ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS & SOCIETIES (Standard Level)
This course is designed to combine the methodology, techniques and knowledge associated with group 4 (sciences) with those associated with group 3 (individuals and societies). As an interdisciplinary course, students can study ESS and have it count as either a group 3 or a group 4 subject, or as both. If students choose the latter option, this leaves the opportunity to study an additional subject from any other group, including an additional group 3 or group 4 subject.
Course objectives
The aims of the ESS course are to enable students to:
- acquire the knowledge and understandings of environmental systems at a variety of scales
- apply the knowledge, methodologies and skills to analyse environmental systems and issues at a variety of scales
- appreciate the dynamic interconnectedness between environmental systems and societies
- value the combination of personal, local and global perspectives in making informed decisions and taking responsible actions on environmental issues
- be critically aware that resources are finite, and that these could be inequitably distributed and exploited, and that management of these inequities is the key to sustainability
- develop awareness of the diversity of environmental value systems
- develop critical awareness that environmental problems are caused and solved by decisions made by individuals and societies that are based on different areas of knowledge
- engage with the controversies that surround a variety of environmental issues
- create innovative solutions to environmental issues by engaging actively in local and global contexts