Program Overview

Radford University Program Information

Course Overview

The course title is Earth Science and Society (GE), with the course number GEOL 120. It is a 3-credit course with no prerequisites.

Course Description

This course examines the effects of geologic processes and hazards on human activities, the appraisal of human impact on the natural physical environment, and the geologic occurrence, availability, and use of mineral and energy resources.

Detailed Description of Content

The course gives students an overview of environmental geology, dealing with human interaction with the natural physical environment. The scope of environmental geology encompasses the recognition and amelioration of three major problems that face humans:

• Naturally occurring geologic processes and hazards such as flooding, mass wasting, volcanic activity, earthquakes, coastal erosion, and health as it relates to the geologic setting.
• Human-induced environmental problems such as pollution and climate change, as it applies to natural materials and existing topography.
• Location, use, and conservation of geologic resources such as water, soil, minerals, and energy, as well as land-use planning.

Topics addressed in this course include, but are not limited to:

1. The philosophical basis and fundamental concepts involved in environmental geology, including the scientific method and geologic time.
2. Natural earth cycles: plate tectonics, hydrologic cycle, carbon cycle.
3. Earth materials: solid earth, ocean, and atmosphere.
4. Natural hazards and their causes and effects on humans: river flooding, mass movement, earthquakes and related phenomena, volcanic activity, coastal hazards.
5. Water: sources and human impact.
6. Energy resources and environmental impact.
7. Climate change: earth's past climate, natural causes of climate change, human causes, effect on natural hazards, future climate change.

Conduct of Course

The course will utilize lectures, demonstrations, case histories, audio/video presentations, classroom discussions, and reading assignments.

Goals and Objectives

The goals and objectives of the course are:

1. Students will apply the scientific method to solve geological problems.
2. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the effect of geologic processes as natural hazards on human life and property.
3. Students will assess human impacts on the natural environment, including artificially produced hazards and disruption of natural systems.
4. Students will demonstrate knowledge of how the Earth's environment has changed over geologic time.
5. Students will understand the fundamental need to live and work in harmony with the natural world and to minimize environmental impacts.
6. Students will demonstrate knowledge of how human activity affects natural systems and how that affects the environment in general and climate change in particular.
7. Students will demonstrate knowledge of the origin of fossil fuels, their extraction from the earth, and the impacts they have on the earth's environment.
8. Students will apply scientific and quantitative information to test problems and draw conclusions.
9. Students will evaluate the quality of data, methods, or inferences to generate scientific and qualitative knowledge.

Assessment Measures

Assessment may include lecture exams, quizzes, written assignments, homework, and class participation.