St. Cloud State University
General Education Goal Area 10
Environmental Issues
Academic Affairs Use Only:
Response Date:
Effective Date:
1.
Proposal Number:
Prepared by: Matthew Goodwin
Phone: 308-5326
Email: mjgoodwin@stcloudstate.edu
2.
Requesting Unit: Philosophy
3.
Department, Course Number, Title: Philosophy 213, Environmental Ethics
4.
New Course
5.
Will this course be flagged as a diversity course?
Already Designated as Diversity
Existing Course
No
Diversity Proposal Accompanying This Form
6.
Will this course also satisfy another General Education Goal Area?
No
Yes
If “Yes” specify which goal area.
GE9
7.
Course bulletin description, including credits and semesters to be offered:
Critically evaluate the ethical dimensions of environmental and natural resource issues. Identify moral
values in alternative solutions and encourage reasoned defense of proposed actions. 3 Cr. F, ALT.
8.
Indicate the clientele for whom this course is designed. Is the course for general education only, or
does it fulfill general education and other program needs for this or another department? Obtain
signatures from any affected departments.
General Education, Phiosophy major and minor
9.
Indicate any changes that must be made in offerings or resources in your department or other
departments by offering this course.
None.
10.
For new courses or courses not yet approved for General Education, indicate any other SCSU departments
or units offering instruction that relates to the content of the proposed course.
None.
11.
Courses designated as General Education are included in the assessment plan for the Goal Area(s)
for which they are approved. Courses for which assessment has not included in the annual GE
assessment report for two years will be removed from the General Education Program.
The Requesting Unit understands and recognizes the above conditions.
12/11/2009
12.
Provide a concise explanation of how the following goal is a “significant focus” of the proposed course.
Goal Area 10: Environmental Issues
Examine the interrelationship of humans and the natural worlds from scientific and socio-cultural
perspectives and the complex environmental challenges that result.
Students in PHIL 213 learn arguments from historically influential philosophical and religious traditions
regarding the relationship of human beings and culture with nature and the natural environment. They learn
about ways of understanding ecology through case studies in animal behavior, ecosytems, pollution,
population, resource management, and sustainability. Concepts of rights, responsibilities, and consequences
are evaluated in terms of their relation to and impact upon the natural environment.
13. In order for a course to be designated as fulfilling Goal Area 10, it must address at least 4 of the 5 student learning
outcomes (SLOs) below. Check the SLOs below that are focused on in the proposed general education course.
1. Explain the basic structure and function of various ecosystems and human adaptive strategies within those
systems.
2. Discern patterns of interrelationships of bio-physical and socio-cultural systems.
3. Describe the human institutional arrangements (social, legal, political, economic, and religious) that deal with
environmental and natural resource challenges.
4. Analyze environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships,
ecosystems, and institutions.
5. Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems including issues involving sustainability.
14.
Explain how each of the learning outcomes checked above is achieved by this course.
2. Discern patterns of interrelationships of bio-physical and socio-cultural systems:
- Students demonstrate their understanding of natural concepts, such as energy flow, organism, species, and
ecosystem, and how these integrate with human nature and culture. They analyze how both human and nonhuman populations are impacted by various philosophical, religious, moral and cultural views on what human
nature is and what nature is, as these views are embodied in human behavior and institutions. For example, taking
different views on whether it is right to consume animals and whether land is something that can be owned will
affect the kind and level of environmental stress non-human populations undergo.
3. Describe the human institutional arrangements (social, legal, political economic, and religious) that deal with
environmental and natural resource challenges:
- Students learn various ethical theories regarding rights and responsiblities and from what sources these are
traditionally derived (religious, legal, natural), and whether these views are adequate for the changes involved in
post-industrial techonolgical societies.
4. Analyze environmental and natural resource issues in light of understandings about interrelationships,
ecosystems, and institutions:
- Students how human institutions depend upon, involve, and affect organisms, species, and ecosystems in
questions of land rights and responsibilities, obligations to future generations, and responsibilities regarding
consumerism, pollution, and resource management.
5. Propose and assess alternative solutions to environmental problems including issues involving sustainability:
- Through assignments and in class discussions, students develop and assess alternative views regarding the
human relationship to the environment in light of timely, contemporary challenges such as pollution, climate
change, alternative energy sources, destruction of natural habitats, and species extinction.
12/11/2009
15.
List or attach the Course Outline (adequately described and including percentage of time to be allocated
to each topic). Curriculum Committees may request additional information. Topics larger than 20% need
to be broken down further.
Moral Theories (40%):
10% - Consequentialist ethics (SLO 2, 3)
10% - Deontological ethics (SLO 2,3)
10% - Religious traditions (SLO 2,3)
10% - Alternative perspectives (feminism, Native American, rural/urban) (SLO 2,3)
Applied Environmental Issues with case studies (60%): (SLO 3, 4, 5)
10% - Animal rights, evolution, species interdependence, extinction (SLO 3,4, 5)
10% - Land rights, resource management (SLO 3, 4, 5)
10% - Quality of life and obligations to future generations (SLO 3, 4, 5)
10% - Science and ethics of pollution (SLO 3, 4, 5)
10% - Science and ethics of population (SLO 3, 4, 5)
10% - Science and ethics of climate change (SLO 3, 4, 5)
12/11/2009
St. Cloud State University
General Education Transmittal Form
Academic Affairs Use Only:
Response Date:
Effective Date:
Proposal Number
Department:
Course or Course(s):
Department or Unit Chair Signature
Date
Department forward to Academic Affairs for publication and electronically to Chair of General Education Committee, Chair
of College Curriculum Committee, College Dean
Recommendation of General Education Committee:
Approve
Remarks:
Disapprove
Chairperson
Committee
Signature
Date
Recommendation of University Curriculum Committee:
Approve
Remarks:
Disapprove
Chairperson
Committee
Signature
Date
Recommendation of Faculty Association:
Approve
Remarks:
Disapprove
FA Senate
Signature
Date
Action of Academic Vice President:
Approve
Disapprove
Signature
Entered in Curriculum Data File
12/11/2009
Remarks:
Date