ESSC 575  - Field Practicum Earth System Science: Science and Technology for Sustainability

ESS Core Courses Objectives, Description, Prerequisites 2004-6 Project 1999 Project 1997 Project Contacts Time/Location Participating Organisations Web Resources WCSLC-1999 MaytermTrip Forum Sust. Science

Norton Neighboorhood Healthy Cities Maps - Aerials Dunbar: Fiji, Honduras Hayes: Rattlesnakes Limnogeology: Buchheim: Great Basin- Ford: Great Salt Lake- RI: Salton Sea GSLB Hydro-Observatory Ford: Honduras Photo Gallery

Bob Ford Home	Earth System Science Core Courses - LLU-SST - EBS
	SPOL 665 Info-Tech.	BIOL 549 Biodiv. & Conser.	SPOL 624 Nature-Soc. Thought	SPOL 554 Env. Eq. Eco. Dev. Policy	ESSC 401-2 ES-Sci.	ESSC 541-2 Remote Sensing	ESSC 575  Field Practicum

The ESS (Earth System Science) Core Courses:

ESSC 575: Field Practicum in Applied Earth System Science--is the CAPSTONE research-oriented course in a sequence of active learning interdisciplinary senior/graduate-level courses, e.g. ESSC 401-402, SPOL 665, SPOL 524, BIOL 549, SPOL 624, and ESSC 541-542 that provide the opportunity for students to experience "how earth system science is done" by active participation in analysis of real-world global change, sustainability science, and social policy problems inherent in real places, ecosystems, regions, sociocultural or public policy institutional/community settings (urban or rural). The course expands experiences first encountered in foundation courses which are all part of the LLU ESSE21 Project (Earth Systems Science Education for the 21st Century).

The methods, tools, and concepts emphasize use of computer visualization, modeling, and other Geospatial Decision-Support-System (GDSS) tools besides traditional field methods from the social, behavioral, health, and biophysical sciences applicable to a diversity of integrated systems science and thinking situations encountered in both formal as well as applied science such as planning, marketing, and public policy.  The focus will be on use of Geographic Information Science (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Remote Sensing (RS), and other systems modeling tools (STELLA, NetWeaver/GeoNetweaver) as well as qualitative methods such as PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) for collaborative decision-making.

Problem themes chosen for analysis are by design inter-disciplinary and place-based--that is they focus on real places, regions, ecosystems, social policy problems and issues that lend themselves to ESS (Earth Systems Science) critical thinking, analysis, and problem-solving (see places below).

A key goal is to promote team-research skills by providing a mechanism for linking students and faculty with local experts and the community at large in policy analysis and implementation, i.e. these will be "real" problems not just "make-do" classroom exercises and experiences.

Academic partners bring to bear expertise, networks, software/hardware, datasets, and field research linkages within the Loma Linda University (LLU) , School of Science and Technology (SST) and other local, regional and global partners, e.g. School of Public Health (SPH) Geoinformatics Unit (HGU) and well as outside partners in the Inland Empire (Riverside-Pomona-San Bernardino region east of Los Angeles) and globally including many, e.g. see partners from Honduras. Other local, regional, and US partners include:

• USAID - FRAMEweb
• SERVIR-Cathalac
• USAID- MIRA Project, Honduras
• CEEMaST, Center for Education and Equity in Mathematics, Science, and Technology, California State University, Pomona. Contact: Dr. Jodye I. Selco Email: jiselco@csupomona.edu
• CGISR, Center for Geographic Information Science Research: Contact : Miriam Cope, Director
  Email: macope@csupomona.edu
• Redlands Institute: CES / MS_GIS in cooperation with ESRI's - Sustainable Development solutions group.
• Leica/Geo - ERDAS Imagine
• Clark Labs - IDRISI Kilimanjaro
• Isee, Inc.(STELLA)
• ICRSE - International Center for Remote Sensing Education
• CGIAR-CSI -Consortium for Spatial Information

Places chosen for study will include both domestic and international, e.g. limnogeology in the Rocky Mountain province, biology of rattlesnakes in the US Southwest, the integrated water resources in the Salton Sea Basin (with the Redlands Institute) as well as coastal zone management (CZM) and biodiversity conservation on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras and Fiji, East Africa, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, as well as environmental health geoinformatics problems such as air pollution, West Nile Virus, cancer risk, or social welfare and crime issues in Southern California's Inland Empire such as the East Valley COMPASS crime and safety program in Redlands/San Bernardino East Valley region, or the Norton Neighborhoods / Healthy Cities Project adjacent to Loma Linda and San Bernardino.

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OBJECTIVES:

1. Introduce students to the systems approach to learning and doing research in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and encourage capable students to pursue careers in this arena, particulary in applied areas of CBNRM (Community-based Natural Resource Management).
   
   
2. Develop basic competence in the use of integrative computer modeling and mapping/GIS analysis tools such as IDRISI, ERDAS, ArcView, SAS, NetWeaver/GeoNetweaver tools as well as STELLA II, and field tools such as ArcPAD, GPS and "qualitative" tools such as PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) or "collaborative decision-making" tools.
   
