasizing regulatory requirements and best-practices targeted to eliminate major sources of occupational injuries. Hazard identification, behavioral safety, and incident investigation will be discussed. Graduate-level requirements include a written paper evaluating a topical incident pertinent to the state/region, including an analysis of contributing factors and recommendations to prevent future occurrences.

Introduction to the principles of occupational and environmental health, with emphasis on industrial hygiene aspects of recognition, evaluation, and control of environmental and industrial health hazards. Graduate-level requirements include a comprehensive paper detailing hazards associated with a particular health hazard.

Introduction to abiotic and biotic scientific processes within the soil/water/atmosphere continuum that affects the fate and transport of pollutants. Evaluation of the extent, fate, mitigation and impact of environmental pollution.

Across America, one in four Americans lives within 3 miles of a hazardous waste site (U.S. General Accounting Office, 2013). This means that one's zip code can be more important than their genetic code. Today's complex environmental health and justice challenges have far-reaching impacts and require an ability to interweave different data sources to build connections across disciplines and social positions. Students will learn how using an environmental justice framework and merging different datasets and forms of knowledge can uncover the underlying assumptions (inequality, distribution of power and privilege, oppression/marginalization) that contributes to and produces unequal protection. Students will learn from diverse individuals who are generating creative and systems-based environmental health solutions. After the course, students will demonstrate an ability to build connections among various stakeholders and use multiple perspectives to solve challenges. Students will not only gain a fundamental understanding of environmental science and legislation, public health, and justice, they will build connections and apply the ecological model of health to design solutions at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, and community levels to create a more equitable society.

Scientists speak a different language, a dialect filled with abstract symbolism, hypotheses and references to Latin and Greek. In this course, students learn journalism techniques to translate environmental science topics into language a layperson could appreciate. The writing concepts will apply to any field of science, as well as grant proposals, public reports and media including web-based publishing. Students also learn techniques for converting numbers into relevant statistics. Students will "workshop" in groups and work closely with the instructor to produce publication-quality articles on assigned or agreed-upon topics. The best of these could be posted on university-affiliated websites, with credit given to the author.

This course equips you with knowledge, abilities, and skills that facilitate your transition from college to a professional world. You will apply the systematic process of assessing a contaminated site according to the established regulations and procedures to real-world contaminated sites. Additionally, you will conduct extensive web searches to extract different types of qualitative and quantitative data and information and use them to make a series of tiered decisions. Furthermore, you will predict contaminant exposure pathways using site environmental conditions and contaminants characteristics. Moreover, you will acquire quantitative and qualitative skills in estimating the contaminant risk. Also, you will analyze, screen, and recommend strategies for cleaning up. Most importantly, you will write a real-world technical report and translate it for a non-technical audience.

We are now living in the Anthropocene, meaning human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Humans have impacted the land in numerous of ways, such as mining and other resource extraction activities, agriculture, urban development, industrial activities, and waste production. For example, in the U.S. alone, there are approximately 235,000-355,000 hazardous waste sites (USEPA, 2004). These activities have impacted our ecosystem and the services they provide for human health and well-being. It is critical to reclaim and redevelop these lands in order to improve ecosystem and public health. There is much work to be done and this is a time for innovation! It is critical to generate salient solutions to managing and redeveloping human impacted lands. This course will introduce the concepts and methods governing the sustainable management, restoration, and redevelopment of human-impacted lands. The topics covered include: soil quality concepts; the energy-water-food nexus; redevelopment of brownfields and other impacted lands; reclamation of mining and other resource-extraction sites; natural-disaster cleanup; urban agriculture and community gardens. Using an inquiry-based approach, students will learn how to develop solutions based on environmental science, ecological principles, and management efficacy. Through class projects and case studies, students will work through a multi-step process, including: site assessment, setting remediation/reclamation/restoration goals, developing possible solutions, and methods to determine effectiveness/indicators of success.

Scientists speak a different language, a dialect filled with abstract symbolism, hypotheses and references to Latin and Greek. In this course, students learn journalism techniques to translate environmental science topics into language a layperson could appreciate. The writing concepts will apply to any field of science, as well as grant proposals, public reports and media including web-based publishing. Students also learn techniques for converting numbers into relevant statistics. Students will "workshop" in groups and work closely with the instructor to produce publication-quality articles on assigned or agreed-upon topics. The best of these could be posted on university-affiliated websites, with credit given to the author. Graduate-level requirements include an additional final project writing a grant proposal or writing a feature article for a specified magazine or newspaper worth 50 points and a higher level of expectation regarding writing and reviews of their peers' work.

