Water, Food, and Energy Track Electives

Instructor(s): Erin Boyd
Day(s): Wednesday
Time: 3:15-6:15pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
This course provides presentations, readings, and exercises relating to the broad range of nutrition interventions utilized in international programs: infant and young child nutrition, micronutrient prevention and control activities, prevention and treatment of acute malnutrition, cash and food-based programs, and water, sanitation and hygiene activities. The course also covers malnutrition causality, nutrition architecture, and an overview of global nutrition platforms. Students become well versed in program design through a multi-causal lens in Asia, Africa, South American.

Instructor(s): Alexandra Thorn
Day(s): Friday
Time: 9:00am-12:00pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
Many problems in agriculture, food and nutrition are inherently geographic in nature. For example, livestock production is increasingly concentrated in large feeding operations, leading to new spatial patterns of water and air pollution or foodborne illness. Spatial clustering is equally important for food consumption, nutrition and public health, as in hunger hotspots, food deserts and disease corridors. This course will equip students with the skills needed to capture, analyze and communicate spatial data in geographic information systems (GIS), using a variety of examples from agriculture, food and nutrition.

Instructor(s): Timothy Griffin
Day(s): Wednesday
Time: 9:00am-12:00pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
This course covers the major social, political, and economic aspects of the U.S. agricultural system, both as it exists today as well as its historical development. After consideration of agricultural systems in general, we explore some of the key historical forces that have made U.S. agriculture what it is today and the major role of the federal government, both past and present. This includes an explicit focus on policy, power, and the role that systems of oppression (e.g., slavery and racism, genocide of Indigenous peoples) have played and continue to play in determining who farms, who labors, and who has access to agricultural resources. The final portion of the course focuses on the people who grow and harvest our food, the communities in which they live and work, and the development of alternative food systems (i.e., local and regional) as potential mechanisms to transform relationships between agriculture and society.

Instructor(s): David Gute
Day(s): Wednesday
Time: 12:00-2:00pm
School: School of Engineering (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Concentration:
Description:
Emphasis is placed on participants understanding the biology of water and health. Participant will demonstrate knowledge of the central role of water in health, including adequate hydration. Detailed coverage of selected prototypic or model disease which include Schistosomiasis, Cryptosporidiosis, cholera, and others. Participant will become familiar with widespread chemical agents and their interactions with pathogens. Participants will demonstrate a familiarity with the appropriate methods of assessing the occurrence of water borne disease. Participants will become knowledge about the principal methods of controlling the propagation of water-born disease. Participants will become knowledgeable social and institutional factors influencing sanitation and water treatment decision and the subsequent impacts on a variety of health indices.

Instructor(s): Scott Horsley
Day(s): Friday
Time: 9:00-11:30am
School: School of Arts and Sciences (Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy)
Concentration:
Description:
Presents a comprehensive approach to water resources management through the integration of environmental science and policy. Intended for students with or without technical backgrounds. Course examines groundwater, lake, riverine, wetland, and coastal management issues and relies heavily on practical case studies to illustrate successful methods.

Instructor(s): Kevin Cody
Day(s): Monday
Time: 9:00am-12:00pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
TBD

Instructor(s): Hugh Joseph
Days: Wednesday/Thursday
Time: 3:15-4:45pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
Interest in ‘sustainable diets’ has expanded rapidly over the past decade. In this newly restructured course, ‘sustainable diets’ approaches are examined using systems-based, trans- and multi-disciplinary models that incorporate social, economic, governance, health, cultural, and environmental dimensions. Core elements will cover: (a) definitions, terminologies, models, application to diets and food systems; (b) frameworks and limitations of sustainable diets; (c) food consumption as an alternative framework; (d) sustainable food consumption guidelines; and (e) strategies to promote more sustainable food consumption. An emphasis will be on transitioning away from diets per se to a novel ‘food consumption’ model, using sustainable agriculture as a reference framework. Students each week will also select and discuss papers covering diverse aspects of sustainable food systems. Major assignments include (i) applying an innovative methodology - multi-criteria analysis - to assess the relative sustainability of various foods; and (ii) developing guidelines for food consumption as an alternative to typical sustainable dietary guidelines approaches. An advanced course and background in basic nutrition and in food systems is important.

Instructor(s): Helen Suh
Day(s): Monday
Time: 3:00-5:45pm
School: School of Engineering (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Concentration:
Description:
Use of publicly available environmental and health data for in-depth analysis of environmental health topics such as air pollution, exposure disparities, water quality, and contaminant source contributions, with knowledge of contaminant fate and transport, statistics, and data visualization.

Instructor(s): Eric Hines
Days: Monday/Wednesday
Time: 3:00-4:15pm
School: School of Engineering (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Concentration:
Description:
Consideration of the engineering concepts relevant to past and present decision making in the energy sector. Energy policy, the emergence of energy in the modern world, and its basis in the scientific, industrial and democratic revolutions of the modern age. Focus on offshore wind energy illustrates the convergence of technology, infrastructure, policy and markets in the context of the 21st century challenge of moving to a clean energy economy.

