Course Description
Over the past 60 years, Alaska has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the United States. These ecological changes are affecting the health of Alaskans. These health impacts vary widely across the state and within communities due to differences in geography, the built environment, lifestyles of people, and many other environmental, social, and demographic factors.
In this course, we explore climate change and health, diving deep into the Alaskan context. We begin by learning about the most common climate and health frameworks and then spend several weeks discussing the health impacts of climate change. We also learn about the role of surveillance and monitoring in climate adaptation and discuss how public health practitioners are contributing to the field of climate change and health.
Students undertake a semester-long, service-learning project to develop a climate and health profile for our community partner. Through this community-engaged work, students practice various modes of science communication and develop skills in reviewing scientific literature, secondary data assessment, interviewing, mapping and data visualization, and summarizing multi-media scientific data for public consumption.
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Describe social, environmental, economic and political factors that influence population health in the context of climate change broadly, and in Alaska and Anchorage, more specifically
- Apply a systems-level, ecological perspective on the connections between human, animal, and environmental health is an important strategy to understand the health impacts of climate change
- Analyze quantitative data and interpret results to describe the epidemiology of climate-related health impacts in a community
- Distill complex scientific information into key messages and design infographics, case studies, websites, or other educational material as a method for science communication to different audiences
- Communicate public health content in writing, oral presentations, and multi-media formats
- Critically read, summarize and evaluate scientific research articles
- Utilize scientific, creative, and reflective writing to convey ideas
- Provide constructive and timely feedback to peers on their work
- Demonstrate and understanding of public health intervention strategies based on an assessment of the literature and community-specific environmental, social, economic, and health data
- Collaborate with a community partner to develop a relevant and practical public health deliverable related to climate change and health
Student Feedback
- Loved the class. If I am correct, this is Micah Hahn’s first class? If this is true or not it did not show. With a small class size, we were casual and professional at the same time. Really made the classroom setting enjoyable.
- When I came to this class there were only 3 others, but after the first class I told a friend about it and he joined. I’ve never had this small and personal of a class before and honestly it was one my favorite classes I took here at UAA. The professor had a great balance of when to be and not to be strict. The course was challenging, but I never felt overwhelmed, and I retained much of the information. I full support this course to be continued being offered here at UAA as it’s information is relevant and useful for students.
- I really enjoyed your teaching style and the amount of diversity in assignments. I appreciated that assignments built on each other without being redundant, and having so many guest speakers worked really well with what the class was and provided us with opportunities to connect with community members who are experts in their various fields. You are an excellent teacher and I hope this class continues to be offered!
- I found Dr. Hahn to be an exceptional teacher. One of the best professors I’ve had in my time at UAA. This class was more engaging and thought provoking than most other courses I’ve taken. The professor is clearly an expert in the field she knows so much! One of the few courses where I’ve enthusiastically wanted to show up. The coursework challenged me, but was always fair. Very stimulating lectures that were brilliantly taught. Lectures were well prepared and incredibly comprehensive. The material was presented in a clear and logical manner, and I loved that all course readings were posted at the beginning of the class. You could tell that the readings for the course were chosen with a lot of thought. Nothing felt haphazard or unplanned. The readings always made for stimulating discussion. The lectures on air pollution and vectorborne disease were two of my favorites from the class. What I most enjoyed about this course was the way this professor helped to hone in our individual projects for the course. The lectures and readings helped to narrow down the topic for the final project. All of the out of class assignments built up to the final project. By the time we had gotten to the final project, it didn’t feel like such a monumental task. Dr. Hahn was always willing to answer questions, and always motivated us to participate in class. I’m usually a very passive student, but in this class I mostly felt comfortable talking and explaining my perspective on various topics. Most importantly, Dr. Hahn has really inspired me to pursue this area of study further. I know I’m not the only one. Multiple classmates had mentioned that they were considering pursuing education/careers in public health (as opposed to medical fields, etc.) because of this course. If this course is taught again I’m going to tell everyone I know to take it.
- Thank you for always providing feedback on our assignments, I really appreciated and got a lot out of your class!