This course offers an examination of Earth and its dynamic systems. It focuses on how our continents, oceans, and atmosphere interact and change. The movement of continents, the building up and wearing away of land masses, and Earth's climate provide central themes. The effects of organisms, particularly humans, on the cycles and balances in nature are considered. They are taught how scientists interpret data and practice interpreting data themselves.
Planet Earth is presented as a dynamic entity, the result of ongoing processes.
Since the course Earth Science is intended primarily for the non-science major, we have a special obligation to stress scientific methodology, including identification of verifiable information, analytical reasoning, and making predictions. Students read semi-technical literature such as appropriate articles in Scientific American and the science section of The New York Times. They are expected to analyze and interpret data, to draw conclusions, to make inferences, and to prepare written reports based on their work. Students are taught that an understanding of how things work on, in, and around the Earth necessarily involves making calculations. Thus the study of topics such as the Richter Scale, half-lives of radioactive elements, the geological time scale, composition of the atmosphere and the ocean, and the size, shape, and composition of the Earth offers opportunities for quantitative analysis.