Degree Requirements

Minimum degree requirement is 120 s.h. of credit as follows:

1. General Education curriculum requirements (See Section 4, Foundations Curriculum Requirements for all Baccalaureate

  • English 1100, 2201 (FC:EN) – 6 s.h.
  • Health and Exercise and Sport Science (FC:HL) (FC:EX) (Select at least one course in each area) – 3 s.h.
  • Humanities and Fine Arts (FC:HU) (FC:FA) (Select at least one course in the humanities and one course in fine arts) – 9 s.h.
  • Mathematics (FC:MA) – 3 s.h.
  • Science (FC:SC) (At least one course must require laboratory work.) – 7 s.h.
  • Social Sciences (FC:SO) – 9 s.h.

2. Major in Multidisciplinary Studies with a Concentration in Environmental Studies— 42 s.h.

a. Research and Seminar Courses — 6 s.h.

All research and seminar courses require a faculty mentor and approval of the program director. Choose a minimum of 6 s.h. from the following courses:

      • ANTH 4503 Independent Study
      • ANTH 4550 Anthropology Honors
      • ANTH 4551 Anthropology Honors
      • ANTH 4990 Internship in Applied Anthropology
      • BIOL 3550 Research in Biology with Writing
      • BIOL 4991 Internship
      • BIOL 4995 Biology Honors Thesis
      • GEOG 4803 Geographic Internship
      • GEOL 4550 Honors Thesis
      • GEOL 4551 Honors Thesis
      • GEOL 4601 Directed Studies in Geology
      • GRBK 4999 Thesis in the Great Books
      • ICS 3050 Independent Study in Coastal Studies
      • ICS 4050 Internship in Coastal Studies

b. Approved courses in the environmental sciences structured concentration — 36 s.h.

    Natural Science courses — 6 s.h. Choose two courses with different prefixes from the following:

        • ATMO 1300 Weather and Climate
        • ATMO 2510 Physical Meteorology and Thermodynamics
        • BIOL 1010 Biodiversity of Coastal North Carolina
        • BIOL 1060 Environmental Biology
        • BIOL 1061 Environmental Biology Laboratory
        • BIOL 1200 Principles of Biology II
        • BIOL 1201 Principles of Biology Laboratory II
        • BIOL 2250 Ecology
        • BIOL 2251 Ecology Laboratory
        • CHEM 1160 General Chemistry II
        • CHEM 1161 General Chemistry Laboratory II
        • EHST 2110 Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences
        • GEOG 1250 Water in the Environment
        • GEOG 1251 Water in the Environment Laboratory
        • GEOG 2250 Earth Surface Systems
        • GEOL 1400 Bays and Beaches Around the World: Geological Form and Function
        • GEOL 1500 Dynamic Earth
        • GEOL 1501 Dynamic Earth Laboratory
        • GEOL 1550 Oceanography
        • GEOL 1551 Oceanography Laboratory
        • GEOL 1600 Earth and Life Through Time
        • GEOL 1700 Environmental Geology
        • GEOL 2300 Current Topics in Geoscience

    Social Science & Humanities courses —6 s.h. Choose two courses with different prefixes from the following:

        • ANTH 2005 Environmental Anthropology
        • ECON 2113 Principles of Microeconomics
        • ENGL 2490 Introduction to Environmental Humanities
        • GEOG 1000 People, Places, and Environments
        • GEOG 2300 Environment and Society
        • GEOG 2350 Climate Change: Science and Society
        • PHIL 2276 Environmental Ethics
        • PLAN 1900 Sustainable Cities
        • RELI 2345 Religion and the Environment
        • SOCI 2110 Introduction to Sociology

    Methods or techniques course — 3 s.h. Choose one course from the following:

