Major and Minor InformationChoose from the following five worksheets.
Helpful information when completing worksheets can be found at the links below. |
Lindsay Wahl '11 prepares a buffer for agarose gel electrophoresis. |
If you need help getting started, stop by and see Kim Wind, Program Administrator, in 113 Steele Hall.
If you already have your cards and worksheet completed or would like to meet with an advisor, please email one of the professors below to make an appointment. Please write "Advising Appointment Needed" in the subject line.
The Major in Environmental Studies requires introductory courses, core courses, elective focus courses, and the culminating experience course. (see ENVS major worksheet above). We believe the interdisciplinary nature of Environmental Studies requires this number of courses to ensure students gain fundamental skills in the areas of environmental science and studies before they move into elective focus courses.
The prerequisites ensure that students have an introduction to a physical science lab science, an understanding of the economic system (since all environmental problems include economic considerations) and calculus so students will have basic quantitative skills used in more advanced environmental studies courses.
The core courses cover a body of knowledge considered fundamental to understanding the relationships between people and their environment, namely, global environmental science, environmental decision making and risk, environmental ethics and the legal system, and political institutions and their role in environmental issues. This core of intermediate level courses provides a unifying set of concepts and principles related to the analysis of complex environmental issues.
The elective focus courses give each student the opportunity to develop an area of emphasis around a theme of their choosing. These courses must be approved as part of the Student Major Plan which must include the rationale for the elective courses.
The culminating experience in the major is fulfilled by ENVS 50, 84 or 91.
Students work together in groups to formulate and justify policy measures that they think would be appropriate to deal with a local environmental problem. The purposes of this culminating course are to (1) give students an opportunity to see how the disciplinary knowledge acquired in their various courses and departmental major programs can be integrated in a synthetic manner; (2) provide a forum for an in-depth evaluation of a significant environmental policy problem; and (3) give students the experience of working as a project team toward the solution of a real-world problem. Considerable fieldwork may be involved, and the final examination consists of a public presentation and defense of the student-generated policy recommendations. To satisfy the culminating experience we will restrict the course to juniors and seniors and we will require each student to produce an individual written report on their contribution to the combined group report so we can more directly assess individual achievement.
Students on the Africa Foreign Study Program, working in small sub-groups, will undertake multidisciplinary studies of specific regional environmental issues in southern Africa.
A candidate for the Honors Program must satisfy the minimum College GPA Requirement and complete ENVS 91, or a similar research course approved by the Chair. ENVS 91 may be taken two times but may only once count toward the major. See Internships and Grants.
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Whitney Coombs (09) presents her (ENVS honors) research at the 10th SCAR Biology Symposium in Sapporo Japan. She received a Stefansson Fellowship from the Dickey Center's Institute for Arctic Studies to attend this meeting. |
In some cases, an Independent Study may fulfill the culminating experience if the ENVS 90 is done in the senior year and approval for this substitution is obtained prior to beginning the independent study.
