ECU Advantage

What You Will Study

Program Director: Beth Bee (205-A Brewster Building; 252-328-5197; beeb@ecu.edu)

The Environmental Studies, BS offers courses that integrate social and scientific understandings of environmental issues, practical responses to environmental problems, and the narratives and values that shape interactions with nature and the natural world. The curriculum includes courses from a range of disciplines in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities that are focused on environmental topics.

Majors develop research, technical, and critical thinking skills and apply their knowledge and skills to faculty-mentored research experience opportunities and thesis projects or internships. 

Students should meet with the program director to develop a program of study to ensure that they complete prerequisite requirements for upper-level courses. Additional courses beyond those listed may be approved by the program director if they contribute significantly to the student's knowledge and skills regarding environmental studies. Study abroad coursework, for example, may be used to satisfy requirements for the major but must be approved by the program director.

For more information about the degree or to discuss how to earn a double major, please contact the program director or visit the program website.

The degree requires 120 s.h. as follows:

I. General education requirements - 40 s.h.

(For information about courses that carry general education credit view the General Education Program section.) 

    II. Core - 24 s.h.

    Click on the course to view the prerequisite(s) and to see if the course can be used to satisfy general education or other requirements. If you have questions, please ask the program coordinator or an advisor.   

      A. Environmental sciences courses (11 s.h.)

      Choose three courses and two associated labs from the following:

      • ATMO 1300 - Weather and Climate
      • BIOL 1200 - Principles of Biology II
      • BIOL 1201 - Principles of Biology Laboratory II
      • GEOG 1250 - Water in the Environment
      • GEOG 1251 - Water in the Environment Laboratory
      • GEOL 1500 - Dynamic Earth
      • GEOL 1501 - Dynamic Earth Laboratory
      B. Social sciences and humanities courses (6 s.h.)

      Choose two courses from the following: 

      • ENGL 2490 - Introduction to Environmental Humanities
      • GEOG 2300 - Environment and Society
      • PLAN 1900 - Sustainable Cities
      C. Methods or techniques course (3 s.h.)

      Choose one course from the following: 

      • AAAS 2500 - Theory and Methods in African and African American Studies
      • ANTH 3050 - Ethnographic Field Methods
      • BIOS 1500 - Introduction to Biostatistics
      • EHST 3003 - Environmental Epidemiology
      • ENGL 4000 - Introduction to Literary Theory
      • GEOG 2400 - Spatial Data Analysis
      • GEOG 2420 - Cartography
      • GEOG 4140 - Research Methods in Human Geography
      • GEOL 2000 - Quantitative Methods in the Geological Sciences
      • GEOL 2600 - Analysis Techniques and Methods of Coastal Ocean Research
      • MATH 2228 - Elementary Statistical Methods I
      • PLAN 3021 - Introduction to Planning Techniques
      • POLS 3031 - Research Design for Political Science
      • SOCI 3213 - Methods of Research
      • SOCI 3215 - Qualitative Research Methods
      D. Internship or research experience (3 s.h.)

      All internship and research courses require a faculty mentor and advisor approval. Choose one of the following courses: 

      • BIOL 3550 - Research in Biology with Writing
      • GEOG 4803 - Geographic Internship
      • GEOL 4500 - Research in Geological Sciences
      • ICS 4050 - Internship in Coastal Studies
      • TEXT 4999 - Thesis in Transformative Texts and Ideas
      E. Capstone (1 s.h.)
      • GEOL 4601 - Directed Studies in Geology
    III. Electives - 21 s.h.

    Pick at least 6 s.h. with at least two different prefixes from one category and no more than 15 s.h. with at least two prefixes from the other category.  

    A minimum of 15 s.h. from Section 3 must be above 2999.            

