Environmental Sciences Minor
Introduction
Please click here to see Geography and Environmental Sciences department information.
The environmental sciences minor offers students exposure to the breadth of environmental issues. Students emphasize the natural/physical sciences, and may strategically incorporate the social sciences and humanities.
These program and degree requirements are subject to periodic revision by the academic department, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences reserves the right to make exceptions and substitutions as judged necessary in individual cases. Therefore, the College strongly urges students to consult regularly with their major, minor and CLAS advisors to confirm the best plans of study before finalizing them.
Program Delivery
- This is an on-campus program.
Declaring This Minor
- Please see your advisor.
- Click here to go to information about declaring a major/minor.
General Requirements
Students must satisfy all requirements as outlined below and by the department offering the minor.
- Click here for information about Academic Policies
Program Requirements
- Students must complete a minimum of 17 credit hours from GEOG, GEOL and ENVS courses.
- Students must complete a minimum of nine upper-division (3000-level and above) credit hours from GEOG, GEOL and ENVS courses.
- Students must earn a minimum grade of C- (1.7) in all courses applied to the minor and must achieve a minimum cumulative minor GPA of 2.0. Courses taken using P+/P/F or S/U grading cannot apply to minor requirements.
- Students must complete a minimum of nine credit hours with CU Denver faculty from GEOG, GEOL and ENVS courses.
Program Restrictions, Allowances and Recommendations
- Many of the upper-division courses have prerequisites; the student must check the catalog for prerequisite requirements for these courses.
- The four upper-division elective courses for the Environmental Sciences minor cannot be from the student's major discipline, even if the particular course is not counted toward the major.
- Undergraduate students may count up to three credit hours of independent study (any combination of ENVS 4840 Independent Study: ENVS and ENVS 4880 Directed Research) towards elective credit in the minor as approved by the undergraduate coordinator.
- The lecture/laboratory sequence can be part of the requirements for the major, but not in the student's major department (i.e., a biology major cannot use the general biology sequence, but could use the general chemistry sequence, which is also required for the biology major).
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Complete two of the following lecture/laboratory combinations: 1 | 8 | |
Students can mix and match honors or majors specific lectures and labs as long as they are in the same sequence. | ||
| Organisms to Ecosystems (Gen Bio) and Organisms to Ecosystems Lab (Gen Bio) | ||
| Molecules to Cells (Gen Bio) and Molecules to Cells Lab (Gen Bio) | ||
| Honors Organisms to Ecosystems (Gen Bio) and Honors Organisms to Ecosystems Lab (Gen Bio) | ||
| Honors Molecules to Cells (Gen Bio) and Honors Molecules to Cells Lab (Gen Bio) | ||
| General Chemistry I and General Chemistry Laboratory I | ||
or CHEM 2039 | Majors General Chemistry I Laboratory | |
or CHEM 2088 | Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory | |
| General Chemistry II and General Chemistry Laboratory II | ||
or CHEM 2069 | Majors General Chemistry II Laboratory | |
or CHEM 2098 | Honors General Chemistry II Laboratory | |
| Honors General Chemistry I and General Chemistry Laboratory I | ||
or CHEM 2039 | Majors General Chemistry I Laboratory | |
or CHEM 2088 | Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory | |
| Honors General Chemistry II Lecture and General Chemistry Laboratory II | ||
or CHEM 2069 | Majors General Chemistry II Laboratory | |
or CHEM 2098 | Honors General Chemistry II Laboratory | |
| Introduction to Environmental Sciences and Introduction to Environmental Sciences Laboratory | ||
| Physical Geology: Surface Processes and Physical Geology: Surface Processes Laboratory | ||
| Physical Geology: Internal Processes and Physical Geology: Internal Processes Laboratory | ||
| College Physics I and Intro Experimental Phys Lab I | ||
| College Physics II and Intro Experimental Phys Lab II | ||
| Take a minimum of nine additional elective credits from the following courses, outside of the student’s major discipline 2 | 9 | |
| Principles of Ecology | ||
| Environmental Chemistry | ||
| Environmental Economics | ||
| Climate Change: Causes, Impacts and Solutions | ||
| Weather and Climate | ||
| Colorado Climates | ||
| Earth Environments and Human Impacts | ||
| Remote Sensing I: Introduction to Environmental Remote Sensing | ||
| Environmental Modeling with Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Hazard Mitigation and Vulnerability Assessment | ||
| Applied Geomorphology | ||
| Sustainability in Resources Management | ||
| Glacial Geomorphology | ||
| Environmental Hydrology | ||
| Climate Change & Society | ||
| Environment and Society in the American Past | ||
| The Politics of Nature | ||
| Science, Policy and the Environment | ||
| Mountain Biogeography | ||
| Soil Science and Geography | ||
| Environmental Politics | ||
| Total Hours | 17 | |
- 1
The lecture/laboratory sequence can be part of the requirements for the major, but not in the student's major department (i.e., a biology major cannot use the general biology sequence, but could use the general chemistry sequence, which is also required for the biology major).
- 2
The four upper-division elective courses for the Environmental Sciences minor cannot be from the student's major discipline, even if the particular course is not counted toward the major.
To learn more about the Student Learning Outcomes for this program, please visit our website.