• ENVS-575 Environmental Risk Assessment - The nature and methods of environmental risk assessment through critical analysis of case histories. The scientific concepts and analytic methods of each case study are explored through solution to sets of specific problems. Case studies include statistical modeling of environmental risk factors, the principle of uncertainty, toxicology, epidemiology, the meaning exposure, types of technical risks, basics of decision analysis, and effective communication of risk assessment results.
  
  
• ENVS-580 Environmental Science I: A Quantitative Approach - Estimation of environmental interactions through the formulation and analysis of simple, mathematical models enabling exploration of the consequences of a variety of assumptions and conditions. Includes measurement, steady-state modes, and thermodynamics. Prerequisite one year each of calculus and laboratory science.
  
  
• ENVS-581 Environmental Science II: A Quantitative Approach - Estimation of environmental interactions through the formulation and analysis of simple mathematical models enabling exploration of the consequences of a variety of assumptions and conditions. Includes non-steady box models, biogeochemistry, and climatology. Prerequisite: ENVS-580.
  
  
• ENVS-681 Capstone Project - The capstone project addresses a problem, which is designed in collaboration with industry and government partners, allowing integration of knowledge and skills acquired in earlier parts of the program. The problem is designed to require a multidisciplinary and team approach.
  
  
• ENVS-691 Internship- Students participate in an internship of his or her choosing or with our industry and government affiliates such as Alpha-Genics, Cadmus Group, EPA, Environmental Strategies, Milvets Systems Technology, Mitretek, Quality Biological, NatureServe, NOAA, Stratus Consulting.
  
  
• CSC-610 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems - A geographic information system (GIS) is a system of hardware, software, data, people, organizations, and institutional arrangements for collecting, storing, analyzing, and disseminating information about areas of the earth. This course provides an introduction to GIS, GIS software, and applications of GIS.
  
  
• STAT-514 Statistical Methods - Averages, dispersion, probability, sampling, and approach to normality; simple and multiple regression; tests and confidence intervals for means, proportions, differences, and regression coefficients; nonparametric statistics; and analysis of variance.
  
  
• STAT-525 Statistical Software - Introduction to the use of the SAS language to prepare, modify, and analyze data, interpret output and final preparation of results. Emphasis on practical programming principles and use of built-in procedures in both personal computer and main frame environments. Comparisons with other programming languages.
  
  

Electives

• ENVS-572 Topics in Conservation Biology - Conservation biology from the ground up—how organisms define and direct a need for conservation. Investigates how the biological needs of specific species or ecosystems fare against the realities of current social conditions and evaluates which strategies have been the most successful in advancing the goals of conservation.
  
  
• ENVS-696 Biogeography - Biogeography is the science that attempts to document and understand spatial patterns of biodiversity. It includes the study of distributions of organisms, past & present, and of related patterns of variation over the earth in numbers and kinds of living things. Most biogeography is observational and comparative rather than experimental. Course will focus on 4 themes: classifying geographic regions based on their biotas; 20 reconstructing the historical development of biotas, including their origin, spread, diversification; 3) explaining differences in numbers as well as types of species among geograhic areas 40 explaining geographic variation in the characteristics of individuals and populations of closely related species, including trends in morphology, behavior and demography.
  
  
• ENVS-596 Environmental Ethics - What is our proper moral stance toward the natural environment? Toward other species of living things? Toward the biotic community as a whole? What makes anything at all worthy of our moral respect or even our moral consideration? How should moral beliefs about the natural world inform policy? Most basically, how are we to understand the very idea of the environment, the distinction between the human world and the natural world, and the relationships between them? Course readings and discussions will address topics in both environmental ethics and bi-ethics. This class will aim not so much at definite solutions to specific environmental issues as an increased sophistication in framing and supporting answers to these and related questions.
  
  
• BIO-566 Evolutionary Mechanisms - The genetic composition of populations and the theory and principles of natural selection. Species formation and differentiation in Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theory. Evolution above the species level and current evolutionary concepts (such as sociobiology and catastrophe theory) are also considered. Prerequisite: BIO 356.
  
  
• BIO-567 Evolutionary Ecology - The ecology of organisms is made clear in the context of evolution and the study of evolution is greatly enriched by an understanding of the ecological circumstances in which evolution occurs. This course focuses on the interface between the two and the mathematical models involved. Prerequisite: BIO 423 & MATH 221.
  
  

• BIO-562 Aquatic Field Methods - Biological, chemical, and physical analysis of freshwater habitats such as springs, streams, and lakes. Students participate in several weekend field trips to conduct group projects and learn skills for geographic survey, chemical and physical examinations of water quality, rapid bioassessment protocols, taxonomic identification of aquatic flora and fauna, and statistical data analysis and presentation of results
  
  
• BIO-567 Evolutionary Ecology - The ecology of organisms is made clear in the context of evolution and the study of evolution is greatly enriched by an understanding of the ecological circumstances in which evolution occurs. This course focuses on the interface between the two and the mathematical models involved.
  
  
• BIO-563 Terrestrial Field Methods - Biological, chemical, and physical analysis of terrestrial habitats of the Eastern deciduous forest. Students participate in several weekend field trips to conduct group projects and learn skills for geographic survey of terrain using GPS, chemical and physical examinations of soil quality, field sampling techniques of flora and fauna, taxonomic identification of forest flora and fauna, and statistical data analysis and presentation of results.
  
  

• ENVS-596 Biogeography - Biogeography is the science that attempts to document and understand spatial patterns of biodiversity. It includes the study of distributions of organisms, past & present, and of related patterns of variation over the earth in numbers and kinds of living things. Most biogeography is observational and comparative rather than experimental. Course will focus on 4 themes: classifying geographic regions based on their biotas; 20 reconstructing the historical development of biotas, including their origin, spread, diversification; 3) explaining differences in numbers as well as types of species among geograhic areas 40 explaining geographic vairation in the characteristics of individuals and populations of closely related species, including trends in morphology, behavior and demography.
  
  
• ENVS-572 Topics in Conservation Biology - Looks at conservation biology from the ground up by exploring how organisms define and direct our need for conservation. Investigates how the biological needs of specific species or ecosystems fare against the realities of current social conditions and evaluates which strategies have been the most successful in advancing the goals of conservation.
  
  
• BIO-566 Evolutionary Mechanisms - The genetic composition of populations and the theory and principles of natural selection. Species formation and differentiation in Darwinian and neo-Darwinian theory. Evolution above the species level and current evolutionary concepts (such as sociobiology and catastrophe theory) are also considered