Mar 28, 2024  
2019-2020 Springfield College Catalog 
    
2019-2020 Springfield College Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Environmental Science


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Program Information


The goal of the Environmental Science Program is to cultivate the student perspectives of environmental issues and provide students with refined knowledge of these issues at the local, regional, and global scale. Through a series of academic courses and co-curricular activities (e.g., research and outreach), students will learn how human activity impacts the environment will obtain critical thinking and problem-solving skills necessary to productively contribute to solutions. The program will increase the student’s technical competence in addressing environmental issues, their origins, ramifications, and resolutions. The Environmental Sciences Program at Springfield College is interdisciplinary and is designed to promote leadership necessary for the stewardship of both the natural and built environments.

The B.S. in Environmental Science will provide students with the necessary quantitative, technological, and scientific abilities to engage in the many processes that are necessary to confront the challenges citizens, businesses, governments, non-governmental organizations, among others, face in light of rapidly changing modern global environmental issues. The B.S. will equip students with the analytical tools for understanding pressing environmental issues and engaging in concerns related to the natural and social world. The program will offer a multidisciplinary curriculum with interdisciplinary learning tools, incorporating natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, to ensure the graduates will gain a holistic understanding of complex environmental concerns in their natural, social, and ethical implications.

To view a major program sequence to assist with course planning, click here.

Degree Information


Degree: Bachelor of Science (B.S.) with a major in Environmental Science

(120 credit hours) Requirements are subject to change.

Contact Information


For more information about the Environmental Science major, contact Dr. Justin Compton of the Biology/Chemistry Department at (413) 748-3288 or the Admissions Office at (800) 343-1257.

Curricular Requirements


General Education Program (40 - 46 credits)


The General Education program at Springfield College is informed by its century-old Humanics tradition of educating the whole person in spirit, mind, and body, for leadership in service to humanity. These requirements have the goal of developing literate, thoughtful, socially responsible students, and instilling in them a spirit of inquiry into the nature of humankind and the universe. Towards those ends, the requirements emphasize and encourage: the acquisition of knowledge, understanding, and competency essential for the improvement of the human condition in a diverse society; a search for personal and spiritual values; and the development of an understanding and appreciation of physical well-being. 

For specific requirements, see the General Education Program - Traditional Undergraduate Students (40 - 46 credits)  section.

II. Major Requirements


A. Core Requirements (45 credits)


The core requirements will help the student to understand scientific process and the natural sciences, understand how this process generates knowledge, and be able to apply the results of scientific research to problems and questions as they relate to what is broadly called the environment. In addition, students will develop a familiarity with the drivers of human actions regarding social-ecological systems and learn to systematically analyze environmental problems and critically assess the ways in which public policies may help to address these problems.

Electives (to complete a minimum of 120 credits)


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