Required Courses

All MES students are required to take a minimum of 12 credit units of graduate coursework. The specific required courses include:

• ENVS 801.3 – Ecosystem Science and Sustainability - An introduction to how principles and concepts of ecology and ecosystems science are applied to advance environmental sustainability. Students will gain a solid understanding of how natural systems function, how scientists apply their understanding and uncertainties about ecosystems to address environmental management problems and advance environmental sustainability.
• ENVS 802.3 – Human Dimensions of Environmental Change - This course explores the past and present interactions between people and the natural world. It addresses ways that environment has molded human societies and ways that people have altered nature. Contemporary concerns for environmental sustainability are introduced by examining human entanglement with a range of natural and modified systems.
• ENVS 803.3 – Research in Environment and Sustainability – The purpose of this course is to introduce graduate students to conceptual, practical, and ethical issues in conducting interdisciplinary research about environment and sustainability. By the end of the course, students will have a research plan from which their proposal and research activities can be developed.

All MES students must also register in:

• ENVS 990 – Seminar in Environment and Sustainability (no credit unit)
• ENVS 994 – Research in Environment and Sustainability (no credit unit)

Students who began their programs in September 2010 or January 2011 should check with Irene Schwalm, SENS Graduate Secretary, regarding program requirements.

Students meet the requirements for ENVS 990 by participating in the seminars and by presenting the results of their research. Completion of the research requirement is met when the thesis is successfully defended and approved.

Students must complete the MES program within five years, beginning from their first term of registration, excluding any periods of approved leave.