Course Syllabus

OCEAN/ESS/ATMS 475 Seminar on Current Research in Climate Change 

Climate Change and Human Health

(3 Credits) 

Winter quarter, 2021

Course Description 

This course targets undergraduate students who are completing the Climate Science Minor at the University of Washington and serves as the capstone course for the minor, so most of the students are seniors.  For more information about the Climate Science Minor see https://pcc.uw.edu/education/undergraduate-minor/

The focused topic of the courses changes every year.  In Winter Quarter 2021, the course focused on Climate Change and Health.  The intention of the course is to help the students integrate concepts of climate science with the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change.  This include the climate impacts on human populations with particular emphasis on vulnerable human populations.  Past topics includes: Arctic Change and Sea Level Rise.   

This course is taught in conjunction with OCEAN/ESS/ATMS 586, a 2 credit course targeting graduate students as a course that is required for the Graduate Certificate in Climate Science https://pcc.uw.edu/education/graduate-certificate/.

The graduate students attend the seminars from outside speakers on Thursdays, and participate in a discussion board that focuses on the weekly readings.  

This course covers a wide range of topics at the intersection of climate and human health, including the IPCC process, priorities for science and technology, climate change attribution, hurricane disasters and policy responses, water and health, community engagement, wildfires, heatwaves, nature and health, and food security. Through assigned readings, external speakers and a series of writing assignments. 

Through a series of assigned readings, writing assignments, and seminars, students in this course will: 

• Read, evaluate, and synthesize information from primary literature
• Integrate information from a range of methodological approaches 
• Speculate on meanings of scientific data, possible future directions for research and societal implications 
• Communicate their ideas precisely in both oral and written format 
• Translate those ideas for a general audience  

Examples of the portfolio of writing that you will produce from previous years is from students who received an A in the course can be found here Examples475.pdf.

All assignments will be due at 11PM on Wednesdays unless otherwise noted.  

Each Tuesday we will have two speakers, one from the from the health perspective, and one from climate science perspective.  These talks will be follow by discussion with the audience. Topics include methods for projecting future climate and relevant exposures and impacts, including broader considerations related to determinants of health and wellbeing, and implications for climate change communication and management. Some sessions will focus on cross-cutting issues and others on specific exposures and pathways. We will explore these challenges from both natural, health, and social science perspectives. A schedule of the seminar speakers with topics is giving below. 

Thursdays 3:30-4:50 Lecture and discussion with 475 students only. 

Class Instructor 
Prof. LuAnne Thompson                                           
Email: luanne@uw.edu

Prerequisites 
The climate change seminar is designed to integrate the different courses that are part of the climate science minor. Therefore, it is expected you will have completed one of the three core climate science minor courses (ESS 201, ATMS 211 or ATMS 321).  This course also fulfills the W requirement.

Individual Research Focus 

The focus on much of work that you will do in this class will be on a topic chosen by you that is related to Health and Climate Change.   This will include an annotated bibliography, a literature review/research paper, a short popular science article, one page policy piece and a Haiku that summaries your topic.   The topic should include aspects of climate science as well as be related to the impacts of climate change on human health.  You will decide on the focus of your work in the first few weeks in class.  

Thursday Lectures and Discussions:   
Lectures in this class are “just in time”.  As questions come up, I will be preparing lectures that will review important topics that you will encounter in your research.  If there is a particular topic that you think we need to cover, just let me know. 

Required Readings 

You will be given readings each week.  These readings will be chosen to supplement the seminars and will be the source for our discussions in the Thursday class each week as well as resources for your writing.  These readings will be available through the course canvas page.  Note that you will be reading the primary literature, including detailed discussion of techniques.  

Grading 

Your grade in this course will depend on your progress on the writing assignments for the course.  The grade will be made up of two components, 25% will be credit no-credit, while 75% will be graded.  Each of the writing assignments should be unique with little overlap.   

Credit/No Credit 25% of your grade, each giving your 5% of your total point total

5% Online Discussions: participate in 7 of 10 reading discussions, a post introducing yourself, your research focus for the quarter, and submission of a news article on your topic

5% Draft policy paper: draft one-page policy paper for full credit

5% Draft blog post for general audiences: turn in a one page draft for full credit

5% Draft of research paper: draft is at least 5 pages long (plus references) with no overlap with other writing assignments for full credit

5% Haiku Summary of your research topic

Graded 75% of your grade will be given for these writing assignments

1st Annotated Bib. 5% 

Topic Annotated Bib. 10% 

Final one page blog post for general audiences 15% 

Final policy one pager 15% 

Final Research Paper 30% 

Your grades for each assignment will be posted online in Canvas.   Note that in the past, the students who turn in every assignment, and participate in the online discussion tend to achieve at least a 3.5 in the class.   

