THE EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Course Outline

Part I

Programme Title : Bachelor of Social Science (Honours) in Global and

Environmental Studies

Programme QF Level : 5

Course Title : Environmental Change: Concepts and Debates

Course Code : SES2002

Department : Science and Environmental Studies

Credit Points :3

Contact Hours : 39

Pre-requisite(s) : Nil

Medium of Instruction : EMI

Course Level :2

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Part II

The University’s Graduate Attributes and seven Generic Intended Learning Outcomes
(GILOs) represent the attributes of ideal EdUHK graduates and their expected qualities
respectively. Learning outcomes work coherently at the University (GILOs), programme
(Programme Intended Learning Outcomes) and course (Course Intended Learning
Outcomes) levels to achieve the goal of nurturing students with important graduate
attributes.

In gist, the Graduate Attributes for Undergraduate, Taught Postgraduate and Research

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Postgraduate students consist of the following three domains (i.e. in short “PEER & I”):
 Professional Excellence;
 Ethical Responsibility; &
 Innovation.

The descriptors under these three domains are different for the three groups of students
in order to reflect the respective level of Graduate Attributes.

The seven GILOs are:

1. Problem Solving Skills

2. Critical Thinking Skills
3. Creative Thinking Skills
4a. Oral Communication Skills
4b. Written Communication Skills
5. Social Interaction Skills
6. Ethical Decision Making
7. Global Perspectives

1. Course Synopsis
This course provides students with background knowledge crucial to the
understanding of how the growth and activities of the human population contribute
to environmental change. It explores scientific principles and the causes and effects
of environmental impacts, including agricultural and fisheries activities, urbanization
and industrialization, natural resource exploitation, pollution, and global
environmental and climate change due to human activities. The course not only
presents the history of global environmental change from the past to present, but also
predicts climatic changes in the future. The course’s learning activities, including
case studies, data analysis, group discussions and field visits, promote students’
ability to think critically and reflect on issues of global environmental change.

2. Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs)

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

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 CILO1 identify and describe the natural and man-made causes of
environmental change.
CILO2 describe and explain the effects of human activities and
environmental impacts leading to environmental changes.
CILO3 critically analyze data from case studies to accurately explain the
causes and environmental impacts of human activities.
CILO4 critically evaluate what we have done (for the planet) in the past, by
suggesting what we should do in the present, for the vision of what
we hope to see in the future.

3. Content, CILOs and Teaching & Learning Activities

Course Content CILOs Suggested

Teaching &
Learning
Activities

History of Environmental Change CILO1,2 • Lectures

• Geological change on earth • Case study

• Quaternary geology and climate change • Video

- Natural causes of climate change • Group

- Glacial-interglacial cycles and discussion
sea-level change

- Faunal change during the late-

glacial period
- Climate change during the later
Holocene
• Human cultural change and the
environment
- Hunting and gathering
- Agricultural revolution
- Industrial-Medical revolution
- Globalization

Exponential Growth of Human CILO1,2 • Lectures

Population: Outcomes • Case study

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• Need for increased food supplies • Video
• Urban land expansion • Group
• Resource exploitation discussion

• Pollution

• Global issues and climatic change

Need for Increased Food Supplies: CILO1,2,3 • Lectures

Impacts of Food Making Processes • Laboratory
• Agriculture and livestock grazing activity
• Case study
- Landscape change and
deforestation • Group
- Soil degradation and salinization discussion
- Soil erosion and desertification
- Effects of chemical used for crop-
protection
- Cultural eutrophication
• Fishing activities and aquaculture
- Biodiversity degradation
- Destruction of aquatic habitat
Urban Land Expansion: Impacts of CILO1,2,3 • Lectures
Urbanization
• Case study
• Urbanization
• Group
- Destruction of natural habitat
from land clearance discussion

- Topographical and • Field visit

hydrological change from
land reclamation • Group
- Wall effects and heat-island effect presentation

- Noise and light pollutions

Natural Capital Exploitation: Causes and CILO1,2,3 • Lectures
Effects
• Laboratory
• Renewable freshwater resources activity
- Water scarcity and water stress • Case study
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 - Ground water depletion: • Video
subsidence and saltwater intrusion
• Group
Dams and reservoirs: river flow discussion
disruption, flooding and cultural • Group
destruction presentation
• Non-renewable energy and mineral
resources

