News reports, gas prices, and Al Gore have most of us thinking about our environment and many of us are even beginning to get excited about the prospect of finding and implementing methods to live sustainably.

Hearing statistics and seeing news reports on energy consumption and sustainability, accompanied by gas-pump-shock, are enough to make us toss the aluminum can or plastic bottle into the recycle bin, turn off the lights and unplug the chargers when we leave the house, and even brave public transportation.

But how much factual knowledge do we have about how and to what extent what we do on a daily basis affects the planet? Without this knowledge, will our excitement over "going green" outlast a decrease in energy bills and gas prices? Will the hybrid vehicle still be the "it" car if fuel prices return to affordable, or will be go back to our large SUVs and over-consumption of the planet's resources?

"A lot of students are a bit interested in "green" issues, but taking these biology classes gives them a better and more well-rounded reason for advocacy," said Biology Professor Steve James.

Through some lecture and lots of field work (day trips, overnight/week-long camping trips), instructors are teaching students the fundamentals of ecological processes as a basis for understanding environmental problems and formulating strategies for their solution. What our interactions with the environment mean for animals and plants are examined and discussed, creating an awareness that supports acting in an environmentally responsible manner.

According to James, students do not have to be the "outdoors type" to take and learn from these classes. Students enroll just to pick-up a few extra units and end up majoring in biology!

In addition to working within the biology department to educate students, Biology Professor Brian Gillespie is working with a district-wide committee to develop a new course on environmental sustainability.

The course will be an interdisciplinary, general education class that will teach principles of sustainability from scientific, economic, and social perspectives.

SCC's Biology Department is leading students through studies of our biological environment that will give them a basis of knowledge from which to support sustainability now and into the future.