Purpose of the book

Traditional approaches to teaching environmental science rely on starting the semester with basic, but important, scientific concepts – the scientific methods, basic chemistry and physics, energy and material flows, etc.  But students need and want to learn about the world they can see outside – ecosystems and wildlife.   This book, which is based on the organizational structure we have used for the past 10 years, is centered on several facts: (1) Students who take environmental science, whether as a major or a general education course, are very interested in wildlife, and want to be outside as much as possible; (2) The biodiversity and climate crises now occurring need to be front and center, not showing up as one of many environmental problems the planet faces; (3) temperate zone climates favor outdoor exploration primarily in the late spring, summer and early fall, which just barely overlaps with the traditional academic calendar; (4) many rural, suburban and even urban campuses offer  opportunities to engage with the natural world right outside the building; (5) Most Env. Science textbooks and course outlines do not recognize any of these facts.  This textbook puts wildlife and ecosystem conservation front and center and offers suggestions to get students outside and engaged as much as humanly possible.

Magnifying the urgency of the threat of extinction faced by so many species, is the current existential crisis presented by climate change.  Even without climate change, the wild species with whom we share this planet faced unprecedented threats.  Climate change puts all of those species dangerously close to the brink of extinction.  Students need to encounter and grapple with the facts of climate change in EVERY class, particularly introductory environmental science classes.

Although the key ecological and scientific principles are presented in Chapter 2, our use of this book will not assign all of these concepts at the start of the course (although some truly key concepts, such as evolution, will be taught early in the semester).  Rather, we will seek to immerse the students in the ecosystems and their species as soon as possible, weaving in the basic concepts as they are needed; students will be asked to read specific sections of Ch. 2 to get the concepts.  Hyperlinks to key concepts and vocabulary allow students to easily re-visit ideas they didn’t grasp the first time around.

Although we have been referring to it as a textbook, the book leverages the power of personal stories, which was a major focus of our first book, in order to engage a wider audience.  Each chapter will feature a person or group that is working on the topic or issue featured in that chapter.

As a digital product available for free to all learners, this book also includes a supporting website and other media, which will include lab activities, research ideas, video interviews, photographs and supplemental readings, and portals to connect people to groups and organizations who are working on saving biodiversity and mitigating our climate crisis.  This will help with my own teaching as well as others, and will also allow all readers to deepen their engagement with the book content.