Teaching

COURSE OFFERINGS

Fall 2025

Climate Futures (QCR)
Subject associations
ENV 367 / GEO 367

Students will learn about climate change, climate projections and mitigation strategies. Student will analyze climate data and future scenario models, evaluate potential climate change and impacts on the Earth system (warming, rainfall), explore mitigation strategies, costs, barriers and benefits (changes in lifestyle, negative emissions, solar radiation management etc.). The course will introduce students to climate data analysis using Jupyter Notebooks.

Instructors
Laure Resplandy
Fall 2025
The Habitable Planet (QCR)
Subject associations
GEO 203 / ENE 203

This course introduces solid Earth system science, quantifying underlying physical and chemical processes to study the formation and evolution of Earth through time. We discuss how these processes create and sustain habitable conditions on Earth, including feedbacks and tipping points as recorded in the geologic record. Topics include stellar and planetary formation, plate tectonics, seismology, minerals/rocks, the geologic timescale, natural resources, the hydrologic cycle and sedimentation, paleoclimatology, and the "Anthropocene." Students will apply these topics to the recent past to assess human impact on the environment.

Instructors
John A. Higgins
Laure Resplandy
Fall 2025

PREVIOUS SEMESTERS

Fall Courses

Modeling the Earth System: Assessing Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change (QCR)
Subject associations
ENV 367 / GEO 367
Instructors
Laure Resplandy
Undergraduate Course
Fall 2022
Modeling the Earth System: Assessing Strategies for Mitigating Climate Change (QCR)
Subject associations
ENV 367 / GEO 367
Instructors
Laure Resplandy
Undergraduate Course
Fall 2023
Fundamentals of the Geosciences II
Subject associations
GEO 506
Instructors
Thomas S. Duffy
Laure Resplandy
Blair Schoene
Jeroen Tromp
Gabriel A. Vecchi
Graduate Studies
Fall 2020

Spring Courses

Ocean, Atmosphere, and Climate (SEN)
Subject associations
GEO 202
Instructors
Laure Resplandy
Undergraduate Course
Spring 2022
Ocean Dynamics and Ecosystems
Subject associations
AOS 578 / GEO 578
Instructors
Laure Resplandy
Spring 2024