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Dynamic Environments

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 4
  • Convenor: Prof Becky Briant
  • Assessment: two 500-word data analysis exercises (each 30%) and a fieldwork task (creating a virtual field trip) plus 1000-word commentary (40%) 

Module description

In this module, you will learn about the dynamic environments in which human societies have developed. You will discover the past development of the environment over geological and more recent time and then explore different present-day environments in which human societies have developed week by week, including the following topics: 

  • Foundations of the dynamic earth, e.g. tectonics, sediments, oceans
  • Climate changes past and present
  • Movements of sediment and water across the earth’s surface, e.g. slopes, landslides, rivers, wind/drylands, ice/glaciers
  • Ecosystems and the biosphere
  • Coastal environments: physical and biological processes

You will learn through lectures, practical exercises, group discussions, use of immersive learning techniques and fieldwork. We will train you to collect data, analyse datasets and communicate your understanding visually, by creating your own virtual field trip. 

Field and laboratory experience 

The module includes a two-day residential field trip, currently on the North Norfolk coast, with a strong focus on environmental data collection, interpretation and communication. There will also be practical sessions in Birkbeck’s Immersive Learning Centre.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

  • explain key processes operating in different physical and biological environments
  • discuss global, regional and local changes over long timescales and understand the role of humans as agents of environmental change 
  • demonstrate some of the field techniques used by geographers to study and monitor geomorphology, ecology and environmental change.

Skills development 

  • Report writing 
  • Data analysis of environmental datasets: graphs, elementary statistics and data interpretation
  • Safe execution of field analyses
  • Creation of a virtual field trip