BSES 4-Year Program Examples (PDF)

Students should select one of the concentration areas listed below:

Undeclared *
General Atmospheric Science
Ecosystem Science
Hydrology and Water Resources
Mathematical Modeling
Surficial Processes
Pollution Control Technologies and Remediation

* Available for students declaring the BSES as a major but undecided as to what specific area they will pursue: cannot be used to graduate.

These concentration areas are intended to provide a more detailed description of the student’s area of expertise within the environmental sciences. The key to the concentrations are the courses that are used to fulfill this portion of the degree requirement.

Concentrations in the BSES should be designed with the central purpose being problem-solving in the environmental realm. Through a set of courses, students will: 1) integrate knowledge from the basic sciences, statistics, and mathematics; 2) formulate a set of tools appropriate for solving environmental problems; and 3) apply these tools to solving environmental problems.

Click on the links to individual areas (above).  For each concentration, a number of questions are posed that might help define an area of interest. These questions are followed by a list of courses that may be used in some combination to tackle the question posed. In planning your concentration you need to remember to include a combination of disciplines (e.g. biology, chemistry, geography) as well as selecting courses that provide an education in both theoretical and practical/applied aspects (tools).

Image: Mikki Osterloo "The growing season water balance for a watershed located in southwestern Montana", 2002. [Advisors: Sally Letsinger, Indiana Geological Survey and Greg Olyphant, Geological Sciences]