Course Identification

Note: This is a forecast syllabus. Changes may apply.

18/10 No class

25/10 Climate change and global forests

1/11 No class (national elections)

8/11 (Retreat) Teachers meet to work on their assignments

15/11 Geo-Ethics and teachers’ group assignments

22/11 Population heat exposure

29/11 (DDD) Hosting at lab by students and postdocs

6/12 The eco-demographic crisis

13/12 Life cycle analysis and sustainability science

20/12 No class for teachers

27/12 Life cycle analysis teachers’ personal assignments

3/1 Ecological conservation

10/1 The Anthropocene: trees and water

17/1 The Anthropocene: trees and carbon

24/1 Ecology I: The Ecological pyramid

31/1 Ecology II: The rhizosphere. Guest lecture: Prof. Orit Ben Zvi

7/2 Biogeography: Flora of Israel

14/2 Solar power, electric cars

21/2 No class

Upon successful completion of this course students should be able to:

Learning outcomes (by class):

Teachers are expected to answer the following questions (by class):

1. What is climate change? Why do we worry and what is happening?

2. Why, how, where, and when trees die?

3. What is Geo-Ethics?

4. What are the dilemmas in a specific field of environmental sciences?

5. What is the expected increase in heat exposure of humans in this century?

6. What does the Weizmann Tree Lab study, and how?

7. Why is population growth an environmental problem?

8. What does sustainability mean? How does life cycle analysis work?

9. How to use the eco-indicator approach to assess environmental impact?

10. What evidence is needed to support a species conservation?

11. What effects do human populations have on freshwater resources and what are the implications?

12. How is elevated CO2 expected to affect trees and forests?

13. What are the true and false of the ecological pyramid?

14. What are the major processes in the root zone?

15. What is unique about Israel’s nature?

16. Why do we need solar power and electric cars?