Applying Earth Science Methodology to Solving Environmental Problems - A Summer Course

弗罗德曼9619671“西南地球研究计划”将是一个为期5周的6学分的暑期计划，面向20名来自全美高校的高年级大学生(一半来自理科，一半来自人文)。该计划的目标是让理科学生掌握科学问题的哲学(例如，认识论和伦理学)含义，同样地，人文专业的学生也可以更好地欣赏科学信息在哲学和公共政策辩论中所起的作用。这将通过让学生收集和评估数据，讨论围绕这些数据的解释和使用的哲学问题，并将这些数据与制定公共政策替代方案的哲学观点相结合来实现。这将提高学生批判性地分析有争议的环境问题的能力，从而有助于克服目前科学、人文和当代社会问题之间的隔阂。连续几年将研究三个有争议的环境问题：1)大坝项目对生态系统和社区的影响，(Animas La Plata大坝项目)；2)围绕能源开采的科学和社会问题(煤层气)；3)围绕开采和控制矿产资源污染的科学和伦理问题(酸性矿山废水)。

Frodeman 9619671 The "Southwest Earth Studies Program" will be a 6 credit hour, 5 week Summer program for 20 upper-division college students (half from the sciences, half from the humanities) from colleges and universities throughout the U.S. The goal of this Program is for science students to grasp the philosophic (e.g., epistemological and ethical) implications of scientific issues, and likewise for humanities students to better appreciate the role scientific information can play in philosophic and public policy debates. This will be accomplished by having students gather and evaluate data; discuss the philosophical issues surrounding the interpretation and use of this data; and combine this data with philosophic perspectives for the devising of public policy alternatives. This will result in an increase in the student's capacity to critically analyze controversial environmental problems, thereby helping to overcome the current estrangement between the sciences, the humanities, and the problems of contemporary society. Three controversial environmental issues will be studied in successive years: 1) the effects of dam projects on ecosystems and communities, (the Animas La Plata dam project); 2) the scientific and social issues surrounding the extraction of energy resources, (coal-bed methane); and 3) scientific and ethical problems surrounding the extraction and control pollution from mineral resources (acid mine drainage.)