        • AAAS 2500 Theory and Methods in African and African American Studies
        • ANTH 3050 Ethnographic Field Methods
        • BIOS 1500 Introduction to Biostatistics
        • EHST 3003 Environmental Epidemiology
        • ENGL 4000 Introduction to Literary Theory
        • GEOG 2400 Spatial Data Analysis
        • GEOG 2410 Fundamentals of GIS
        • GEOG 4140 Research Methods in Human Geography
        • GEOL 2000 Quantitative Methods in the Geological Sciences
        • GEOL 2600 Analysis Techniques and Methods of Coastal Ocean Research
        • GEOL 3200 Introduction to Field Methods
        • GEOL 3201 Introduction to Field Methods Laboratory
        • MATH 2228 Elementary Statistical Methods I
        • PLAN 3021 Introduction to Planning Techniques
        • POLS 3031 Research Design for Political Science
        • SOCI 3213 Methods of Research
        • SOCI 3215 Introduction to Qualitative Sociology

    Focus Area — 21 s.h. Select one primary area of focus (12 s.h.) and one secondary area of focus (9 s.h.) from the following:

    Earth and Environment:

      • ATMO 3230 – Global Climates
      • ATMO 4530 – Micrometeorology
      • ATMO 4510 – Meteorological Instruments and Observations
      • ATMO 4540 – Coastal Storms
      • BIOL 3230/3211 – Field Botany
      • BIOL 3660/3661 – Marine Biology
      • BIOL 3760 – Conservation Biology
      • BIOL 4200/4201 – Population and Community Ecology (WI)
      • BIOL 4250 – Biological Oceanography
      • BIOL 4300/4301 – Ecosystem ecology (WI)
      • BIOL 4320 – Ecological responses to global climate change
      • BIOL 4440/4441 – Wetland ecology and management
      • BIOL 4560 – Microbial Ecology
      • BIOL 4770/4771 – Ornithology
      • BIOL 5220/5221 – Limnology
      • BIOL 5270 – Marine Community Ecology
      • BIOL 5550 – Ichthyology
      • EHST 2110 – Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences
      • EHST 3003 – Environmental Epidemiology
      • GEOG 3420 – Remote Sensing of the Environment I
      • GEOG 3430 – Geographic Information Systems I
      • GEOG 3450 – Introduction to the Global Positioning System
      • GEOG 3460 – GIS Applications Programming
      • GEOG 4210 – Fluvial and Hydrological Processes
      • GEOG 4440 – Coastal Applications of GIS
      • GEOG 4460 – Digital Terrain Analysis
      • GEOL 3209/3210 – Environmental Forensics and Laboratory
      • GEOL 3250/3251 – Introduction to Geomorphology and Laboratory
      • GEOL 3800 – Earth’s Climate: A Geological Perspective
      • GEOL 3050/3051 – Mineralogy and Petrology I and Lab
      • GEOL 3500 – Hydrogeology and the Environment
      • GEOL 5150 – The Geologic Component of Environmental Science
      • GEOL 5710/5711 – Ground Water Hydrology and Laboratory
      • GEOL 5450/5451 – Introduction to Aqueous Geochemistry and Laboratory

    Environment and Society:

      • ANTH 3011 – Hunter-gatherer Lifeways
      • ANTH 3012 – Pastoral Nomads Lifeways
      • ANTH 3028 – Human Adaptation and Variation
      • ECON 3855 – Environmental Economics
      • ECON 4850 Resource Economics
      • ENGL 3660 – Literature and Film of Environmental Crisis
      • ENGL 4370 – Literature and Environment
      • GEOG 3010 – Social Justice and Sustainability (WI)
      • GEOG 4270 – Water Resources Management and Planning
      • GEOG 4320 – Gender, Environment, and Development (WI)
      • GEOG 4340 – GIS for Health Studies
      • GEOG 4360 – Geographies of Global Climate and Environmental Change
      • GRBK 3001 – Great Books of Modern Science
      • PLAN 3020 – Environmental Planning
      • PLAN 4015 – Emergency Management Planning
      • PLAN 4055 – Coastal Area Planning and Management
      • PLAN 4305 – Ecological Landscape Planning
      • SOCI 3010 – Environmental Sociology

    3. Minor or approved structured electives – 18 s.h.

    A minimum of 24 s. h. from sections 2 and 3 must be above 2999.

    4. Electives to complete requirements for graduation.