2 Center Abstract Students enrolled in Earth Semester are immersed in a geographically and pedagogically unique program. The Sonoran desert and the famous Biosphere 2 provide an ideal setting for discussing the inter-relatedness among landforms, soil types, plant and animal adaptability, and human habits and habitation, especially as these relationships connect to changes in our physical environment.
Students learn about geology, biology and the human role in environmental change.
Throughout the semester we identify various environmental management tools and discuss how we might integrate scientific knowledge, technical expertise and human factors into management decisions about crucial issues such as global climate change. Using the Biosphere itself as an example of scientific and technical complexity inherent in understanding environmental systems, the Earth Semester faculty present a modular based program that first enables students to learn and utilize simple technologies and tools to assess their immediate physical surroundings. The program then broadens and exposes students to the complex monitoring technology and models used to help us better understand global systems and events. Because Earth Semester students come from universities throughout the world and range in majors from Art History to Zoology, the goal is not to make them experts in any individual discipline, but to develop the skills necessary to consider the complexities inherent in working across disciplines. Ultimately, the goal is to enable them to think critically about their roles as technology users and planetary managers and to apply the integrative lessons they learn in Earth Semester to their own disciplines throughout their education and careers.