   
3. Learn-by-doing in a team setting how science is done: hypothesis testing and defining, data analysis and collection, critical thinking and written communication, etc.

Catalog Description - ESSC 575:

Students and teachers work together in the field to apply geospatial tools, Earth System Science methods and concepts, social policy analytical frameworks, and other conservation science methods to integrated place-based “sustainability” problems within a given ecosystem, community or region. The focus is on applying in practice the concepts and tools of “sustainability science” (see: http://sustsci.aaas.org/). Practice using field analytical tools such as GPS, ArcPAD (mobile GIS), varied ecological monitoring and assessment instruments (focused on ecosystems analysis, e.g. water, land, air, ecosystems), PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) as well as traditional ethnographic and socioeconomic “qualitative research” methods.Places chosen for study will include both domestic and international: For example:

• limnogeology in the Rocky Mountain province,
• biology of rattlesnakes in the US Southwest,
• integrated water resources in the Salton Sea Basin (with the Redlands Institute)
• coastal zone management (CZM) and biodiversity conservation on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras and Fiji , East Africa, Jamaica, and the Bahamas,
• environmental health geoinformatics problems such as air pollution, West Nile Virus, cancer risk,
• social welfare and crime issues in Southern California's Inland Empire such as the East Valley COMPASS crime and safety program in Redlands/San Bernardino East Valley region, or the Norton Neighborhoods / Healthy Cities Project adjacent to Loma Linda and San Bernardino.

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1997 PROJECT

The first course was done Spring 1997 and included students and faculty from Westminster College of Salt Lake City working in collaboration via the Web with the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara under Dr. James Proctor who teaches a course entitled: Human-Induced Environmental Change (GEOG 186). This was part of an NSF-funded effort called GLOBAL DIALOGUES PROJECT. You can read the results in a publication entitled:

James M. Hurley, James D. Proctor, and Robert E. Ford. 1999. Collaborative Inquiry at a Distance: Using the Internet in Geography Education. Journal of Geography , Vol 98(3):128-140.

Each campus group studied an aspect of human-environment interaction in their respective mountain regions.  The UCSB group focused on Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park (SEKI) while Westminster College of Salt Lake City focused on environmental change in the Wasatch Mountains, Utah (GSL Virtual Tour and Learning Module) . Communication methods, such as e-mail, world-wide-web, internet chat, and CUCMe, were utilized to collaborate and link research and communicate between the three groups.

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1999 THEMES/PLACES:

The Spring 1999 mayterm semester course focused on four primary issues and three places:

Themes:

• Coastal zone management,
• Applied earth systems science
• Biodiversity and conservation
• H DGC - Human Dimensions of Global Change

Places:

• Great Salt Lake, Utah (see GSL Virtual Tour and Learning Module)
• Mosquito Coast of Honduras (1999 ESS Field Course) - see 1999 WCSLC Mayterm trip
• Sierra Nevada of California (UCSB via the Internet)

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2004/2005 Field Research Themes and Places:

A planning field trip was taken in July 2004 to Honduras to plan the field course in ESS which started in Spring/Summer of 2005 (ESSC 575)--see the Honduras Field Project. The focus will be on joint student-faculty research touching both areas of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation under Robert Ford as well as marine biology with Stephen Dunbar. Go here for selected 2004/2005 fieldtrip photos.

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CONTACT:

• Robert E. Ford, Professor of International Sustainable Development and Social Policy in the Department of Social Work and Social Ecology , and Earth and Biological Sciences, School of Science and Technology, Loma Linda University , Loma Linda, CA 92350
  
  
• Stephen G. Dubar, Assistant professor of marine biology, Earth and Biological Sciences, School of Science and Technology, Loma Linda University , Loma Linda, CA 92350

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TIME/LOCATION:

The current field course for Spring/Summer 2005 is focusing on the Mosquito Coast of Honduras.

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PREREQUISITES:

This is a senior/graduate-level seminar project-oriented course designed for pre-certification Education majors, Environmental Studies, Biology, Geology, Public Health, Computer Science, Nursing, Medicine, and Physical Sciences majors.  Students must have completed the ESSC (Earth System Science) core sequence of courses or equivalent including:

• ESSC 401/402 - Earth System and Global Change
• BIOL 549 - Biodiversity and Conservation
• SPOL 554 - Environment, Resources and Development Policy
• SPOL 624 - Nature/Society Thought and Social Policy
• SPOL 665 - Information Technology and Decision Science
• ESSC 541/542 - Remote Sensing/Systems Modeling in the Earth, Health and Social Sciences

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Bob Ford Home	Earth System Science Core Courses - LLU-SST - EBS
	SPOL 665 Info-Tech.	BIOL 549 Biodiv. & Conser.	SPOL 624 Nature-Soc. Thought	SPOL 554 Env. Eq. Eco. Dev. Policy	ESSC 401-2 ES-Sci.	ESSC 541-2 Remote Sensing	ESSC 575  Field Practicum


Last Revised: September 23, 2007