BS in Field Biology

We live in a time of unprecedented environmental change. Global climate change affects nearly every aspect of life on our planet. In addition to activists who spread the word and effect policy change, we need people like you—conservation scientists, wildlife and marine biologists, toxicologists, park rangers, endangered species biologists, natural resource scientists—to discover these threats, predict what our world will need, and work to respond on local, regional, and global scales. We equip our students with basic knowledge of the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of ecological systems and prepare them with the skills to apply this knowledge to real-world environmental problem-solving.

Overview of Courses

The courses listed below represent the curriculum offered within this discipline. This biological sciences environmental science program requires supplemental science and mathematics curriculum to qualify for that concentration. Here’s a sample of what you can expect to learn and do:

• Conservation Biology
• The study of the conservation of biodiversity based in the principles of ecology, evolution, and genetics. The primary goal of this course is to understand natural ecological systems in the context of a human dominated world to learn to best maintain biological diversity in concert with an exploding human population. This is accomplished through lecture, Socratic discussion, and videos.
• Global Ecology
• This course examines the basic concepts of ecology, including the nature of ecosystems, energy flow, biogeochemical cycles, and characteristics of populations and communities of organisms. The role of humans in the ecosphere is emphasized, with particular attention to human population problems, food production, and pollution problems.
• Marine Conservation Biology and Ecology
• This course examines diversity, physiology, ecology, and conservation of microbes, plants, and animals that live in the marine environment. Emphasis is placed on how marine organisms have adapted to living in their environment and how humans depend upon and affect marine ecosystems.