- Depletion of fossil energy

and mineral resources
- Habitat degradation from
the resource extraction

- Potential hazard of using

nuclear energy source

- Global conflicts and war for

energy crisis

Pollutions: Causes and Effects CILO1,2,3 • Lectures

• Water pollution • Case study

• Solid waste pollution • Laboratory

activity
• Air pollution
• Group
discussion
• eLearning
activities
Global Environmental Changes: Causes and CILO1,2,3 • Lectures
Effects
• Literature
• Acidification review
• Ozone depletion • Case study
• Greenhouse effects, global warming • Group
and climate changes discussion

• Globalization: • eLearning
activities
- invasion of exotic species
- spread of infectious disease

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 Future Environmental Changes: CILO1,2,3,4 • Case
discussion
• Forecasting the changes and outcomes
• Group
• We need a ‘Change’ – sustainable presentation
lifestyle

4. Assessment

Assessment Tasks Weighting CILO

(%)

Field trip demonstration & laboratory 20% CILO1,2,3

session (Online / Onsite)

• Learn how to collect samples from the field.

• Through demonstration, learn how to

conduct the experiment.

• Laboratory, data analysis and reporting.

Individual poster presentation 40% CILO1,2,3

• Design a poster / infographic to illustrate a
concurrent environmental issue.

1-hour examination (written / open book) 40% CILO1,2,3,4

• Assessment of students’ understanding of
the natural change in the environment, and
also causes and effects of human activities
leading to the environmental changes.

• Assessment of students’ ability to critically

analyze data for explaining environmental
phenomena and giving environmentally
sustainable suggestions for solving the
impacts.

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5. Required Text(s)

Nil

6. Recommended Readings

Anderson, D. E., Goudie, A. S., & Parker, A. G. (2007). Global Environments

Through the Quaternary: Exploring Environmental Change. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Botkin, D. B., & Keller, E. A. (2014). Environmental science : Earth as a living

planet (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ : Wiley

Dodds, W. K. (2008). Humanity’s Footprint: Momentum, Impacts, and our

Global Environment. NY: Columbia University Press.

Goudie, A. (2013). The Human Impact on the Natural Environment : Past,

Present and Future (7th ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell.

Harrison, R. M. (2001). Pollution: Causes, Effects and Control (4th ed.).

Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.

Houghton, J. T. (2009). Global Warming: The Complete Briefing (4th ed.).

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

IPCC (2018). Summary for Policymakers. In: Global warming of 1.5°C. [V.
Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, H. O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P. R. Shukla,
A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J. B. R.
Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M. I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M.
Tignor, T. Waterfield (eds.)]. Geneva: WMO.

Jarvis, P. J. (2000). Ecological Principles and Environmental Issues. Harlow:

Prentice Hall University Press.

Kump L. R., Kasting J. F. & Crane, R. G. (2014). The Earth System (3rd ed., new
international ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Lovejoy, T. E., & Hannah, L.J. (2005). Climate Change and Biodiversity. New
Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.

Mannion, A. M. (1997). Global Environmental Change: [A Natural and Cultural

Environmental History] (2nd ed.). Harlow, Essex: Addison-Wesley
Longman.
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 Miller, G. T., & Spoolman, S. E. (2009). Living in the Environment: Concepts,
Connections, and Solutions (16th ed.). Belmont: Brooks.

Mitlin, D., Satterthwaite, D., & Hardoy, J. E. (2001). Environmental Problems in

an Urbanizing World: Finding Solutions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Sterling, VA: Earthscan Publications.

Ponting, C. (2007). A New Green History of the World: the Environment and the
Collapse of Great Civilizations (Rev. ed.). New York: Penguin Books.

7. Related Web Resources

Nil

8. Related Journals

Biodiversity and Conservation. Springer.

Ecology. Ecological Society of America.

Environmental Science and Pollution Research. Springer.

9. Academic Honesty

The University adopts a zero tolerance policy to plagiarism. For the University’s
policy on plagiarism, please refer to the Policy on Academic Honesty,
Responsibility and Integrity with Specific Reference to the Avoidance of Plagiarism
by Students
(https://www.eduhk.hk/re/modules/downloads/visit.php?cid=9&lid=89). Students
should familiarize themselves with the Policy.

10. Others

Nil

Last update: August 2020