This course is a broad introduction to the theories and practices of sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and agroecology. It includes some experience in the field, combined with study of the underlying science and technology of several key agricultural topics and methods, as well as some more economic/political aspects. We will focus on sustainable and/or organic methods that minimize the use of nonrenewable resources and the associated pros and cons.

Molecular ecology utilizes the spatial and temporal distribution of molecular genetic markers to ask questions about the ecology, evolution, behavior, and conservation of organisms. This science may utilize genetic variation to understand individuals, populations, and species as a whole ("How does habitat fragmentation affect connectedness among populations?" "From where do particular groups originate?").

Molecules that speed up specific chemical processes but remain unchanged are called catalysts. They play key roles wherever chemistry takes place, whether in the cell, the environment, or the manufacturing plant. Some catalysts accelerate reactions by almost 20 orders of magnitude, and many are perfectly selective for a single substrate molecule. Catalysts make life possible, and a handful have changed the way we live. This course will examine the principles of catalysis in chemical and biological systems.

Even if we have answers for the basic questions raised by the problem of sustainability, there are still many approaches to determining a proper course of action. The viewpoints of LCA, the "ecological footprint," and "Natural Capitalism" each provide a standard against which to measure any particular program of change or development. We are presently challenged to make policy judgments of vital importance, to develop technologies and systems that increase sustainability, and to design and present these things in ways that ensure widespread adoption.

The theory of evolution has been a key to the integration of the biological sciences and to the deep understanding of many biological phenomena. In this course we look at the possible contributions of evolutionary theory to understanding some of the key characteristics that define the human species, e.g., high levels of cooperation, language, culture, morality, unique mating behaviors, religion, flexible learning capacities, and so on.

This course is a continuation of NS132, NS140, and NS143 and will provide students a path for completing independent and collaborative projects centered around the Kern Center living building on Hampshire's campus. Students will learn skills in independent and collaborative research, project design, grant writing, presentation, and science writing. Students may use this course to develop project proposals for summer work as part of Integrated Sciences III or to prepare them for work in Division II. This course is open to all students from NS132, NS140, NS143 or by instructor permission.

This course connects the ecology of New England and ongoing environmental changes with field-based scientific research integrated with art-making. The course goal is to foster the understanding that artistic expression contextualized through a rigorous scientific lens can be a tool for analysis, critical inquiry, and environmentalism that may stimulate novel forms of public engagement. Students will be introduced to natural and human-modified environments across the region through weekly field trips, primary scientific literature, and surveys of artists concerned with land use and ecology.

Ecosystems are defined by the interactions between the plants, animals, microorganisms, and abiotic environmental features that affect them. This course will cover the flows of energy, carbon, and nutrients within ecosystems, tracing the key processes that govern ecosystem function. Through the course, we will develop the connections between organisms, abiotic factors, and ecosystem processes.

This course develops skills for designing experiments and analyzing data using standard statistical methods. Work will include the use of some common computer packages, mainly Excel or Open Office, Minitab and R. We will use a standard textbook and also design and carry out data collection in class, with some data collected and analyzed by students on their own. We will also discuss examples of published research and relevant aspects of the philosophy of science.

This course extends the concepts, techniques and applications of an introductory calculus course. We'll detect periodicity in noisy data, and study functions of several variables, integration, differential equations, and the approximation of functions by polynomials. We'll continue the analysis of dynamical systems taking models from student selected primary literature on ecology, economics, epidemiology, and physics. We will finish with an introduction to the theory and applications of Fourier series and harmonic analysis. Computers and numerical methods will be used throughout.