Environmental Science program
Understand and solve environmental issues
With a blend of geology, biology, chemistry, geography, and environmental courses, FLC’s Environmental Science program immerses you in an interdisciplinary approach to scientific inquiry and practice.
Your path to this Bachelor of Science degree includes exploring how the air and water connect us to the Earth and one another in a region with a long history of resilience in the face of environmental change.
"The Environmental Science major is designed to provide science insights through walking the land and engaging in critical thinking about how human actions and natural processes affect ecosystem health and our well-being."
Combine courses from geology, biology, chemistry, geography, and environmental science for an interdisciplinary approach to a scientific understanding of our environment. The complexity of questions around climate change, water quality, resource extraction, energy and food production, and rising ocean temperatures demand a knowledge not of one specific field of science, but a blend of them all.
Our campus is situated where the Rocky Mountains meet the canyon lands of the Southwest—the earth’s crust rises and water ways carve deep channels through it, wind and sand efface its surfaces, and plants devise strategies to live in the alpine tundra at 14,000 feet, and the sun-baked sandstone at 4,000 feet. Additionally, humans have made significant impact on the region, mining, growing food, extracting resources such as oil, gas and timber, damming rivers and enjoying outdoor recreational activities. The Southwest is rich grounds for studying environmental processes—and our campus sits at the heart of it all.
Studying in the Environmental Science program you have the opportunity to engage in authentic projects delving into relevant questions, and even to design and complete original research in a senior capstone project. This two-semester, multidisciplinary, science-based research project ties together the breadth of your coursework, with faculty mentorship. It involves field and/or lab work, data analysis and compilation, and includes the presentation of results in a public forum as well as a written thesis.
This program sets students on the path to discovering solutions through scientific inquiry and methodology.