This course equips you with knowledge, abilities, and skills that facilitate your transition from college to a professional world. You will apply the systematic process of assessing a contaminated site according to the established regulations and procedures to real-world contaminated sites. Additionally, you will conduct extensive web searches to extract different types of qualitative and quantitative data and information and use them to make a series of tiered decisions. Furthermore, you will predict contaminant exposure pathways using site environmental conditions and contaminants characteristics. Moreover, you will acquire quantitative and qualitative skills in estimating the contaminant risk. Also, you will analyze, screen, and recommend strategies for cleaning up. Most importantly, you will write a real-world technical report and translate it for a non-technical audience.

We are now living the in Anthropocene, meaning human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Humans have impacted the land in numerous of ways, such as mining and other resource extraction activities, agriculture, urban development, industrial activities, and waste production. For example, in the U.S. alone, there are approximately 235,000-355,000 hazardous waste sites (USEPA, 2004). These activities have impacted our ecosystem and the services they provide for human health and well-being. It is critical to reclaim and redevelop these lands in order to improve ecosystem and public health. There is much work to be done and this is a time for innovation! It is critical to generate salient solutions to managing and redeveloping human impacted lands. This course will introduce the concepts and methods governing the sustainable management, restoration, and redevelopment of human-impacted lands. The topics covered include: soil quality concepts; the energy-water-food nexus; redevelopment of brownfields and other impacted lands; reclamation of mining and other resource-extraction sites; natural-disaster cleanup; urban agriculture and community gardens. Using an inquiry-based approach, students will learn how to develop solutions based on environmental science, ecological principles, and management efficacy. Through class projects and case studies, students will work through a multi-step process, including: site assessment, setting remediation/reclamation/restoration goals, developing possible solutions, and methods to determine effectiveness/indicators of success. Graduate-level requirements include an additional report and a demonstration of undergraduate mentoring and team leadership. At the graduate-level there is a higher level of expectation with regards to writing and peer review. These activities are worth 30 points.

Interdisciplinary trainees who participate in a colloquium, professional development activities and research translation/community engagement activities.

The course introduces and examines key principles, regulations, risk factors and practical strategies to monitor and mitigate the risks and hazards associated with mine tailings facilities. The course is focused on the scientific and engineering principles supporting tailings monitoring activities, standard and innovative technologies are covered. Activities will include data interpretation exercises, individual and team projects based on real-world examples and data, as well as guest lectures from industry professionals.

Principles and practices of mine environmental management and reclamation; pre-mining assessment. Design of water management systems (contaminant removal; settling ponds, groundwater protection); recontouring and revegetation; air quality management; noise and seismic mitigation. Monitoring methods for tailings, slopes and water. Maintaining permits; closure and bond release and ultimate land use. Best management practices.

The course introduces and examines key principles, regulations, risk factors and practical strategies to monitor and mitigate the risks and hazards associated with mine tailings facilities. The course is focused on the scientific and engineering principles supporting tailings monitoring activities, standard and innovative technologies are covered. Activities will include data interpretation exercises, individual and team projects based on real-world examples and data, as well as guest lectures from industry professionals.

Principles and practices of mine environmental management and reclamation; pre-mining assessment. Design of water management systems (contaminant removal; settling ponds, groundwater protection); recontouring and revegetation; air quality management; noise and seismic mitigation. Monitoring methods for tailings, slopes and water. Maintaining permits; closure and bond release and ultimate land use. Best management practices. Graduate-level requirements include additional assignments and a research paper or presentation on a specific environmental management topic.

Applied Earth Science measurements, data processing, and imaging in an engineering context with heavy emphasis on understanding the practical aspects of problem solving, and data collection design and field implementation. Methods and applications of multiple types of data collection systems as well as the associated data processing, imaging and interpretation of the data as pertaining to the needs of a project will be discussed.

This course is a survey of environmental management and economics to maximize social benefit. Covering pollution control, nonrenewable resource extraction, and natural resource management, we address both theory and policy in practice to determine when markets work, when they fail, and what policy can do to help. We also discuss the taxonomy of value and introduce stated- and revealed-preference valuation techniques. This course aims to empower students with a set of tools to rigorously evaluate a range of real-world issues at the human-environment nexus through the synthesis of science, economics, and policy. Basic math (graphing and algebra) will be used in this course, but all concepts will be reviewed during the first class.

This course will provide senior undergraduate and graduate students the conceptual, methodological, and scientific bases to quantify and reduce the impact of engineering decisions on the environment, with a focus on applying life cycle analysis (LCA) to support the material choice, product/process design, and manufacturing/engineering decisions. Main topics covered include concept of life cycle thinking, computational structure of LCA, process and economic input-output based LCA, LCA software demonstration, LCA case studies, environmental product declaration, and recent development and advanced topics in LCA.