Water and Hydrogeologic Systems

Water is a critical resource for sustaining ecosystems and human needs. This course takes a scientific view of all aspects of the hydrologic cycle, focusing on processes that move water through Earth’s freshwater system. Discussions include global precipitation patterns, watersheds, rivers and lakes, streamflow, storm water and flooding, surface/groundwater interactions and groundwater flow. Discussions address human usage and contamination of water with an eye toward protecting water quality and supply. Students work with real hydrologic data from case studies.

Water and Hydrogeologic Systems

Water is a critical resource for sustaining ecosystems and human needs. This course takes a scientific view of all aspects of the hydrologic cycle, focusing on processes that move water through Earth’s freshwater system. Discussions include global precipitation patterns, watersheds, rivers and lakes, streamflow, storm water and flooding, surface/groundwater interactions and groundwater flow. Discussions address human usage and contamination of water with an eye toward protecting water quality and supply. Students work with real hydrologic data from case studies.

Modeling Our World: Intro GIS

Offered as GEO 150 and ENV 150. A geographic information system (GIS) enables data and maps to be overlain, queried and visualized in order to solve problems in many diverse fields. This course provides an introduction to the fundamental elements of GIS and applies the analysis of spatial data to issues in geoscience, environmental science and public policy. Students gain expertise in ArcGIS--the industry standard GIS software--and online mapping platforms, and carry out semester-long projects in partnership with campus offices or local conservation organizations. Enrollment limited to 20.

Global Climate Change

This course seeks to answer the following questions: What do geologists know about past climate and how do they know it? What causes climate to change? What have been the results of relatively recent climate change on human populations? What is happening today? What is likely to happen in the future? What choices do we have?

Exploring Local Geo Landscape

The Connecticut Valley region is rich with geologic features that can be reached by a short van ride from Smith. This is a field-based course that explores geology through weekly trips and associated assignments during which we examine evidence for volcanoes, dinosaurs, glaciers, rifting continents and Himalayan-size mountains in Western Massachusetts. Students who have taken FYS 103 are not eligible to take GEO 102. This class, when taken in conjunction with any other 100-level course, can serve as a pathway to the Geoscience major.

Exploring Local Geo Landscape

The Connecticut Valley region is rich with geologic features that can be reached by a short van ride from Smith. This is a field-based course that explores geology through weekly trips and associated assignments during which we examine evidence for volcanoes, dinosaurs, glaciers, rifting continents and Himalayan-size mountains in Western Massachusetts. Students who have taken FYS 103 are not eligible to take GEO 102. This class, when taken in conjunction with any other 100-level course, can serve as a pathway to the Geoscience major.

Exploring Local Geo Landscape

The Connecticut Valley region is rich with geologic features that can be reached by a short van ride from Smith. This is a field-based course that explores geology through weekly trips and associated assignments during which we examine evidence for volcanoes, dinosaurs, glaciers, rifting continents and Himalayan-size mountains in Western Massachusetts. Students who have taken FYS 103 are not eligible to take GEO 102. This class, when taken in conjunction with any other 100-level course, can serve as a pathway to the Geoscience major.

Intro to Earth Process & Hist

Geology is a study of the Earth. In this course, students examine the processes that formed the Earth and that have continued to change the planet during its 4.57 billion year history. In rocks, minerals and the landscape, geologists see puzzles that tell a story about Earth’s past. Students develop their geologic observation skills. The class investigates the origins of minerals and rocks and the dynamic processes that form volcanoes, cause earthquakes, shape landscapes, create natural resources and control the climate—today as well as during the Earth’s past.

Lit & News: Print Capitalism

In nineteenth-century France, the emerging periodical press lay at the epicenter of public and cultural life. This course explores the press from a number of perspectives: the technological breakthroughs and social upheavals that spurred its growth, the major figures and seminal publications that marked its evolution, the debates and scandals sparked by its rise, and the changing roles of hommes and femmes de presse. Readings include articles from major newspapers and magazines, contemporary literary and cultural criticism, and selections from "novels of journalism" by Balzac and Maupassant.

T-Lit of Caribbean

Food and its absence are persistent themes in Caribbean literature. Cooking and culinary practices serve as a means of preserving cultural identities, yet can also reinforce colonial visions of the Caribbean as an exoticized space. Hunger figures as an indictment of that colonial history and of contemporary global inequities. Through studies of folktales, short stories, poetry and novels, this course offers an introduction to the literature and major theoretical movements of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Haiti, with a focus on how cultural memory is inscribed in metaphors of consumption.
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