Franklin & Marshall College Franklin & Marshall College

Academic Programs

Academic Majors

The Earth is a complex, dynamic system. The following academic majors and minors provide a context for study of the planet and humanity's role in it, through geologic time to the present.

Each major is designed to thoughtfully engage students with concepts and issues related to the Earth and its environments, through coursework, laboratory and field study, and an introduction to research.

 

Courses Relevant to Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability

 

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Regularly scheduled courses

  • BIO 110 Principles of Evolution, Ecology, and Heredity
  • BIO 309 Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
  • BIO 323 Ecological Concepts and Applications
  • BIO 325 Marine Biology
  • BIO 340 Plant Ecology
  • BIO/ENV 342 Forest Ecosystems
  • ENV/GEO 114 Earth, Environment, and Humanity
  • GEO 118 Introduction to Oceanography
  • GEO 221 History of the Earth
  • GEO 226 Surface of the Earth
  • GEO/ENV 250 Environmental Resources and Geographic Information Systems
  • GEO/ENV 344 Global Change/Natural Resources
  • ENV/STS 114 Earth, Environment, and Humanity
  • ENV 117 The Environment and Human Values
  • ENV 170 Tooth and Claw:  Conserving Ecosystems with Predators
  • ENV 216 Environmental Policy
  • ENV/STS/ANT 234 Population
  • ECO/ENV 240 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
  • AMS/ENV 280 American Landscapes
  • ENV/STS 312 Environmental History
  • ENV/STS 313 Nuclear Power, Weapons, and Waste Disposal
  • ENV 314 Comparative Environmental Politics
  • BOS/ENV 335 Business and the Natural Environment
  • ENV 370 This is Garbage
  • ENV/BIO 374  Wildlife Conservation for a Changing Planet
  • AMS/ENV 401 From Wilderness to Environmentalism
  • ENV 454 Environmental Problems
  • CHM 342 Environmental Chemistry
  • ENG/ENV 260 Nature and Literature
  • BIO 345 Nature Essays
  • BIO 336 Evolution
  • BOS 200 Organizing in the 21st Century

Occasionally Scheduled Courses

  • ENV/STS172 Great Watersheds 
  • ECO 238 The Economy of Cities
  • ECO 320 International Trade
  • ENV372 Environmental Law
  • BIO 374 Tropical Field Biology
  • BOS 480 Eco-preneuership

Foundations Courses

  • FND : Seas and Sustainability 
  • FND : Energy and Society 
  • FND 118: Coral Reefs: Microcosm of a Complex System 
  • FND 168: Food, Plants, and Nutrition 
  • FND 193: Conservation Biology
  • FND 111P Global Change
  • FND 111W The Nature of Oceans 
  • FND 118 Water, Life, Society
  • FND 167 Environmental Issues in Chemistry
  • FND : Energy Issues 
  • FND: Sustainability and the Sea

Faculty and Student Research


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At Franklin & Marshall College, a growing number of faculty across the curriculum are involved with environmental stewardship and sustainability issues.  Many of these faculty members research subjects pertaining to sustainability, and quite often, they teach classes that incorporate these concepts.  The faculty listed below are just a sample of what F&M has to offer when it comes to environmental stewardship.  Catch up on some of their research here, and some of the spaces that we have for facilitating environmental research here.


, Art & Art History
local economy center; food systems; USDA; Eastern Market; food access; LGH's Healthy Communities

, Biology
evolutionary biology, behavioral and physiological biology, ornithology, vertebrate biology. 

, Classics
Sustainability Committee; Greek: humans & nature; progress

, Biology
evolutionary genomics; molecular evolution of plant pathogens; bioinformatics

, Business, Organizations, & Society
social and environmental impact of business activities on local communities and community responses

, Wohlsen Center
Sustainability Committee; the effects of human disturbance on predator behavior; wildlife conservation; sustainability; programming at the Wohlsen Center

, Earth & Environment
environmental impacts of energy production and use; geological and environmental applications of GIS 

, Provost's Office
teaching reef ecosystems and human impacts, including ocean warming and acidification; paleoenvironmental reconstructions, including past climate interpretations

, Biology
biochemical and physiological adaptations to extreme environments 

, Biology
ecology, pristine lakes as sentinels of environmental change

, English
creative writing; "green" language; environmental issues in New Orleans

, Physics
energy issues & society; Hackman's solar cells and sustainable housing


Special Assistant to the Dean of the College for Strategic Projects
WOH 205

, Art & Art History
landscape in Chinese painting; garden design; visual culture; vegetarianism; environmental problems in China

, Earth & Environment
Sustainability Committee; environmental studies; comparative environmental politics

, Biology
genetics of plant populations; invasive & rare species; Green Revolution

, Earth & Environment
geomorphology; surface water hydrology; Quaternary tectonics 

, Chemistry
trace metal cycling in the marine environment 

, English
values; animal studies; nature in literature

, Biology
size-structured interactions in freshwater fish communities; effects of UV radiation and temperature on pelagic food webs

, Earth & Environment
potential public health threats of waterborne pathogens in surface and drinking water supplies 

, Biology
physiology, development; ecology; food issues; food, plants, nutrition

, Chemistry
solar cell technology; energy issues in general chemistry

, Earth & Environment 
grass fed/corn fed beef; sustainable options on campus

, American Studies
environmental studies; American landscape; landscapes; urban history; environmental history

, Biology
plant ecology; response to disturbance; invasive species; nature writing; forests, wood & culture

Doug Smith
Musician in Residence
WOH 205 

, Business, Organizations, & Society
eco-preneurship; green business

, Earth & Environment
environment and human values 

, Biology
physics of jet locomotion; physiology of obliquely striated muscles; ontongeny of skeletal support systems

, Earth & Environment
landscapes; human's impact on water resources

, Government
political theorist; environmental issues in Western political thought; French environmental issues

, Earth & Environment
the role that high-latitude forests and peat forming environments play in the global carbon cycle 

, Art & Art History
landscapes; patterns; human/nature interactions

, Economics
environmental economics

  • Red-Tailed Hawk
  • Red-tailed Hawk Sightings
  •  Students work with Dr.s Dan Ardia and Sarah Dawson in an effort to learn about our charismatic campus residents.

  • dawson class meeting with kids
  • Dr. Sarah Dawson's class in the Wohlsen Center with live animals and local elementary school students.