MS Degree in Environmental Planning and Management degree: Recently approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, this new part-time option began this spring. It complements two existing MS degree programs offered in Part-time Programs in Engineering and Applied Science (PTE): an MS in Environmental Engineering and an MS in Environmental Engineering and Science.
Graduate Certificate Program in Homeland Security Systems: This new PTE program responds to the nation’s need to provide advanced engineering and systems-level education for individuals who will plan and implement solutions to current and future homeland security needs and threats. Students will be able to maintain currency in homeland defense options as well as learn to engineer technologies and develop programs to oversee and manage national security activities.
The graduate certificate’s new courses are offered through various PTE programs, including Systems Engineering, Applied Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Information Systems and Technology.
For more information on PTE programs, visit ptesrv.apl.jhu.edu , e-mail [email protected] , or call (800) 548-3647 or (301) 294-7070.
Virtual Field Trips: PTE’s graduate students enrolled in online courses are taking part in environmental and ecological field trips without having to commute or rearrange their schedules.
Last fall, Zohreh V. Movahed, who teaches the distance-learning course Principles of Water and Wastewater Treatment, asked her students from around the world to tour their region’s water treatment plants and then share their pictures and findings on web pages provided through the Whiting School’s new virtual collaboration environment. Movahed is principal environmental engineer in a section of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.
This spring, students in the Ecology course taught by William Hilgartner ’92 MA, ’95 PhD tapped into the same virtual environment to follow him—from their computers— along the trails of Soldiers Delight Natural Environment Area. This 1,900-acre serpentine barren in Maryland’s western Baltimore County is home to 39 rare, endangered or threatened plant species.
“Most people think of distance learning as incompatible with field trips,” says Brenda Knox, senior information technology specialist. “By adding an interactive, virtual element to distance learning, we can change this perception and expose students to more examples and a more complex understanding of course topics.”
For more information on the virtual field trips, contact Brenda Knox at (410) 516-4768. Viewing details the instructor circled on digital images was just one of the ways Part-time Engineering students learned about ecology during a virtual tour of Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area in Maryland’s Baltimore County. William Hilgartner ’92 MA, ’96 PhD used synchronous conferencing software to discuss with his class what they were seeing. This stop on his virtual tour introduced students to Indian grass, a common species at Soldiers Delight.