Department of Biological Sciences

Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science

The Baccalaureate Degree in Environmental Science provides excellent preparation for careers in federal, state, and local government, public utilities, and nonprofit sectors and industries. Additionally, this program will prepare students for graduate study in a variety of related fields such as ecology, and environmental science. Students completing this degree will gain practical skills in animal and plant taxonomy and geographic information systems, as well as, chemical and biological assessment of water resources. They will apply their skills in advanced courses in environmental assessment including studies of federal and state policies and regulations.

Students majoring in environmental science are required to complete sixty-one semester hours in core environmental science curriculum, two additional math courses (Group A: 6-7 semester hours), an additional physical science course with a lab (Group B: 4-5 semester hours), an additional physical science without a lab (Group C: 3 semester hours), two classes from GIS or research choices (Group D: 7-8 semester hours), two classes from life science choices (Group E: 7-8 semester hours), a capstone field biology course (Group F: 4 semester hours), and two courses in social or anthropogenic choices (Group G: 6 hours). Students have the option of tailoring the remaining semester hours to best meet their future education or career goals and meet the 120 total semester hour and 40 upper division institutional requirements.     

Curriculum

The matrix below is a sample plan for all coursework required for this program.

•  Freshman

  Fall		Spring
  ENGL 1013 Composition I1	3	ENGL 1023 Composition II1	3
  MATH 1113 College Algebra	3	SOC 1003 Introduction to Sociology	3
  BIOL/ENVS/PHSC 1004 Principles of Environmental Science	4	U.S. History/Government1	3
  BIOL 1011 Orientation to the Biological Sciences	1	BIOL 1114 Principles of Biology	4
  GEOL1014 Physical Geology	4	MATH 2163 Introduction to Statistical Methods or SOC/PSY 2053 Statistics for Behavioral Sciences	3
  Total Hours	15	Total Hours	16

•  Sophomore

  Fall		Spring
  Fine Arts & Humanities1	3	Fine Arts & Humanities1	3
  ECON 2003 Principles of Economics I	3	COMM 2003 Public Speaking	3
  CHEM 2124 General Chemistry I	4	CHEM 2134 General Chemistry II	4
  BIOL 2124 Principles of Zoology	4	BIOL 2134 Principles of Botany	4
  Total Hours	14	Total Hours	14

•  Junior

  Fall		Spring
  BIOL/FW 3114 Principles of Ecology	4	BIOL/CHEM/ENVS/GEOL 3111 Environmental Seminar	1
  BIOL/ENVS 3043 Conservation	3	CHEM 3264 Mechanistic Organic Chemistry	4
  CHEM 3254 Fundamentals of Organic Chemistry	4	PHYS 2014 Physical Principles I	4
  FW 3173 Biostatistics or MATH 2914 Calculus I	3-4	Life Science2	4
  		Physical Science Elective without Lab3 or GIS and Research4,8	3
  Total Hours	14-15	Total Hours	16

•  Senior

  Fall		Spring
  Life Science2	3-4	ENVS 4133 Environmental Policy	3
  Human Dimensions7,8	3	Human Dimensions7,8	3
  Physical Science Elective with Lab5,8 or Field Biology6	4-5	Field Biology6 or Physical Science Elective with Lab5,8	4
  Physical Science Elective without Lab3 or GIS Research4,8	3-4	GIS and Research4,8	4
  Elective8	0-4	Elective8	0-4
  Total Hours	13-16	Total Hours	14-18

¹See appropriate alternatives or substitutions in "General Education Requirements". 
²Take two Life Science Elective courses from the following: BIOL 3004: Plant Taxonomy, BIOL 3034: Genetics, BIOL 3054: Microbiology, BIOL 3064: Parasitology, BIOL/FW 3084: Ichthyology, BIOL/AGPM 3104: Introduction to Entomology,BIOL 3134: Invertebrate Zoology, BIOL/FW 3144: Ornithology, BIOL 3174: Physiological Ecology, BIOL/FW 3224: Herpetology, BIOL 4064: Evolutionary Biology, BIOL/FW 4163: Biodiversity and Conservation Biology..
³Take one Physical Science without Laboratory Elective course from the following: BIOL/CHEM 3353: Fundamentals of Toxicology, CHEM 3313: Environmental Chemistry, GEOL 3083: Hydrogeology, GEOL 3153: Environmental Geology, PHSC 3033: Meteorology.
⁴Take two GIS and Research courses from the following: ENVS 4114: Environmental Science Internship, ENVS 4884: Advanced Topics in Environmental Science, ENVS 4954: Undergraduate Research in Environmental Science, FW/GEOG 2833: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, FW 3074: Habitat Evaluation, FW 4034: Geographic Information Systems in Natural Resources.
⁵Take one Physical Science with Laboratory Elective course from the following: CHEM 3245: Quantitative Analysis, CHEM 4414: Instrumental Analysis, PHYS 2024: Physical Principles II.
⁶Take one Field Biology course from the following: BIOL/FW 4024: Limnology, BIOL 4094: Coastal Ecology, ENVS 4124: Biological Assessment of Water Quality, FW 4014: Forest Ecology and Management, FW 4064: Wetland Ecology Management.
⁷Take two Human Dimension courses from the following: ANTH 2003: Cultural Anthropology, ANTH 2103: Ozark-Ouachita Studies, ANTH 2303: Globalization, SOC 3033: Environment and Society, SOC 3113: Social Movements and Social Change, or FW 4103: Human Dimensions of Fisheries and Wildlife Management.
⁸At least 40 upper level hours are required for the 120 hours degree.