Environmental Science

The environmental science program focuses on scientific approaches to solving environmental problems. Students can earn an environmental science minor that complements any major, or they can complete an environmental science major with a concentration in biology, chemistry, or geology.

About The Program

In the most basic terms, environmental science is the scientific study of the environment, particularly with regard to implications for humans. Environmental science therefore is broad in scope and interdisciplinary in nature. It draws on principles from throughout the sciences to understand and improve the ways that humans and the environment interact with one another. It uses systems thinking to help reduce complex natural phenomena into manageable subsets that can be studied and understood. It also incorporates ideas of sustainability as it considers the future of humans in the environment.

在过去的一个世纪里，我们改变环境的能力有了显著的提高，我们现在认识到，其中许多改变都有负面的后果。越来越多的科学家在努力提高我们对环境变化的原因、过程和后果的理解的同时，也在寻求环境问题的解决方案。“典型的”环境科学家专攻传统学科中的一门，如生物、化学、地质学、物理学或工程学。然而，他们通常对环境系统有广泛的科学理解，这超出了他们学科的范围，包括了解环境问题如何影响政治和经济，以及如何受到政治和经济的影响。环境科学家通常会与其他领域的专业人士组成团队，研究和解决环境问题。

At Hope College, programs in environmental science are administered within theDepartment of Geological and Environmental Sciences. Descriptions of the GES courses can be found under theGeologysection. Students with primary interests outside the sciences should compare the environmental science programs listed here with theEnvironmental Studies Minor, which has a greater focus on humanities and social science aspects of environmental issues.

Majors

The Environmental Science major equips students to take a rigorous scientific approach when developing and evaluating effective solutions to environmental problems. It does this by combining four elements:

• a foundation in an environmentally-focused science discipline (biology, chemistry, or geology)
• broader interdisciplinary experiences and systems concepts that enable students to work and communicate across disciplines
• an understanding of political, economic, and regulatory aspects of environmental decision-making
• an outlook informed by tenets of sustainability.

The Environmental Science major supplies students with background knowledge, skills, and intellectual tools that are fundamental to addressing complex and multifaceted environmental problems. Solutions to these problems, however, demand both breadth and depth of knowledge, so students planning a profession in environmental science are strongly encouraged to take courses in one or more science disciplines beyond those required for an Environmental Science major, as well as to choose environmentally-related courses throughout the curriculum.

Students completing the environmental science major choose from one of three concentrations: biology, chemistry, or geology. Students with interests in computer science, engineering, physics, or other fields in which there is not a designated concentration are strongly encouraged to combine a major in their field of interest with the environmental science minor. All environmental science major degrees are awarded as Bachelor of Science degrees.

Programs

• Environmental Science, Biology Concentration, B.S.
• Environmental Science, Chemistry Concentration, B.S.
• Environmental Science, Geology Concentration, B.S.

• Environmental Science Minor