HR: 1340h
AN: ED13A-0722    [Abstracts]
TI: Incorporating Environmental Regulation and Litigation in Earth Science Curriculum
AU: * Flegal, A R
EM: flegal@etox.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Santa Cruz, Environmental Toxicology, WIGS UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AB: Fundamental knowledge of geological processes is not only needed for effective environmental regulation and litigation, but Earth Science students find that relevance motivating in their studies of those processes. Crustal abundance and redox reactions suddenly become personally meaningful when they are used to account for the presence of high levels of carcinogenic Cr(VI) in the students' drinking water. Similarly, epithermal mercury deposits and the element's speciation gain new importance when they are related to the warning signs on the consumption of fish that the students catch and eat. And even those students that are not motivated by these, and many other, applications of geology find solace in learning that anthropogenic perturbations of the global lead cycle may partially account for their short attention span, lack of interest, and inability to learn the material. Consequently, a number of courses in environmental toxicology and ground water contamination have been developed that are based on (1) case studies in environmental regulation and litigation and (2) active student participation as "expert witnesses" opining on the scientific basis of environmental decisions.
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting