ENVRES 240: Environmental Decision-Making and Risk Perception
Mobilizing successful conservation efforts to mitigate climate change and preserve both local and global ecosystems requires a new way of thinking. This course will investigate the barriers to pro-environmental behavior and the heuristics and biases that cloud our ability to respond effectively to environmental problems, using insights from behavioral economics, neuroeconomics, and environmental risk perception. Emphasis on interdisciplinary applications of recent research, and implications for environmental policymaking and persuasive messaging.
ENVRES 245: Psychological Insights for Science Communication
This course integrates lessons learned from psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, and sociology to the practice of science communication, with practical experience working to create and test new messaging for partner environmental organizations. Students learn about innate biases and heuristics that influence the communication of scientific ideas and data and the public¿s receptiveness to environmental messaging. Topics covered include information framing, attention and salience, public science literacy and numeracy, simplifying complexity and dealing with uncertainty, cultural and political contexts and social norms, and methods to motivate science engagement, evidence-based decision-making, and behavior change. Students will learn how to design new messaging strategies based on social science research and how to analyze their efficacy using basic statistical analyses in R (no prior programming knowledge is required). The course culminates in a project developing and testing new messaging strategies for real-world environmental organizations.
ENVRES 250: Environmental Governance
How do we work together to solve environmental problems? Across the globe, who has a voice, and who ultimately decides how to balance conservation and development? How do we build governance institutions that facilitate both environmental sustainability and social equity? This seminar on environmental governance will focus on the challenges and opportunities for managing common-pool resources, like fisheries, forests, and water. Because managing environmental resources is often about managing people, we will explore the motivations underlying human behavior towards the environment. We will discuss how institutions encode our cultural values and beliefs, and how we can reshape these institutions to achieve more sustainable outcomes.
Coursework includes foundational readings and a pragmatic exploration of case studies. Teaching cases address topics in community-based conservation, international protected areas, market-based approaches, coping with environmental risk, and other themes. Interested undergraduate and graduate students from any discipline are welcome.
Co-Teaching with Sibyl Diver.
ENVRES 290: Capstone Project Seminar in Environment and Resources
The culmination of the course sequence for MBA, Law, MD, and PhD students pursuing a joint MS degree in Environment & Resources. Students pursue their final capstone projects and present them at an end of the year symposium.
Mobilizing successful conservation efforts to mitigate climate change and preserve both local and global ecosystems requires a new way of thinking. This course will investigate the barriers to pro-environmental behavior and the heuristics and biases that cloud our ability to respond effectively to environmental problems, using insights from behavioral economics, neuroeconomics, and environmental risk perception. Emphasis on interdisciplinary applications of recent research, and implications for environmental policymaking and persuasive messaging.
ENVRES 245: Psychological Insights for Science Communication
This course integrates lessons learned from psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, and sociology to the practice of science communication, with practical experience working to create and test new messaging for partner environmental organizations. Students learn about innate biases and heuristics that influence the communication of scientific ideas and data and the public¿s receptiveness to environmental messaging. Topics covered include information framing, attention and salience, public science literacy and numeracy, simplifying complexity and dealing with uncertainty, cultural and political contexts and social norms, and methods to motivate science engagement, evidence-based decision-making, and behavior change. Students will learn how to design new messaging strategies based on social science research and how to analyze their efficacy using basic statistical analyses in R (no prior programming knowledge is required). The course culminates in a project developing and testing new messaging strategies for real-world environmental organizations.
ENVRES 250: Environmental Governance
How do we work together to solve environmental problems? Across the globe, who has a voice, and who ultimately decides how to balance conservation and development? How do we build governance institutions that facilitate both environmental sustainability and social equity? This seminar on environmental governance will focus on the challenges and opportunities for managing common-pool resources, like fisheries, forests, and water. Because managing environmental resources is often about managing people, we will explore the motivations underlying human behavior towards the environment. We will discuss how institutions encode our cultural values and beliefs, and how we can reshape these institutions to achieve more sustainable outcomes.
Coursework includes foundational readings and a pragmatic exploration of case studies. Teaching cases address topics in community-based conservation, international protected areas, market-based approaches, coping with environmental risk, and other themes. Interested undergraduate and graduate students from any discipline are welcome.
Co-Teaching with Sibyl Diver.
ENVRES 290: Capstone Project Seminar in Environment and Resources
The culmination of the course sequence for MBA, Law, MD, and PhD students pursuing a joint MS degree in Environment & Resources. Students pursue their final capstone projects and present them at an end of the year symposium.