Integrates the science of ecology and the science of humans and society to understand the relationship between the natural landscape's effects on society and social organization, and society's effects on the natural landscape.
Introduction to the Vermont landscape that combines elements of natural history, field ecology, and environmental history. Students visit locations around the Champlain Valley as they build observational skills, study natural systems, and examine past and present human relationships with nature.
A unique focus on the intersections of nature, identity, and belonging that supports students in cultivating a wider, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of nature and the dynamics of belonging. Students will gain practices to connect more deeply with nature, themselves, and the community and understand how our worldview and relationship with nature can help address growing global environmental challenges.
Introductory topics in environmental and natural resource issues beyond the scope of exiting courses.
Major ecological concepts and their application. Analysis of form, structure, and function of organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, and landscapes. Prerequisites: RSENR students or Agroecology or Landscape Design or Environmental Studies majors; minimum Sophomore standing.
Social science theories and their application to environmental issues. Analysis of issues using theories of government, economics, and social movements. Emphasis on integrating frameworks to analyze environmental issues. Prerequisite: NR 1020 or NR 1090.
Focuses on the types of oral communication common in environmental professions, with a focus on an environmental issue that students adapt communications for throughout the semester. Designed to teach students common frameworks for effective science communication and stakeholder engagement, while providing opportunities for students to expand their oral communication, critical analysis and listening skills for a variety of audiences and purposes.
Offers students in the Fellowship for Restoration Ecologies and Cultures an experiential course in landscape restoration and leadership. Aims to contend with anthropogenic disturbance of ecosystems through an interdisciplinary approach while developing collaborative leadership skills among students. Prerequisites: ENVS 1500, ENVS 1550, BIOL 1000, BIOL 1400, BIOL 1450, NR 1010, NR 1020, ENSC 1010, GEOG 1200, GEOG 1760, ALE 1210, CDAE 1020, or NR 1090.
This course is designed for students who want to develop basic competency in designing, conducting and interpreting statistical analyses for environmental applications. Students will be introduced to experimental design and sampling, data interpretation, description and visualization, distributions and probability, and common inferential tests. Students will leave the class with the ability to assess and conduct a wide range of common statistical analyses independently using the R and R Studio. Prerequisite: Sophomore standing.
Understanding and application of computer-based, geographically-referenced information systems. Prerequisite: Minimum Sophomore standing.
Examinations of the earth's surface from aerial photographs and satellite imagery. Emphasis is on image interpretation, classification, change detection, multivariate analysis (e.g. principal components analysis). Prerequisite: Sophomore standing. Cross-listed with: GEOG 2520.
On-site supervised work experience combined with a structured academic learning plan directed by a faculty member or a faculty-staff team in which a faculty member is the instructor of record, for which academic credit is awarded. Offered at department discretion
A course which is tailored to fit the interests of a specific student, which occurs outside the traditional classroom/laboratory setting under the supervision of a faculty member, for which credit is awarded. Offered at department discretion
This fellowship experience is designed for undergraduate teaching assistants with the goal to build their skills as an instructor, facilitator and peer mentor. Students will develop a teaching statement and provide curricular feedback based on instructional best practices. Students wishing to earn 2-3 credits will work 1:1 with course instructors to develop new curricula and instructional materials as part of a teaching portfolio. Co-requisite: Students must be currently serving as teaching assistants in an RSENR course.
Provides a big-picture understanding of what research is, how to do it, and conceptually learn some methodological approaches to research in the environmental realm and helps effectively structure and write a literature review and thesis proposal. Prerequisite: Minimum Junior standing.
Analysis of the interaction between science and politics in ecosystem management. Consideration of various types of science and their roles in shaping environmental management, politics, and policy. Interdisciplinary application of course concepts to case studies of complex ecological problems. Prerequisites: NR 2030, NR 2040.
Advanced course encompassing a wide range of topics in GIS, remote sensing, GPS, modeling, and visualization designed to provide technical expertise in geospatial techniques. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisite: NR 2430, GEOG 2510, NR 6430, NR 2460, or GEOG 2520.
Project-based service-learning course that provides opportunities to integrate interdisciplinary academic learning and skills and apply them in a community context. Involves students working with off-campus community partners on authentic social-environmental problems in peer groups across RSENR majors. Topics include interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving, project management, community-based participatory action research, application of systems theory, stakeholder assessment and asset mapping, proposal writing, and transferable skills. Emphasis on independent learning and student-designed goals. Prerequisites: NR 3050.
Place-based course and service learning lab that pairs UVM students as enviro-mentors with children in Burlington schools in an after-school birding and nature study club. Application and background check are required of enrolled students. Prerequisites: Minimum Junior standing; Instructor permission.
Immerses students in a real-world consulting experience working with community partners. Functioning as a consulting firm, students work in interdisciplinary teams to analyze community contexts, engage stakeholders, conduct environmental assessments and develop actionable plans Through project-based learning, students apply ecological and management knowledge emphasizing problem-solving, collaboration, communication, and the creation of professional deliverables. Students leave the course with demonstrated ability to synthesize knowledge across disciplines in order to effect meaningful environmental change. Prerequisites: NR 3050, NR 2430.
An applied course in geospatial technology with a focus on ESRI's ArcGIS software suite. Prerequisite: NR 2430 or NR 6430.
See Schedule of Courses for specific titles.
Focuses on fundamentals and practice of data visualization and communication. Learn the ways humans use cognitive and perceptual abilities to comprehend information, best practices for creating compelling and effective data visualizations, and the many nuanced factors influencing the successful application of practices. Includes work with an existing research data set. Prerequisite: Graduate student or Instructor permission.
Geospatial Computation is the study of general computational methods applied to spatial and spatiotemporal data for exploratory, confirmatory, descriptive or predictive analysis. Introduces foundational concepts applications in spatial data science within the context of GIS. Computational approaches in spatial simulation, exploratory data analysis, predictive analysis and geospatial data visualization. Prerequisite: Graduate student or Instructor permission.
A course which is tailored to fit the interests of a specific student, which occurs outside the traditional classroom/laboratory setting under the supervision of a faculty member, for which credit is awarded. Offered at department discretion.
Seminar orienting Graduate students to RSENR and providing frameworks for collaborative leadership, whole systems thinking, and intercultural competency.
Provides an experiential and theoretical orientation to foundational practices, principles, and skills of sustainability leadership with an emphasis on ecological/systems thinking, sustainability, and leadership.
Research for the Master's Thesis.
Research for the Master's Project.
A transdisciplinary study of the economic system as embedded and interdependent on social institutions and environmental systems.
Explores the theoretical and practice-based fields and lineages associated with transdisciplinary leadership and creativity while providing a solid structural and relational grounding for students in the Transdisciplinary Leadership, Creativity & Sustainability Doctoral Program.
Focuses on practices for engaging with inquiry, methods, and practice as students develop more clarity about the research questions, practices, structure, methods, and lineages that will inform their dissertation proposal and research.
Explores emerging topics and themes related to the theory and practice of ecological leadership. Can be taken in successive semesters (up to two times), as learning module topics will change.
Graduate topics and material that may eventually develop into a regular course offering.
Graduate student work on individual or small team research projects under the supervision of a faculty member, for which credit is awarded. Offered at department discretion.
Research for the Doctoral Dissertation.
For Doctoral students nearing the end of dissertation research and beginning the integration, diffraction, synthesis, and meaning-making process essential to their dissertation. Provides structure, support and feedback in the creative act of crafting a dissertation. Prerequisites: NR 6720, NR 6730.