Advisors: See Faculty of Science, academic advisors.
This program provides a basic quantitative background in science and mathematics, while offering students greater opportunity to select courses in a wide range of environment-related subject areas, such as chemistry, ecology, microbiology, geography, and hydrogeology. Students will acquire the knowledge base required to assess the environmental impact of surface and subsurface contamination from industry, urbanization, agriculture, and mining. Graduates will be prepared for employment in any area dealing with environmental issues and legislation, particularly in government and the environmental consulting industry.
Continuation in Honours Environmental Sciences, Geoscience Specialization, requires a cumulative overall average of 60% and a cumulative average of 60% in all EARTH courses.
Successful completion of this program requires:
- 21.75 units that include:
- 7.75 EARTH units: EARTH 121, EARTH 121L, EARTH 122, EARTH 122L, EARTH 123, EARTH 123L, EARTH 221, EARTH 231, EARTH 232, EARTH 235, EARTH 238, EARTH 333, EARTH 342, EARTH 358, EARTH 390, EARTH 440 and EARTH 444
- 1.0 EARTH unit: EARTH 436A and EARTH 436B or EARTH 499 and one EARTH elective at 300-level or higher
- 2.0 EARTH electives with the following conditions:
- 1.5 unit must be 300-level or higher
- 0.5 unit must be 200-level or higher
- 1.75 BIOL units: BIOL 120, BIOL 150, BIOL 240 and BIOL 240L
- 1.5 CHEM units: CHEM 120, CHEM 120L, CHEM 123, and CHEM 123L
- 0.75 PHYS units: PHYS 111 and PHYS 111L
- 0.5 MATH unit: MATH 127
- 0.5 STAT unit: STAT 202
- 0.5 ERS unit: ERS 215
- 2.5 Program elective units chosen from any 200-level or higher BIOL, CHEM, PHYS, MATH, AMATH course or chosen from BIOL 130, CS 115, or CS 116
- 0.5 Program elective unit chosen from the Faculty of Arts
- 2.5 elective units chosen from any 0.5 unit lecture course
- Completion of the English Language Proficiency Requirement
Notes
- The Faculty of Arts Program elective should be taken in Year Three.
- The Faculty of Arts Program elective is recommended to be a course in oral or written communication (e.g. SPCOM 223, ENGL 109, ENGL 129R, ENGL 140R, ENGL 209, ENGL 210E, ENGL 210F or PHIL 145).
- SCI and EARTH courses may not be counted as Program elective options.
- A maximum of 1.5 SCI units may be counted as elective courses.
Recommended Course Sequence
Year One
Fall
BIOL 150 Organismal and Evolutionary Ecology
CHEM 120/CHEM 120L Physical and Chemical Properties of Matter/Laboratory
EARTH 121/EARTH 121L Introductory Earth Sciences/Laboratory
PHYS 111/PHYS 111L Physics 1/Laboratory
One elective (0.5 unit)
Winter
BIOL 120 Introduction to Plant Structure and Function
CHEM 123/CHEM 123L Chemical Reactions, Equilibria and Kinetics/Laboratory
EARTH 122/EARTH 122L Introductory Environmental Sciences/Laboratory
MATH 127 Calculus 1 for the Sciences
Year Two
Fall
BIOL 240/BIOL 240L Fundamentals of Microbiology/Laboratory
EARTH 123/EARTH 123L Introductory Hydrology/Field Methods in Hydrology
EARTH 231 Mineralogy
EARTH 235 Stratigraphic Approaches to Understanding Earth's History
One elective (0.5 unit)
Winter
EARTH 221 Geochemistry 1
EARTH 232 Petrography
EARTH 238 Introductory Structural Geology
ERS 215 Environmental and Sustainability Assessment I
One EARTH elective 200-level or higher (0.5 unit)
Year Three
Fall
EARTH 342 Applied Geomorphology
STAT 202 Introductory Statistics for Scientists
One EARTH elective 300-level or higher (0.5 unit)
Two Program electives (1.0 unit)
Winter
EARTH 333 Introductory Sedimentology
EARTH 358 Earth System Science
EARTH 390 Methods in Geological Mapping
One EARTH elective 300-level or higher (0.5 unit)
Two Program electives (1.0 unit)
Year Four
Fall
EARTH 436A Honours Thesis
or EARTH 499 Research Project
EARTH 440 Quaternary Geology
EARTH 444 Applied Wetland Science
One Program elective (0.5 unit)
One elective (0.5 unit)
Winter
EARTH 436B Honours Thesis
or One EARTH electived 300-level or higher
One EARTH elective 300-level or higher (0.5 unit)
One Program elective (0.5 unit)
Two electives (1.0 unit)