Fall Class UofMn,"oil spill 101"

I don't know if this is where this should be posted, but it looked liked a good default position. I'm pleased to see an institution like this move this fast, now if only BP would.

The University of Minnesota will offer a dedicated class in the fall on the worse environmental disaster in US history. If not the first, it would be one of the first in the country at the University level.

It will look at the multiple and far reaching ramifications in among other areas, historical, cultural, economic, etc The Universities Institute for Advanced Study is sponsoring The institute is both unusual and noteworthy in pioneered a form of "academic fast response"Founded in 2005. It offered a course with in a few months of the Indian Ocean tsunami, and a similar fast turnaround after the Interstate 35W in Minneapolis.

Last year it offered a class on the credit crisis. The Institute is about "how we can bring the kind of analytical tools and skills we normally use in a classroom to bear on issues people are reading and thinking about" said director Ann Waltner, who is also a professor of history. "We're not a normal curricular unit" she said because most need time to plan things. "It's a bit unusual plan a course, get it on the books, and up and running this fast." she said.

The 3 credit interdisciplinary course on the oil spill will feature scientific readings, news updates, and guest speakers and authors. Robert Gillmer, a history PhD candidate who will teach the course said, some sessions may be open to the public. Enrolled students, capacity is 30, will be asked to write research papers with possible subjects ranging from energy to food, biology and engineering. Gilmer is a Louisiana native who said he's particularly interested in the surprising interconnections among oil drilling, fishing and tourism.

Gillmer expects students from the environmental studies and sciences, but unexpected areas as well.

Source: Star Tribune, Minneapolis St. Paul, Minnesota 6/25/10 Story front page A1 and A7 By: Bill McAuliffe (Go Gophers...)

[edit on 25/6/10 by arbiture]