Culminating Experience

Students work together in groups to formulate and justify policy measures that they think would be appropriate to deal with a local environmental problem. The purposes of this culminating course are to (1) give students an opportunity to see how the disciplinary knowledge acquired in their various courses and departmental major programs can be integrated in a synthetic manner; (2) provide a forum for an in-depth evaluation of a significant environmental policy problem; and (3) give students the experience of working as a project team toward the solution of a real-world problem. Considerable fieldwork may be involved, and the final examination consists of a public presentation and defense of the student-generated policy recommendations. To satisfy the culminating experience we will restrict the course to juniors and seniors and we will require each student to produce an individual written report on their contribution to the combined group report so we can more directly assess individual achievement.

Students on the Africa Foreign Study Program, working in small sub-groups, will undertake multidisciplinary studies of specific regional environmental issues in southern Africa.

A candidate for the Honors Program must satisfy the minimum College GPA Requirement and complete ENVS 91, or a similar research course approved by the Chair. ENVS 91 may be taken two terms but may only once count toward the major.  Please see Internships and Grants for funding sources. Additional information regarding the guidelines for the Honors Program can be found here.