Environmental Science Pathways

Pathways listed below are for the catalog year 2024-2025. Maps for previous years are available on each pathway page. What is a catalog year?

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes help you work towards your educational goals.

  1. Describe the history and current use of fossil fuels; debate the challenges associated with their use and the relevance of alternative forms of energy (including nuclear) in the modern energy landscape.
  2. Discuss sources of air, land, and water pollution, including management and legislation that helps to mitigate their impacts on the ecosphere.
  3. Diagnose the concept of sustainability, from local through global scales.
  4. Understand the relationship between photosynthesis and cellular respiration, and explain how thermodynamics underpins living systems.
  5. Analyze the impacts of modern technologies on living and non-living systems, including the health of human and non-human animals.
  6. Describe the properties, conservation, and role of soil in agriculture, including how water is consumed and managed throughout the anthroposphere.
  7. Diagram how water and key chemical elements (e.g., carbon, etc.) cycle throughout the earth system.
  8. Relate population growth with environmental issues.