CCS 102 Research Perspectives on Climate Change

ANNOUNCEMENTS

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to exciting and current research topics related to climate change as presented by faculty and researchers across UC San Diego. The course is offered as a series of reading topics followed by seminars on original research presented by faculty and researchers.

INSTRUCTOR
bt werner
Professor of Environmental Science and Complex Systems
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Teaching Professor in Critical Gender Studies
Faculty Affiliate in Ethnic Studies and the UCSD Labor Center

CLASS MEETINGS
Wednesdays 330-520PM 330 Spiess Hall @ the SIO Campus (Winter Quarter 2025)
Attendance and participation constitute the bulk of your grades, so please plan on attending all ten classes, if possible.

If you are registered for CCS 102 but have not received login information for the course web site, please contact bt asap from your ucsd e-mail.

OFFICE HOURS
Coming Soon...

COURSE SYNOPSIS
Research on climate change spans a broad range of disciplines, topics, approaches and methods – from the highly abstract, universal and theoretical to the intensely grounded, experimental, locally specific and practical, from scientific analyses to critical analyses, from western academic knowledge to Indigenous traditional knowledge, from research that benefits systems of concentrated power and wealth to research that promotes the diffusion of power and wealth. In CCS 102, we will sample this diversity of research, reading articles and meeting with academics and practitioners whose work gives us a window into some aspects of climate change research. We will discuss techniques for reading articles on climate change research, asking questions of seminar speakers and approaching academics as project advisors, all to help prepare you for your CCS minor applied project and for your climate-change-related work beyond UCSD.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
– Explore the scope and diversity of climate change research and researchers.
-- Collaboratively develop the skills to understand and critically read climate change research articles.
-- Practice learning from seminar speakers and asking informational and probing questions.
-- Refine skills for effectively approaching potential mentors, employers and collaborators.

CCS 102 will feature very cool speakers, and will have some assigned reading and straightforward assignments. No tests!

In CCS 102, you will be asked to
-- attend and participate in ten classes, 8 or 9 of which will include seminars by very cool climate change researchers.
-- fill out a brief form summarizing each seminar and answering a few questions about it.
-- read 7-8 research articles about climate change as part of a group and, with your group, summarize the articles and come up with three questions about them. Each of the six groups will lead the discussion on one of the research articles.
-- write a well-researched draft e-mail to a potential advisor for your CCS minor applied research project.

Contact the instructor bt werner bwerner AT ucsd dot edu if you have any questions!