Course Code: ENV3740, Units: 3, This course is an introduction to understand climate change, its causes,consequences and the effects is having on natural populations of plants and animals across the planet, including humans. Mankind is facing several problems due to climate change, and these effects may likely increase ine near future. As temperatures keep increasing, producing major effects on all habitat types, how can animals and plants adapt to such rapid changes? And what are we as humans responsible for global warming are dealing with it? Can we actually answer these questions? Do we have the knowledge to reverse the ongoing conditions, and if so, what is being done worldwide? Finally how is the political weather? addressing the climate change? For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Environmental Sciences.

Course Code: ENV4030, Units: 3, This course will examine agricultural and food systems from an ecological systems perspective. After establishing a foundation of basic ecological concepts (relationships and interactions between abiotic/non-living and biotic/living components of an ecosystem), different applications of these concepts to agricultural systems will be investigated. Consumption and production issues related to food system sustainability will be analyzed, and students will explore their own role in the food system. Field trips will provide opportunities for direct observation of (and interaction with)different approaches to food production and distribution in Costa Rica. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Environmental Sciences.

Course Code: POLS3420, Units: 3, This course will explore the dynamics of environmental management, environmental histories, policy, politics and ACTION in the case study of Costa Rica and beyond. It will study environmental history and policy at a regional and national level; it will explore the emergence of Costa Rica's cutting edge environmental politics and governmental commitments (the greening of the public sector and carbon neutrality and others); it will look back at Costa Rica's conservation history and critically review its conservation and sustainable development model; it will present an understanding of the 'state of the nation and region' in regard to environmental indicators (land use methods and statistics, deforestation and reforestation data, contamination and waste indicators); it will identify the individuals and organisations working on taking authentic action in environmental protection; it will take a close look at how government policy translates into practice by reviewing cases studies of community and grassroots action in forestry, organic farming, recycling, cooperatives, and women's environmental groups; and lastly, it will address some of central issues and challenges facing these activities and the resultant environmental conflicts. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Government, History, Peace and Conflict, Political Science, Public Policy Studies, Sociology

Course Code: ENV4040, Units: 3, This course is an introduction to sustainable development and its basic concepts focused in the neotropics and Costa Rica. General topics about environmental,economic and social problems and actions are discussed. Costa Rica is well known for its conservation policies and it intends to apply sustainable development concepts, according to international agreements. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics, Ecology, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Environmental Sustainability, Social Ecology, Wildlife Biology.

Course Code: ENV2500, Units: 3, This course is an introduction to genetics, focused on its applications in current issues related to the diagnosis of human diseases, paternity, taxonomy, ecology, conservation, agronomy and environment. After understanding the general concepts about genetics, research projects performed in Costa Rica will be presented and discussed, in order to understand what kind of questions science can answer using genetics as a tool. Field trips and laboratory practices will be engaged in as an opportunity to study how samples are collected, processed and analyzed in a biological context. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Environmental Science, Genetics.

Course Code: ENV3020, Units: 3, The use of biological-molecular tools has revolutionized research in marine sciences in recent decades. These approaches offer extraordinary potential to address ecological issues in the marine environment, ranging from species identification to understanding of connectivity among populations. This course focuses on the use of molecular markers based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA to highlight the importance of conservation genetics and the implications on a global scale to manage marine species in danger of extinction. Activities and conferences will be carried out at the CPI Biomolecular Laboratory (BIOMOL). In addition, students will experience field activities to understand some controversial conservation issues related to the endangered trapezoidal marine species in Costa Rica, such as sea turtles and sharks, gathering Tissue samples and later performing hands-on activities in the laboratory such as DNA extractions, PCRs, electrophoresis, and introduction to bioinformatics analysis. This is a theoretical-practical course and it seeks to clarify the following question: How to apply molecular biology techniques in addressing problems regarding the conservation biology of endangered marine species in Costa Rica? For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Marine Biology, Molecular Biology.

Course Code: MGMT3020, Units: 3, This course provides an introduction to renewable energy resources and resource management, with anemphasis on the use of alternate energy sources such as solar, wind power, geothermal, and hydrogen. This course will consider society’s present needs and future energy demands, examine conventional energy sources and systems, including fossil fuels and then focus on alternate, renewable energy sources and how to manage them. We will cover the economic and social impact that both, conventional and renewable energy resources have on society. The students will have the opportunity to visit several projects related to hydrogen production’s plants, windmills and solar panels all national and multinational projects dedicated to the supply of energy. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Business, Business Management, Environmental Sustainability, Management Science.

Course Code: HIS3200, Units: 3, Sustainable consumption (SC) and production is a holistic approach to minimizing the negative environmental impacts from consumption and production systems while promoting quality of life for all. This course will help students acquire the knowledge, capacities and values to help them contribute to shaping a better tomorrow as more responsible consumers. It will trace the history and the justification for the focus on sustainable consumption. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Business, Environmental Studies, Ethics.

