This highly rated program gives students a broad perspective on the environment, including significant background in chemistry, earth and ocean sciences, life sciences, and social sciences. It concentrates on understanding the major environmental issues facing human societies and adopts an integrative cross-disciplinary approach to the study of these issues. Students are required to select a concentration, allowing employers to select students with backgrounds tailored to their project requirements.
Sample skill sets
- Understand the distinctions between data, experiment, theory and model
- Understand the distinctions between observation, interpretation, pattern and process
- Understand evolution and change through time
- Understand systems thinking and interconnectedness
- Be able to formulate multiple working hypotheses
- Understand equilibrium-, static- and steady states
- Understand Scale and scale dependence
- Understand material- and energy- budgets and cycles
- Have learned, at an advanced level, science relevant to an understanding of Earth Environments. This includes physical, chemical and biological measurements, statistical data analysis, hypothesis building and research project design and execution
- Are highly trained in one, or another specialized sub-area of environmental science, and be able to design and conduct projects in at least one of these areas
- Are capable of understanding scientific and technical reports, based on a wide range of quantitative and qualitative information related to environmental science
- Are able to draw reasonable conclusions from analysis of literature and data
- Are familiar with related topics such as environmental or natural resource economics, environmental law/policy, Green business, environmental education, environmental history, environmental literature
- Able to apply skills to the understanding of environmental questions at a local, provincial, national, or global level
- Able to describe work in written and oral forms to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Able to work collaboratively in teams made of diverse professionals
- Are familiar with strengths and limitations of the major technical tools used in environmental science