The only planet known to sustain life, Earth provides all the resources that sustain us, yet at the same time it can be an unpredictable and sometimes dangerous home. Floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other natural processes challenge our ingenuity, while we also contend with self-induced problems such as pollution, desertification, and even global climate change. This course examines earth processes, how these affect our lives, and how we can best live with and sustain our environment. May be taken for 200-level credit with permission of instructor.

The first dinosaur fossils to be recognized in North America, footprints of the creatures, were found in South Hadley. The very first dinosaur species described by a woman researcher, and one of the most ancient dinosaur species in the United States (Podokesaurus holyokensis), was discovered close to the Mount Holyoke campus.

The surface of the Earth is a history book of past environmental change. Every hill and valley, every erosional feature and every deposit is the result of processes acting at the Earth's surface. In this course we study these processes (e.g. glaciers, rivers, slopes, coastlines, arid regions, frozen ground, cave formation, soil development and groundwater) to understand how they work and to understand the resulting landforms and deposits. With this understanding we can then observe different landforms and deposits and infer past processes (i.e. environments of deposition).

Discover how the forces of nature shape our understanding of the cosmos. Explore the origin, structure, and evolution of the earth, moons and planets, comets and asteroids, the sun and other stars, star clusters, the Milky Way and other galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the universe as a whole.

This course will survey the past, present, and future of Mars exploration and science. We will focus on the evolution of Mars as a paradigm for terrestrial planets, with specific units on missions, formation, volcanism, impacts, glaciers and water, spectroscopy and mineralogy, climate, and issues pertaining to the possibilities of life on Mars. This is a discussion-based, interactive seminar with students and faculty reading current papers from the literature, supported by many outside speakers. Weekly writing assignments focus on critical thinking.

This is a course in applied physics with the ultimate goal of describing how stars work. Topics include gravitation, stellar mass determination, stellar structure, stellar atmospheres, stellar evolution, and the physics of pulsating stars. We will approach each of these topics from fundamental concepts and we will work our way to a detailed understanding. On the way we will review the structure of the atom, radiative processes, and some basic principles of thermodynamics.

Fall 2023 Productions: The Wolves (section 01) and Night of Scenes (section 02.
Spring 2024 Productions: Marisol (section 01) and As You Like It (section 02)

Fall 2023 Productions: The Wolves (section 01) and Night of Scenes (section 02.
Spring 2024 Productions: Marisol (section 01) and As You Like It (section 02)

This course traces the origins of the universe, our solar system, and Earth and provides an introduction to the field of planetary science. It follows the evolution of terrestrial planets and asteroids through geologic processes. Topics include planetary origins, atmospheres, interiors, and magnetic fields; plate tectonics; volcanism, weathering, earthquakes, faults and folding on terrestrial planets; distribution and limitations of resources on Earth and other bodies; and the search for the origins of life.