Why Major in Environmental Science?

Located on the edge of the Berkshire Mountains, Westfield State offers an exceptional opportunity to learn environmental science through hands-on field work. 

What makes us great

• Students enter the major and develop as a cohort, so you become very connected to your classmates
• We have highly credentialed faculty, including an expert wildlife biologist and president of the wildlife society, ecological restoration professional, researcher studying tropical forest restoration, dam removal expert, and more
• Our Natural History and Field Techniques course is taught almost entirely outside
• Our students are passionate about the environment
• Science-based major offering many more science classes than similar programs
• Students are encouraged to conduct research and present their findings at local, regional and national conferences
• The Massachusetts Department of Ecological Restoration is located on campus and many student work with them on projects

Requirements for the Environmental Science Degree

Required Environmental Science Courses (26-28 credits)

• choose one
• ENVS 0101 - Principles of Environmental Science
• or *
• BIOL 0102 - Environmental Biology *
• ENVS 0105 - Natural History and Field Techniques
• ENVS 0180 - Introductory Environmental Science Seminar
• MATH 0123 - Mathematical Methods in the Natural Sciences *
•  choose one
• ENVS 0225 - Natural Resource Conservation and Management
• or
• ENVS 0341 - Ecological Restoration
• or
• BIOL 0202 - Conservation Biology
•  choose one
• BIOL 0233 - Environmental Legislation
• or
• GPS 0225 - Legal Issues in Zoning and Planning
•  choose one
• ENVS 0330 - Environmental Data Analysis
• or
• GPS 0246 - Quantitative Methods for Social and Physical Science *
•  choose one
• ENVS 0240 - Writing for Environmental Science
• or
• ENGL 0392 - Business and Technical Writing

Required Fundamental Lab Science Classes (15-16 credits)

• BIOL 0128 - General Biology II *
• CHEM 0109 - General Chemistry I *
• choose one
• CHEM 0111 - General Chemistry II *
• or
• ENVS 0210 - Environmental Chemistry, Toxicology and Pollution
• choose one
• GPS 0102 - Physical Geography *
• or
• GEOL 0101 - Physical Geology with Laboratory *

Areas of Study - Dimensions

12-16 credits, by advisement; must choose one from each of the three dimensions, plus one additional course from any of the three areas.

Natural Dimensions

 

• ENVS 0225 - Natural Resource Conservation and Management
• ENVS 0242 - Restoration Ecology
• ENVS 0300 - Wetlands Assessment and Planning
• ENVS 0309 - Wildlife Ecology and Management
• BIOL 0201 - General Ecology
• BIOL 0208 - Marine Biology
• BIOL 0211 - Plant Biology
• BIOL 0212 - Mammalogy
• BIOL 0216 - Flora of Massachusetts
• BIOL 0219 - Aquatic Biology
• BIOL 0223 - Microbiology
• BIOL 0325 - Ecosystems
• BIOL 0334 - Animal Behavior
• BIOL 0340 - Forest Ecology
• GPS 0230 - Meteorology
• GPS 0331 - Severe and Unusual Weather
• GEOL 0205 - Environmental Geology

Human Dimensions

 

• ENVS 0215 - Environmental Education and Communication
• ENVS 0238 - Environmental Impact Analysis
• ENVS 0251 - Water Resources Planning and Management
• ENVS 0352 - Planning Green Sustainable Cities
• GPS 0217 - Contemporary Global Issues
• GPS 0219 - Land Use and Resource Planning
• GPS 0222 - Site Planning Studio
• GPS 0245 - Sustainable Energy
• GPS 0250 - Political Ecology
• GPS 0325 - Food Systems Planning
• HIST 0258 - U.S. Environmental History
• ECON 0320 - Environmental Economics
• ECON 0321 - Natural Resource Economics

Methods/Technology Dimensions

 

• ENVS 0236 - Environmental Analysis II
• ENVS 0311 - Environmental Monitoring and Analysis
• ENVS 0330 - Environmental Data Analysis
• ENVS 0341 - Ecological Restoration
• BIOL 0204 - GIS Applications for Natural Sciences
• GPS 0243 - Introduction to Remote Sensing
• GPS 0244 - Introduction to Geographic Information Systems
• GPS 0246 - Quantitative Methods for Social and Physical Science *
• GPS 0340 - Data Collection and Analysis
• GPS 0344 - Advanced Geographic Information Systems
• CHEM 0201 - Organic Chemistry I
• CHEM 0203 - Organic Chemistry II

Upper-Level Course Requirements

Pick at least 2 courses from the following list.  Please note that these may also be used to satisfy other requirements in the major.

• BIOL 0325 - Ecosystems
• BIOL 0340 - Forest Ecology
• ENVS 0300 - Wetlands Assessment and Planning
• ENVS 0309 - Wildlife Ecology and Management
• ENVS 0311 - Environmental Monitoring and Analysis
• ENVS 0317 - Special Topics in Environmental Science
• ENVS 0330 - Environmental Data Analysis
• ENVS 0341 - Ecological Restoration
• ENVS 0350 - Environmental Science Internship
• ENVS 0352 - Planning Green Sustainable Cities
• ENVS 0399 - Independent Research
• GPS 0344 - Advanced Geographic Information Systems

Capstone Senior Thesis/Seminar

Senior status is required.

• ENVS 0390 - Environmental Science Senior Seminar

Additional Graduation Requirements

All students must meet the University Graduation Requirements and complete a common core of studies, distributed among the different academic areas as detailed in the Common Core .