Discussions - includes submission of self-introduction, comments on readings, submission of lay articles, comments/questions on the readings, submission of your research topic, links to articles in the media, etc. 

Discussion of papers will play an integral role in the course of the class.  The goal of these discussions is for you to evaluate the data and models presented in a paper and to place the conclusions that can be drawn from these data and models in an appropriate context.  Also, these discussions should allow you to synthesize what you have learned from both the lectures and your readings.  You should come to class prepared to discuss the figures themselves, not just what the authors have to say about the figures.  Furthermore, you should also be prepared to discuss the major contributions and implications of the research.  

To facilitate the discussion, and as a contribution to your grade, you will be expected participate in the reading discussion board by 11PM the day before we discuss the paper.   

We will also be working on how to present scientific results to general audiences, and you will be expected to bring examples to class on the appropriate date.   

Annotated Bibliographies 

You will do one annotated bibliography on the first paper (see assignment), then a second annotated bibliography on four papers on your chosen paper topic.  

Blog 

We will also be working on translating your paper topic for a general audience in one page.  We will be working from examples and in groups to summarize the science and discuss its societal relevance in one page. 

Policy White Paper 

A different writing style focuses on distilling science for policy-makers.  We will examine how to frame our paper topics in a policy context, and how to propose realistic solutions.  This will result in a one-page policy white paper.  

Peer Review 

For the the policy brief and the article for general audiences, you will be peer reviewing the papers in class.  I will assign you in groups of 3-4 to read each other's papers, group people who have similar research foci. You are expected to be constructive and supportive in your comments.   

Final Paper 

Within the first three weeks of the quarter, you should choose a paper topic. This can be a subject covered by the readings and seminar speakers or some other aspect of climate change that is of particular interest to you.  The final paper will be 8-12 double spaced pages and contain a minimum of 10 references that are peer-reviewed, scholarly articles found in scientific journals such as Journal of Climate, Journal of Geophysical Research, Science, Nature etc.  Most journal articles will be available through the UW library e-journals. Additional references such as books or book chapters, unpublished government reports, or policy papers from non-governmental organizations may be acceptable (discuss with instructor) and but will be in addition to the 10 primary sources. 

Taking 475 as a W course 

This course is not explicitly listed as a Writing course in the time schedule. If you need W credit and would like to take this course as an optional W class, talk to me about it no later than the 3rd week of the quarter.  

Academic Honesty 

There is a zero-tolerance policy regarding cheating. Cheating is not fair to you and to your colleagues. Examples of cheating include, but are not limited to the following activities: attempting to pass other students work as your own, obtaining answers word for word from assigned reading or the internet (all forms of plagiarism). Note that all assignments that you turn in this course should be original for this course.  In addition, each of the writing assignments on your topic should be unique without significant overlap with the other assignments in the class.  If you have any uncertainty as to what activities are defined as cheating talk to the instructor or please visit: http://depts.washington.edu/grading/conduct/honesty.html. 

In the past, plagiarism detection software, Turnitin has identified self-plagiarism for one student that turned in an assignment that was also used in another class.  A different student had substantial overlap between the assignments for the course.  In each of these cases, I asked the student to rewrite their assignments and they passed the course.  

Accommodations for disabilities 

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disability Resources for Students, 448 Schmitz Hall, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from Disability Resources for Students indicating that you have a disability that requires academic accommodations, please present the letter me for a discussion on the accommodations you might need in this class.

Seminar Schedule (from winter 2021)

Week 1: Climate Change and Climate Impacts:  the IPCC Process
Kyle Armour (Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography)
Jeremy Hess (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Global Health, Emergency MedicineI) 

Week 2:  Priorities for the future in science and technology
Dan Schwartz (Chemical Engineering)
Howard Frumkin (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences)

Week 3: Climate Change Attribution
Dale Durran (Atmospheric Sciences)
Kristie Ebi (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Global Health) 

Week 4:  Hurricane disasters and policy response
Shuyi Chen (Atmospheric Sciences) 
Nicole Errett (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences)

Week 5: Water, health and climate
Gordon Holtgrieve (Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences)
Karen Levy (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences)

Week 6: Working with communities
Esther Min (Environmental and Occupational Hygiene)
Meade Krosby (Climate Impacts Group)

Week 7: Climate Change, Wildfires and health impacts
Brian Harvey (Environmental and Forest Sciences)
Tania Busch Isaksen (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences)

Week 8: Heatwaves and Health
Nicholas Bond (Washington State Climatologist, Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies)
June Spector (Environmental and Occupational health Sciences)

Week 9: Nature and Health
Cory Morin (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, Global Health)
Josh Lawler (Environmental and Forest Sciences)

Week 10:  Food Security
David Battisti (Atmospheric Sciences)
Jennifer Otten (Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences)