Environmental issues are often difficult to address because stakeholders have different values, backgrounds, culture, risk perception, and understanding of science. This class will empower students to be effective advocates by helping them to learn about different viewpoints and considerations surrounding environmental issues. Students will have an opportunity to improve their problem-solving abilities by addressing interdisciplinary environmental, ecological, and sustainability problems in miniature on the campus of RIT. During the semester, students will research methods and strategies used by other colleges and universities to minimize environmental impacts in areas such as energy use, solid and hazardous waste management, transportation, landscaping and construction, preserving green space and natural systems (ecosystem functions and services), storm water runoff, food production and consumption, and purchasing. Student solutions to campus issues and projects will address the concept of sustainability and the tradeoffs it requires.

This honors seminar is a foundational course that examines how our social worlds are linked to our natural and built worlds. The corresponding emphasis on inquiry, analysis, and interpretation facilitates student-engaged learning. In exploring pertinent place and space related issues/topics through an experiential, active, and site-specific curricular focused learning, various aspects of the human condition are discovered. The theme or topic of this honors seminar, as chosen by the instructor, is announced in the subtitle as well as course notes and is developed in the syllabus. The honors seminar integrates the required Year One curriculum.