Course Code: ENV3044, Units: 3, This course will provide students with a general overview of tropical ecology. Students will gain insight about basic ecological concepts and be able to explore a variety of ecosystems, their animals and the multiple and complex ecological interactions that can be found in these areas. Costa Rica is a tropical country with an immensely rich biodiversity and for this reason a very representative area to these studies. Emphasis will be given to the study of the ecosystems found in Costa Rica, but others will be discussed as well. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Ecology, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Environmental Sustainability, Social Ecology.

Course Code: ENV3190, Units: 3, The oceans were formed between 4400 and 3500 million years ago, and they occupy about 71% of the Earth?s surface. Tropical seas hold the highest ecosystem and species diversity of the oceans. This course has been designed to introduce the basic concepts of oceanography, marine geology, marine ecology and marine biology, with emphasis on the interaction between species, between species and their environment and between ecosystems. It also provides information on the natural and human environmental impact, and the utility, management and conservation of the ecosystems. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Ecology, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Natural Sciences, Oceanography, Wildlife Biology, Zoology.

Course Code: HIS3293, Units: 3, Costa Rica´s health care system is unique due to the fact that it´s socialized and has achieved excellent health indicators. The course focuses on the history and development of the public health care system within the context of the Costa Rican sociopolitical and economical situation. It also gives a strong emphasis on how the system actually works and points out not only the strongholds of the systems, but also it´s weak points. A third objective, of fundamental importance in order to understand this system, is the study of Costa Rica as a tropical country. Students will learn about the prevention and transmission of relevant tropical diseases. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Environmental Sustainability, Health and Exercise Science, Health Science, Nutrition and Food Science.

Course Code: HHD1100, Units: 3, This course focuses on knowing and recognizing the basic biology, identification, classification, impact, and management, of insects that represent hazards to human health. To date, mosquitoes are the most dangerous animals around the world, with more deaths caused by mosquito-vectored diseases than from the attack of any wild animal. In the past several methods have been used to control the outbreaks of these insects, specially pesticide-based which in turn just aggravated the problem because of insecticide resistance. The tropics have been particularly affected by insects with human health impacts. For this reason, several private and public initiatives focus on developing ways to palliate these insects. This course will cover basic and applied aspects of Medical Entomology, with an especial focus on the ecological and socio-economic conditions of the tropics. This course will be based on field trips, talks, the study of multimedia, literature, visits and practical contact with people working on these subjects. Therefore, this course is aimed at any student with an interest in human health, biology, economics, sustainability, and anthropology. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Biology, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Global Health, Health Science.

Course Code: BIO100, Units: 3 + 1 for lab, Introductory course designed to provide a broad survey of biological principles and is primarily designed to provide meaningful and adequate exposure to biology for the non-science major. It will also help to prepare students for further study in the biological sciences. Because Ecuador is rich in biodiversity, it is an ideal place to survey biological principles. These principles will include the nature of science, discussion of origins, ecology, cell biology, genetics, zoology and human anatomy, as well as an overview of their effects on daily life. While there is no laboratory class required for this course, a hands-on lab component and field experience will be included. Subject Areas: Biology, Environmental Science

Course Code: INT100, Units: 2, An integrative cross-cultural experience designed to help the student understand and form his or her Christian worldview, cross-cultural engagement, and understanding of diverse social and cultural contexts. A 1-hour per week course requires the attendance of all students. The goal and emphasis of this course are to provide students with a set of tools to utilize in interacting with people in work, community, or educational settings. Community development interventions in this course are understood as activities to facilitate, strengthen, and improve less-advantaged communities, empower residents to define and participate in the development process, and interact in larger social, political, and economic systems on behalf of the community. As part of this course, all students complete a local internship. This course can be taken for one or three credits. Students may request to take the course for more units if needed but must receive approval from L&LI. Subject Areas: Community Development, Internships, Service-Learning

Course Code: DSCI350, Units: 3, The purpose of the course is to enable the students to use quantitative approaches in practical business decision-making. During the course, the students will learn how a modeling process may help them to structure decision situations, and to improve his/her decision-making skills. It is hoped that the students will be familiar with the basic concepts of Decision Analysis, Project Scheduling, and Linear Programming, and should be able to use a modeling approach to improve decision-making processes. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Business Management, Management Science.

Course Code: MATH210, Units: 3, This course is offered to the second year students with an overall picture of the scope and structure of business statistics. The objective of this course is to provide the students a practical understanding of some widely used statistical tools and methods and the ability to use this knowledge to prepare a quantitative study, process the gathered data and interpret its results. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Business, Statistics.

Course Code: MATH120, Units: 3, This course is the continuation of MA 110 (Pre Calculus). It is designed to illustrate the many applications of calculus to the management sciences. It will provide the students with the knowledge of tools that will be needed in Economics, Accounting, Marketing and Statistics. For a longer course description, click here. Subject Areas: Calculus.