- RL W200 Change Begins Within
If one wants to change the world, what better way than to start with oneself? This is the simple premise of the course. It is part study and part personal challenge. The study part involves fourteen well-being strategies that have been shown through research to promote health. The personal challenge comes when students choose three challenges from among the fourteen to apply to their own lives in two 20-day challenges. Each student, with the support of the class, monitors, and reports on their own personal change in a report shared with their classmates. In the process, students learn about physical health, mental health (in terms of positive psychology), and Maharishi Vedic Science, a framework for understanding spiritual development. Students learn to manage their own health and to help others do the same. (4 credits)
- RL B202 Ecocities
Cities are the biggest things that humans build. The car-centered urban, suburban, and rural patterns of human settlement that have developed in North America are a byproduct of the era of cheap fossil fuels, and wasteful of resources and human energy. This course will explore the emerging principles of sustainable and regenerative city design. Topics will include historic perspectives, the ecocity movement, the effect of density on sustainability, land use and zoning for sustainability, new urbanism, urban agriculture, and more. (4 credits)
- RL G321 Climate Justice
Climate change is a global problem we all must face, but it impacts our daily lives differently depending on where and how we live. This course will explore the relationship between climate change and social and environmental justice. In order to create a more sustainable and regenerative world, we must understand existing inequalities and create novel and effective responses to them, while avoiding the thinking that led us to our present social and environmental crisis. Above all, our responses to climate change and social/environmental justice must be holistic, encompassing a wide range of viewpoints, value-priorities, and methods. (4 Credits )
- SL S300 Using Holistic Thinking to Understand and Address Complex Problems
How can we understand large, multi-disciplinary problems like climate change, food insecurity, and income inequality? By applying interdisciplinary, systems-based, integrative thinking — or holistic thinking. This is the starting point of this course. Using familiar and simple, and then unfamiliar and more complex, systems we learn to see many of the interacting components that give rise to the behaviors we observe in our daily life. To “systems thinking” we then add Consciousness-Based principles and perspectives that help us see all the parts of a domain in their relation to the whole and to consciousness. Both the systems perspective and the Consciousness-Based perspective enable us to see the whole picture and thereby choose effective strategies for solving problems. In 2022 the complex problem we will address is climate change, and the course concludes with each student thinking through what they can do to address this complex problem. (4 credits)
- RL E305 Energy Systems for Electric Vehicle Technology
This course explains the fundamentals of energy storage, conversion, inversion, and distribution by exploring EV energy systems. Topics include: 1) Fundamentals of energy storage and conversion such as electrochemistry, thermodynamics, and regeneration through braking; and 2) Conversion techniques: Electromagnetism and magnetic circuits, introduction to AC circuits, inductance, capacitance, inductive and capacitive reactance, DC generators, and motors, synchronous and induction machines. The course project involves practice in electrical storage dynamics through examination of an actual EV drive train, to understand its functionality, safety standards, and the diagnosis of problems. Course fee: $50 (4 credits)
- RL E101 Energy and Sustainability
This course explores the role energy plays in sustainability and in the development of complexity and order in nature and in the human economy. Anything of economic value comes from nature or from humans, and both require energy. Therefore, energy is critical to the economy. Energy inevitably loses usefulness as it flows through human-made and natural systems. Sustainability is about regeneration and renewal of opportunity for future generations. Therefore, renewable sources of energy are essential for sustainability. Students will learn basic energy concepts and their application to sustainability and renewable energy systems. The course will include lectures, readings, films, guest speakers, field trips, and hands-on work. (4 credits)
- RL B101 Sustainability, Buildings, & the Built Environment
The built environment consists of all the things that humans build: buildings and the rural, suburban, and urban context in which they are placed. Buildings, the cities they are placed in, and the transportation systems that connect them are the biggest things that humans build. Designing and building them sustainably is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. This course gives an overview of the origins and evolution of buildings and issues of sustainability in the built environment. Buildings consume over 40% of the energy we use. They are often made from toxic materials and materials that are difficult to recycle. Few buildings are designed to optimize the use of the energy and resources freely given to us by Nature. What is needed is a radical redesign of the way we think about, build and use buildings. The goal is to create a built environment that, like the natural environment, is regenerative, giving back more than it takes. By the end of the course students will be able to: 1) Think holistically about the relationship between climate, culture, and available building materials in a variety of global settings; 2) Understand and be conversant in the basic concepts and language of building design and construction; and 3) Translate into real-world projects various team design skills gained during the course. (4 credits)
- RL P320 Food Systems
The term “food system” describes all the components necessary to feed a population – growing, harvesting, processing, access, distributing, consuming, and disposing. It includes a complex set of interactions to get our food from field to plate. In order to create a more sustainable and regenerative world, we must understand the existing systems we are a part of and what research and actions are underway that are already changing the status quo. (4 Credits)
