Kaufman Hall Room 130
FYSM 100 First-Year Seminar
The First-Year Seminar (FYS) introduces students to Dickinson as a "community of inquiry" by developing habits of mind essential to liberal learning. Through the study of a compelling issue or broad topic chosen by their faculty member, students will:
- Critically analyze information and ideas
- Examine issues from multiple perspectives
- Discuss, debate and defend ideas, including one's own views, with clarity and reason
- Develop discernment, facility and ethical responsibility in using information, and
- Create clear academic writing
The small group seminar format of this course promotes discussion and interaction among students and their professor. In addition, the professor serves as students' initial academic advisor. This course does not duplicate in content any other course in the curriculum and may not be used to fulfill any other graduation requirement.
ENST 350 Environmental Health
This course will focus on the intricate bidirectional relationship between human activity and the natural environment, emphasizing its implications for human health. Class meetings will encompass a broad spectrum of foundational (epidemiology, toxicology, and exposure assessment methods) and integrative topics, including the quality and safety of the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat and our living and working environments, along with the evolving influence of weather and climate, and the dynamic fluctuations within various levels of our ecosystems. The integration of systems thinking into environmental health sciences is central to coursework, enabling students to analyze complex interactions within ecosystems and assess their impact on human health. Laboratory meetings will allow students to explore various methodologies for evaluating environmental health quality and leveraging available data resources to inform public health interventions. A keen focus will be the understanding of how environmental exposure – health outcome relationships are hypothesized, established, and clearly communicated through data, and ultimately, text, graphics, and speech. Students will be expected to become prefatorily familiar with environmental data analysis tools like MS Excel and R statistical language, although previous data analysis experience is not expected or required. This experience will culminate in a field research project that explores indoor and outdoor environmental quality, and air pollution. Prerequisite: 161 and 162 or CHEM 131 or permission of instructor.