Spring 2024

Principles of plant, animal, and community ecology important to the understanding and management of renewable natural resources.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work.

Specialized work on an individual basis, consisting of training and practice in actual service in a technical, business, or governmental establishment.

Cities around the globe are working to be more sustainable in response to social, economic and environmental challenges. This course explores thow residents and decision makers in cities respond to these challenges. Students will learn to view urban problems through the perspectives of urban planners and designers, as well as local residents for cities both in the US and internationally.

In RNR 240, we examine the principles of ecotourism and how they can be used as to conserve and manage natural and human resources in a sustainable and financially viable way. We will review ecological impacts on the environment from tourism activities and learn how these are often managed as we examine numerous case studies throughout the world. We will conclude the course by studying established models used to deal with too many tourists at popular destinations. RNR 240 is open to students in all majors.

In this course we address fundamental knowledge that supports the study and appreciation of plants in their natural environments. Emphasis is placed on species found in the southwestern United States. The course begins with the fundamental elements of plant growth, development, physiology, and reproduction. Using this foundation, we then cover plant identification and taxonomy, and how environmental factors affect plant growth, distribution, and assemblage into communities. We conclude with a consideration of roles played by plants in ecological processes and how human-driven processes affect these processes. RNR 230R is open to students in all majors and is a core course in the Natural Resources undergraduate curriculum in the School of Natural Resources & the Environment

Historical and philosophical developments in natural resources management; socio-political, economic, and ecological factors affecting resource use; the role of people and organizations in conservation of resources such as rangelands, forests, water, fish and wildlife.

Qualified students working on an individual basis with professors who have agreed to supervise such work.

The course will provide students with an overview of the state of natural resources (e.g., wildlife, plants, and water) in North America, and the framework under which these resources are conserved and managed in the United States. Selected professionals will present case studies of important and current challenges in conservation and management, and discuss how students might make a difference in their disciplines.

This course involves the study of nature emphasizing humans as a component of it. We learn how living things and physical processes function and interconnect to generate the complex environments of our planet. Our perspective is based on the methods natural scientists use to understand nature. We examine on how this understanding may lead to solutions to challenges in the environment, medicine, and agriculture. Our approach throughout this course focuses on the roles of quantitative information in decision making in natural science and other aspects of modern life. We apply the key elements of the practice of natural science to evaluate and interpret quantitative information and develop hypotheses about biological phenomena relevant in our lives. We locate or collect data, organize and analyze these data, and develop conclusions from these analyses. Finally, we examine communication of our findings to multiple audiences using a variety of representations.