Link to the University of Waterloo home page
2018-2019

The Undergraduate Calendar

 

 

Science Academic Plans

Earth and Environmental Sciences

Honours Environmental Science (Geoscience Specialization)

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.

Continuing 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:

21.25 units that include:

Notes

  1. SCI and EARTH courses may not be counted as program electives.
  2. A maximum of 1.5 SCI units may be counted as electives.

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 Physics 1
One elective (0.5 unit)
Winter

BIOL 165 Diversity of Life
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
SCCOM 100 Communication in the Sciences


Year Two


Fall
BIOL 240/BIOL 240L Fundamentals of Microbiology/Laboratory
EARTH 123 Introductory Hydrology
EARTH 223 Field Methods in Hydrology
EARTH 231 Mineralogy
EARTH 235 Stratigraphic Approaches to Understanding Earth's History
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)
One program elective (0.5 unit)
One elective (0.5 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 rogram 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)
One elective (0.5 unit)

 


Office of the Registrar
University of Waterloo
2nd Floor, Needles Hall
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3G1
519 888 4567