Free Flow: Global Perspectives on Water

Discovery Core Experience: I&S & NW Course

BCORE 115 / 116

60-Second Syllabus: Free Flow: Global Perspectives on Water

About This Course:

Consider how often you interact with water – it’s part of your daily diet, your energy consumption, and all the life around you. But do you know who owns it? Who makes decisions about water’s flow, use, conservation, and safety?

Globally the flow of water is a key part of everything from daily infrastructure to political negotiations. In this course, we will partner with the American Center for Mongolian Studies to learn more about the ownership, value, and use of water in two different parts of the world – the Western United States and Mongolia.

We will focus on topics of wastewater, drought, and damming of rivers in both places. The course will cover both the basic background science of water flow, pollution, and ecology and the human perspective on the political and economic conflicts over water rights and use.

We will use an asynchronous meeting platform to discuss the topics with Mongolian students as well as in-person classes.

Professor Avery Shinneman (She/Her/Hers)

School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences

About Professor Shinneman:

  • B.A., Geology and Environmental Studies, Macalester College
    Ph.D., Geology, University of Minnesota

I teach environmental science courses that are focused on the process we go through to investigate and begin to understand the environmental systems we live in. My intention is that students leave my courses with a better understanding of both the earth system/process the class is focused on (water resources, geology, etc.) and the way we go about investigating that process. Most of my classes involve individual research, experiential learning at outdoor field sites or local environmental agencies, and significant hands-on problem solving. My main focus is to teach students how to navigate the often messy process of discovery. I believe strongly that many controversies in the public discourse about science, including debates about climate change, evolution, and medicine, stem from the fact that too many people see science as a text book that has already been written instead of as a dynamic process. I want to encourage students to look at science as something they can actively create and evaluate, rather than something that is handed to them as a set of predetermined conclusions. My desire is that each student leaves one of my courses better able to use evidence in decision making, discuss the uncertainties and errors in scientific research, and apply the knowledge of the course to a relevant problem.

Research/Scholarship

My research interests are focused on developing records of recent and long-term changes in the environment, especially in aquatic systems, arising from shifts in climate and land-use. Using biological and geochemical archives in lake sediment cores, I develop reconstructions of paleo-ecological changes. These reconstructions can be used to answer a variety of questions about natural variability in ecological systems, changes in these systems after anthropogenic disturbances, and the efficacy of restoration efforts.

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