Find a Sustainability GE Course

Below is a listing of general education courses that are considered “sustainability courses” and “courses that include sustainability content.”

Social Science GE Courses – Sustainability Courses

  • GEO203 People-Environments Geography. Offered every semester.  This course is an introduction to environmental studies largely using concepts, methods, and theories from environmental geography, which is the place-sensitive study of interactions between social processes and wider ecological dynamics. Drawing from cases of human impact, the course offers basic training in the application of analytical methods and in the critical examination of environmental degradation and of ideas about the environment.  This class used to be taught under the name People-Environmental Relations I. Download the syllabus

Social Science GE Courses – Courses that include Sustainability Content

  • GEO201 Human Geography.  Offered every semester.  This class used to be taught under the name Environment and Culture. Download the syllabus
  • EDS371 Child Psychology and Development with Andrea Noel only.  Professor Noel includes content on how environmental toxins can impact child learning and development.
  • POL227 Introduction to International Politics.  Two to three class sessions of Jonathan Schwartz’s class focus on the environmental dimensions of development. Stephen Pampinella’s class includes a focus on international environmental agreements.

Natural Science GE Courses – Sustainability Courses

  • EGG250 Renewable Energy.  Offered every semester.  The existing energy systems pose a great threat to both human health and the natural environment and if measures are not explored and implemented, our lives and the lives of future generations will be in eminent danger.  Energy fundamentals and energy supply from fossil fuels and renewable resources as a result of solar power (such as direct solar radiation, and indirect forms such as bioenergy, water and wind power) as well as geothermal energy is studied and analyzed using a scientific and technological approach.  The effects of decentralizing energy sources are also explored. Download the syllabus
  • CHE100 Environmental Chemistry.  Offered most semesters.  This course examines the principles of chemistry behind the effects of environmental problems such as acid rain, ozone layer depletion, air pollution, and global warming and the evaluation of experimental data leading scientists to current conclusions regarding these issues.  Download the syllabus
  • GLG205 Environmental Geology.  Offered every semester.  Topics include climate change, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewable energy, water resources, waste disposal, air & water pollution, and environmental law. Download the syllabus

Natural Science GE Courses – Courses that include Sustainability Content

  • BIO111 Introduction to Animal Life.  Includes content on ecology, ecosystems, terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity, climate, population growth, hydrofracking, air & water pollution. Download the syllabus
  • BIO112 Biology Today with Eric Keeling, Kara Belinsky, and Michael Boms only.  Offered every semester.  Content varies by faculty member.  In the past, Kara Belinsky’s course includes content on ecology, invasive species, nitrogen pollution, and fisheries management.  Michael Bom’s course has included content on the precautionary principle, environmental protection, energy and climate change, factory farming, food and population growth, and chemicals in the environment.  Download the syllabi from Kara Belinsky’s class, Michael Boms’ class, and Eric Keeling’s class.
  • GEO202 Physical Geography – Download the syllabus for Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro’s class and Scott Le Vine’s class.
  • GEO285 Geography of Hazards
  • GLG201 Physical Geology

World GE Courses – Courses that include Sustainability Content

  • ECO130 Economics of Globalization.  This course examines sustainability of the environment as well as economic sustainability/inequality and poverty.  The class focuses one week on each of these units and reference them throughout the course.
  • ANT481 Transcultural Health.

Humanities GE Courses – Courses that include Sustainability Content

  • PHI180 Contemporary Moral Issues with Daniel Werner.  To be offered in the fall of 2018.  This course includes modules on animal ethics and global poverty.  This course also allows you to practice change agent skills including communicating ideas orally and in writing, listening to others and incorporating their ideas and perspectives, reflecting to make meaning, gain perspective, and understanding, and engaging in civil discourse and debate.  Download the syllabus.

United States Studies – Courses that Include Sustainability Content

  • EDS340 – Sociological and Philosophical Foundations of Education with Kate McCoy only.  Sustainability issues are infused throughout the course as part of the context of the institution of schooling.

Diversity – Courses that include Sustainability Content

  • EDD370 Education of Diverse Populations in Early Childhood and Elementary School with Lizabeth Cain only.  Professor Cain’s course includes a unit on place-based environmental education, requiring students to learn about a local environmental issue, the Newburgh water crisis. Students will have prepared for understanding its impacts on children in local schools through a thorough investigation of how schools are funded through property tax, resulting in the poorest schools for the poorest students in the United States. Future teachers will see that race and poverty, in particular, tend to engender serious physical and intellectual risks for children. Download the Syllabus