      A. Earth and environmental sciences
      • ATMO 2510 - Physical Meteorology and Thermodynamics
      • ATMO 3230 - Global Climates
      • ATMO 4510 - Meteorological Instruments and Observations
      • ATMO 4530 - Micrometeorology
      • ATMO 4590 - Tropical Meteorology
      • BIOL 1010 - Biodiversity of Coastal North Carolina
      • BIOL 2250 - Ecology
      • BIOL 2251 - Ecology Laboratory
      • BIOL 3230 - Field Botany
      • BIOL 3231 - Field Botany Laboratory
      • BIOL 3660 - Introduction to Marine Biology
      • BIOL 3661 - Introduction to Marine Biology Laboratory
      • BIOL 3740 - Animal Behavior
      • BIOL 3741 - Animal Behavior Laboratory
      • BIOL 4250 - Biological Oceanography
      • BIOL 4300 - Ecosystem Ecology
      • BIOL 4301 - Ecosystem Ecology Laboratory
      • BIOL 4320 - Ecological Responses to Global Climate Change
      • BIOL 4450 - Aquatic Parasitology and Disease
      • BIOL 4451 - Aquatic Parasitology and Disease Laboratory
      • BIOL 4640 - Entomology
      • BIOL 4641 - Entomology Laboratory
      • BIOL 4740 - Behavioral Ecology
      • BIOL 4741 - Behavioral Ecology Laboratory
      • BIOL 4770 - Ornithology
      • BIOL 4771 - Ornithology Laboratory
      • BIOL 4920 - Conservation Biology
      • BIOL 5270 - Marine Community Ecology
      • BIOL 5550 - Ichthyology
      • BIOL 5551 - Ichthyology Laboratory
      • BIOL 5680 - Current Topics in Coastal Biology
      • EHST 2110 - Introduction to Environmental Health Sciences
      • GEOG 2250 - Earth Surface Systems
      • GEOG 3420 - Remote Sensing of the Environment I
      • GEOG 3430 - Geographic Information Systems I
      • GEOG 3450 - GPS and Satellite Navigation Systems
      • GEOG 3460 - GIS Applications Programming
      • GEOG 4210 - Fluvial and Hydrological Processes
      • GEOG 4440 - Coastal Applications of GIS
      • GEOG 4460 - Digital Terrain Analysis
      • GEOL 1400 - Bays and Beaches Around the World: Geological Form and Function
      • GEOL 1600 - Earth and Life Through Time
      • GEOL 1700 - Environmental Geology
      • GEOL 3070 - Earth Materials and Resources
      • GEOL 3071 - Earth Materials and Resources Laboratory
      • GEOL 3170 - Modern Petrology
      • GEOL 3171 - Modern Petrology Laboratory
      • GEOL 3250 - Introduction to Geomorphology
      • GEOL 3251 - Introduction to Geomorphology Laboratory
      • GEOL 3500 - Hydrogeology and the Environment
      • GEOL 3501 - Hydrogeology and the Environment Laboratory
      • GEOL 3700 - Advanced Oceanography
      • GEOL 3800 - Earth's Climate: A Geological Perspective
      • GEOL 5150 - The Geologic Component of Environmental Science
      • GEOL 5300 - Geology of Coastal Processes and Environments
      • GEOL 5600 - Economic Geology
      • GEOL 5601 - Economic Geology Laboratory
      • GEOL 5710 - Ground Water Hydrology
      • GEOL 5711 - Ground Water Hydrology Laboratory
      • ICS 3050 - Independent Study in Coastal Studies
      • ICS 4001 - Designing Adaptation Strategies for Coastal Hazards
      B. Environment and society
      • ANTH 2005 - Environmental Anthropology
      • ECON 2400 - Economics of Climate Change
      • ECON 3855 - Environmental Economics
      • ECON 4850 - Resource Economics
      • ENGL 3660 - Literature and Film of Environmental Crisis
      • ENGL 3820 - Scientific Writing
      • ENGL 4370 - Literature and Environment
      • GEOG 2350 - Climate Change: Science and Society
      • GEOG 3010 - Social Justice and Sustainability
      • GEOG 4250 - Environmental Impact Analysis
      • GEOG 4270 - Water Resources Management and Planning
      • GEOG 4320 - Gender, Environment, and Development
      • GEOG 4360 - Geographies of Global Climate and Environmental Change
      • PHIL 2276 - Environmental Ethics
      • PLAN 3020 - Environmental Planning
      • PLAN 4015 - Disaster Planning
      • PLAN 4045 - Environmental Resources Planning and Management
      • PLAN 4055 - Coastal Area Planning and Management
      • PLAN 4305 - Ecological Landscape Planning
      • RELI 2345 - Religion and the Environment
      • SOCI 3010 - Environmental Sociology
      • TEXT 3001 - Transformative Texts and Ideas of Science
    IV. Minor and general electives to complete degree requirements for graduation

    Choose a minor in consultation with the program coordinator. 

      ECU Minor Requirements Policy

      The university's policy regarding double counting credits between major and minor can be found in the Academic Advisement, Progression and Support Services section of this catalog. See "Minor Requirements". 

      If you have questions, please reach out to your program coordinator or director. 

      • No more than 9 credit hours required for satisfying a major can count towards the credits required for satisfying a minor, excluding specified cognates (required courses but outside of the major discipline).
      • Individual programs may have additional restrictions.
      • A student may not major and minor in the same discipline as defined by the program's 6-digit CIP code.
        For more information about this degree visit the university's academic catalogs.
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