Program Overview

Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Major (BS, HBS)

The Environmental Sciences undergraduate degree provides a rigorous education that can lead to helping to understand and resolve some of today's most challenging scientific and policy issues—including global climate change, pollution, biodiversity conservation, sustainability, and balancing resource use and preservation. To help reach these objectives, the Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences offers an interdisciplinary approach to environmental problem solving.

Program Overview

As an Environmental Sciences major, a student completes course work in four general areas:

1. OSU's general education courses (Core Education)
2. Basic science and math
3. Environmental sciences and humanities core
4. A specialization area

In addition, each student completes a minimum of 3 credits of experiential learning as an internship, research, study abroad, or field course. The BS degree in Environmental Sciences provides excellent training for a variety of careers—including work with federal, state, and local agencies, industry, non-profits, and education—or for graduate school. Students can pursue the BS degree at the Corvallis campus, online through Ecampus, and at the OSU-Cascades campus.

Specialization Areas

The program offers several specialization areas, including:

• Alternative Energy
• Applied Ecology
• Aquatic Biology
• Chemistry and the Environment
• Conservation, Resources, and Sustainability
• Earth Systems
• Environmental Agriculture
• Environmental Policy and Economics
• Environmental Water Resources

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the program, students will meet the following learning outcomes:

• Demonstrate a rigorous cross-disciplinary base across the biological, physical, and social sciences.
• Articulate connections between multiple components of human and natural systems, including implications for land, air, water, climate, energy, food, biodiversity, and human health.
• Investigate and diagnose interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder environmental issues to propose solutions.
• Apply the analysis of data to an environmental problem.
• Reflect on how identity, including one's own, affects the perception of issues and the practice of environmental science.
• Communicate effectively with diverse audiences in writing, speech, and in graphic forms.

Double-Counting Policy

The program has a double-counting policy that applies to courses in Basic Science and Math, Environmental Sciences and Humanities Core, and specialization areas. The policy is as follows:

1. Courses in Basic Science and Math and the Environmental Sciences and Humanities Core cannot double-count with courses in the specialization.
2. Courses used to fulfill requirements in a specialization cannot double count with another specialization.
3. Courses taken in the Natural Environmental Systems categories (Atmosphere, Biosphere, Geosphere, Hydrosphere) can double-count towards other majors/minors/certificates.
4. Courses taken in the Humans and the Environment categories (Environmental Economics and Policy, Human Environment, and Environmental Management) cannot double-count towards other majors/minors/certificates.
5. Up to 13 credits of coursework can be double-counted between the specialization and additional minors or certificates. This means that each specialization must have at least 14 unique credits not counted towards other majors/minors/certificates.

Course List

The program requires a range of courses, including:

Basic Science and Math

• Biology: Select one of the following biology series
  • BI 221Z, BI 222Z, BI 223Z: Principles of Biology
  • BI 204, BI 205, BI 206: Introductory Biology
• Chemistry: Select one of the following chemistry series
  • CH 121, CH 122, CH 123: General Chemistry
  • CH 221Z, CH 227Z, CH 222Z, CH 228Z, CH 223Z, CH 229Z: General Chemistry with laboratory
• Math: Select one of the following pairs
  • MTH 251Z, MTH 252Z: Differential Calculus and Integral Calculus
  • MTH 227, MTH 228: Calculus and Probability for the Life Sciences
• Statistics: ST 351, ST 352: Introduction to Statistical Methods

Applied Quantitative Skills

• Select any two courses from the following
  • Physics: PH 201, PH 211, PH 202, PH 212
  • Earth and Environmental Data Analysis: ATS 301, ATS 302, ENSC 301, GEO 301, OC 301
  • GIS: GEOG 360, GEOG 361
  • Data Science, Programming, and Statistics: BDS 310, CS 201, ST 436, ST 439

Environmental Sciences and Humanities Core

• ENSC 101: Environmental Sciences Orientation
• ENSC 221: Environmental Field Studies
• ENSC 321: Environmental Case Studies

Natural Environmental Systems

• Select one Atmosphere course
  • ATS 201: Climate Science
  • ATS 310: Meteorology
  • GEOG 323: Climatology
• Select one Biosphere course
  • BI 370: Ecology
  • ENSC 341: Tropical Ecology and Conservation
  • GEOG 324: Ecological Biogeography
• Select one Geosphere course
  • CSS 205: Soil Science
  • ENSC 210: Environmental Earth Sciences
  • GEO 201: Physical Geology
  • GEO 202: Earth Systems Science
• Select one Hydrosphere course
  • FW 456: Freshwater Ecology and Conservation
  • GEO 387: Environmental Hydrogeology
  • GEO 487: Hydrogeology
  • GEOG 242: Urban Aqua Networks
  • GEOG 340: Introduction to Water Science and Policy

Humans and the Environment

• Select one Environmental Economics and Policy course
  • AEC 122: Introduction to Climate Change Economics and Policy
  • AEC 250: Introduction to Environmental Economics and Policy
  • AEC 253: Environmental Law, Policy, and Economics
• Select one Difference, Power, and Oppression Advanced course
  • AG 311: Indigenous Agriculture and Subsistence
  • BA 398: Sustainable Capitalism
  • BI 346: Ocean Justice
• Select one Human Environment course
  • AG 201: Indigenous Ecosystem Sciences
  • ANTH 481: Natural Resources and Community Values
  • BI 347: Oceans in Peril
• Select one Environmental Management course
  • BOT 413: Forest Pathology
  • ENT 331: Pollinators in Peril
  • FES 350: Urban Forestry

Experiential Learning

• Select 3 credits from the following
  • ENSC 403: Thesis
  • OEAS 497: Research in Earth and Environmental Sciences
  • OEAS 498: Internship in Earth and Environmental Sciences

Specialization Area

• Complete an approved certificate, option, minor, or other course cluster

Total Credits

• The program requires a total of 180 credits.