Instructors: Eileen Kennedy and Patrick Webb
Day(s): Thursday
Time: 1:30-4:30pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
This course will allow students to become familiar with policy processes (domestic and international), typologies of policy initiatives (laws, regulations, program interventions, legal restrictions and systems, institutional mandates), and to be able to critically analyze and discuss how policy and science interact with regard to food and nutrition. The class will cover: a) how science influences the policy agenda, and how policy debates influence the scientific agenda; b) the scientific underpinnings of food and nutrition policies; c) how empirical findings in scientific research and operational programming make their way into policy and law; d) debates and controversies in US and international nutrition; e) the range of options for intervention that exist (to improve nutrition), and those that are used; f) how do we know what works best and what the alternatives might be?; g) approaches to problem assessment and measurement; h) success stories in the nutrition pantheon; i) constraints to success (what makes or breaks major program successes), and j) key institutions and organizations involved in nutrition policy and programming in the US and around the world.

Instructor(s): TBD
Day(s): TBD
Time: TBD
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
TBD

Instructor(s): Erin Coughlan
Days: Monday/Wednesday
Time: 10:30am-12:00pm
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
Climate change is one of the most pressing problems in the world today. This course will focus on the projected impacts of climate change around the world and related adaptations, with particular attention to humanitarian impacts and food systems. Students will cover climate risk assessment, risk perception, risk communication, and climate risk management/adaptation. The course will cover major climate impacts by sector, as well as their interactions and humanitarian implications. Each week of class will have two components: a lecture component and a lab component. The lecture will consist of instructor presentation of content as well as student reflection and discussion. The lab will consist of an exercise or simulation of technologies and methods related to climate impact assessment and management. Students will experiment with different methodologies to assess climate risk and identify impact modeling methodologies that are most appropriate for specific applications. Students will learn why people perceive risk differently and experiment with innovative methods to communicate risk. In the risk management section, students will critique alternative risk management strategies and identify equity and justice implications. As a final project, students will develop a proposal for the Green Climate Fund, which is the largest global fund to address climate change.

Instructor(s): Shafiqul Islam
Days: Tuesday/Thursday
Time: 12:00-1:15pm
School: School of Engineering
Concentration:
Description:
Approaches that leverage tools and techniques from complexity science with negotiation theory for use in solving practical problems with societal relevance. Systems thinking, policy relevance and effective implementation within the context of nonlinearity, uncertainty, and unpredictability associated with coupled natural, engineered, and human systems. Integration of numbers and narratives to create actionable technological solutions with a problem-driven strategy.

Instructors: Sumeeta Srinivasan and Aggeliki Barberopoulou
Days/Times:

• Tuesday/Thursday: 12:00-1:15pm
• Monday: 1:30-4:00pm

School: School of Engineering
Concentration:
Description:
Introduces Geographical Information Systems (GIS) theory, methods and their applications. Topics include GIS data structures, geodesy, cartography and spatial analysis using rasters and vectors. Includes extensive laboratory exercises that apply concepts presented in the lectures using ArcGIS. The course will include a final project using GIS to apply student interests.

Instructor(s): Maria Robinson
Day(s): Tuesday
Time: 9:00-11:30am
School: TBD
Concentration:
Description:
TBD

Instructor(s): Timothy Griffin
Day(s): TBD
Time: TBD
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
First part of a two-semester sequence required of AFE students. This course covers the major biological, chemical and physical components of agricultural systems. Each is discussed from the viewpoints of both the underlying natural processes and principles, and their significance for major agricultural, food safety, and environmental policy issues in the U.S. today. In the first semester, the topics covered are soils, water, nutrients, and genetic resources.

Instructor(s): James Limbrunner
Day(s): TBD
Time: TBD
School: School of Engineering (Civil and Environmental Engineering)
Concentration:
Description:
Design of rivers and stream channels including lined aqueducts, stilling basins, water surface elevation control, and sediment stability. Influence of engineered works on natural processes such as sediment transport, wildlife migration, and flood attenuation. Stream restoration methods including nature-like riverbed and riverbank design, and aquatic organism passage design.

Instructor(s): Alexandra Thorn
Day(s): TBD
Time: TBD
School: Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Concentration:
Description:
Many problems in agriculture, food and nutrition are inherently geographic in nature. For example, livestock production is increasingly concentrated in large feeding operations, leading to new spatial patterns of water and air pollution or foodborne illness. Spatial clustering is equally important for food consumption, nutrition and public health, as in hunger hotspots, food deserts and disease corridors. This course will equip students with the skills needed to capture, analyze and communicate spatial data in geographic information systems (GIS), using a variety of examples from agriculture, food and nutrition.