Environmental Impact Assesment, A Capstone Course for an Environmental Science Program

生物系的教员正在他们的环境科学项目环境影响评估中实施一门新的顶点课程。这门高级课程为非科学专业学生提供3个学期的课程，为科学专业学生提供4个学期的实验课程。学生们在包括理工科学生和非理工科学生在内的团队中工作，面对一个模拟的场景，在这个场景中，工业（例如，PCB去除设施，电池回收设施，鸡肉加工设施等）寻求将其运营地点定位在黑豹河附近，黑豹河是肯塔基州戴维斯县的主要排水系统。实验学生在3个月的时间里，在可能受到影响的地点描述信息（水文特征、基质组成、河岸/临时植被和覆盖物）并收集数据（水流速度、负荷能力、温度、pH值、电导率、重金属水平、无脊椎动物数量/多样性、鱼类动物群数量/多样性以及选定无脊椎动物和鱼类的同酶变异）。所有学生学习数据管理、数据分析和数据表示。每个小组准备一份书面文件，即环境影响评估。不同的学生根据团队的活动（物理、化学、生物、计算机、统计分析、研究和写作）承担领导角色。该项目提供流量计、远程监测/采样设备、计算机系统和适当的软件、电击设备和玻璃门冰箱，用于酶的电泳分离。这门课程的教学结果和环境数据可以在肯塔基科学院的年度会议上由教师和学生提出。*

Faculty of the Department of Biology are implementing a new capstone course in their Environmental Science Program Environmental Impact Assessment. This upper-division course is available as a 3-semester-hour course for non-science-majors or a 4-semester-hour laboratory course for science majors. Students, working in teams that include both science majors and nonmajors, are confronted with a simulated scenerio in which industry (e.g., a PCB removal facility, a battery recycling facility, a chicken-processing facility, etc.) seeks to locate its operation adjacent to Panther Creek, the major drainage system of Daviess County, Kentucky. Laboratory students characterize information (hydrographic features, substrate composition, riparian/emergent vegetation, and cover) and collect data (stream velocity, loading capacity, temperature, pH, conductivity, heavy metal levels, invertebrate numbers/diversity, fish fauna numbers/diversity, and allozymic variation of select invertebrates and fishes) at the site(s) of potential impact, over 3 months. All students learn data management, data analysis, and data presentation. Each team prepares a written document, an Environmental Impact Assessment. Different students assume leadership roles according to the teams' activities (physical, chemical, biological, computer work, statistical analyses, research, and writing). This project provides flowmeters, remote monitoring /sampling equipment, a computer system, and appropriate software, electroshocking equipment, and a glass-door refrigerator for electrophoretic separation of enzymes. Results of the didactic aspects of this course and environmental data can be presented by faculty and students at the annual meetings of the Kentucky Academy of Sciences. *