Abstract

The objective of this project is to design and implement a new bilingual (English-Spanish) graduate course for the Environmental Protection Management Program.  This collaborative, interdisciplinary course will focus on the fundamental understanding and application of the Earth system and global change science.
 
The course will cover the basic Earth system componentsˇthe ocean, the land, the ground water, the atmosphere, the air, the ecology, and the interrelation between them.  Each component will be comprised of a study of the environmentally acceptable physical and chemical properties, the sources of contamination from human activities, pollution control, and the protection of each component.  This multidisciplinary effort will contribute to the understanding of global changes due to human activities.  The lectures and teaching activities will be given over 12 weeks, with four contact hours per week.
 
The course will be designed by four faculty members, from four different academic departments [electrical engineering/graduate school of management, environmental management program, civil and environmental engineering, and mechanical engineering], each faculty member will develop lecture notes in both English and Spanish.  The course will have five parts:
           
1. The ocean:  How it works and influences human lives;
2. Water and land:  Issues of land and water resource contamination by human activities;
3. Atmosphere and air quality:  Effects of air pollutants, greenhouse effect, global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, and air pollution control;
4. Ecology:  An overview of Puerto Rico©ˆs tropical ecology and climate in relation to other Earth systems, including recent regulatory constraints applicable to each ecosystem;
5. Integrated Earth system:  Effect of contamination or pollution in one portion of the system on other portions of the system.

The course will be implemented through the graduate environmental management program but will be offered as an elective course to students in other graduate programs such as engineering management, civil engineering, and industrial engineering as well.