In Year 1 you explore topics at the core of environmental sciences and the role of science and technology in delivering solutions and focus on the multidisciplinary nature of sustainability and engage with key socio-political debates that underpin the environmental agenda.
In Year 2, you explore how the impacts of human activities on environmental systems can be monitored, minimised, and effectively managed and the sustainable use of resources, energy and waste and how to remediate their environmental impacts. You study the legislative and economic drivers which can be used to make positive societal change happen.
In Year 3, you focus in more detail on the potential of science and technology-based innovations, such as geographical information systems to identify, analyse, and provide solutions to environmental problems and inform policy. All strands of the course are woven together and reinforced through an international field trip or a teamwork-based sustainability project. You also undertake a major individual piece of research where you can specialise and deepen your skills and knowledge under the guidance of academics who are experts in their field. For example, this can focus on researching solutions to a pressing, real-world environmental problem identified in collaboration with our external partners who managing our region’s natural resources.
Course structure
Foundation year core modules
Big Data
Big data – it’s a phrase that a lot of people would argue is overused, or at least not always used in the appropriate context. So, what is it really? How is it made and how do we make sense of it?
You learn how big data is not just abundant but a growing field in so many aspects of our society from policing and conservation to health and bioinformatics. You explore how groups and communities use and share big data to help keep themselves safe in disaster zones around the world. You begin to value the role data plays in helping to make sense of community relationships in society, from uncovering criminal networks, tracking disease outbreaks to developing a deeper understanding of our ecology.
Data might end up in a data-frame spreadsheet format but it doesn’t begin there. It is often created with people and animals engaging with each other and technology. You explore how search engines collate and store the data we need to help make predictions, enhance decision making, or simply to better understand society’s needs.
Chemical Science and the Environment
This module provides an overview of fundamental concepts in chemistry and their application in the context of environmental and life sciences
Chemistry is the study of the structure, properties and reactivity of elements and compounds, and plays a key role in all physical, life and applied sciences. The topics covered include the structure of the atom, the periodic table, chemical bonding, chemical reactivity, environmental science, biogeochemistry, pollution, green chemistry and climate change.
Experimental Methods for Life Science
This module is based around a series of laboratory sessions. The first sessions emphasise important foundation skills, such as how to work safely in a practical environment and how to properly document practical work. These are followed by a series of sessions based on your wider academic interests including the basics of microscopy, handling microorganisms, safe handling food, using volumetric glassware and investigating acid base titrations.
Global Grand Challenges
You focus on how science can help address some of the global grand challenges that face society. A group project enables you to develop innovative answers to some of the biggest issues of our time based on health and wellbeing, resilient and secure societies, digital and creative economy, sustainable environments and learning for the 21st century. The themes reflect the University’s focus on externally facing research that makes a real, practical difference to the lives of people and the success of businesses and economies.
Life on Earth
You explore the diversity of life on earth and the concept of evolution. You consider Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection to demonstrate relationships between species, the principles of taxonomy and speciation, and how they relate to the evolutionary tree.
You are introduced to the physiological processes, cellular organisation, homeostasis, metabolism, growth, reproduction, response to stimuli and adaptation - all hallmarks of living organisms equipping diverse species to survive and thrive.
Life Science
You gain an appreciation of how knowledge of issues in health and disease relate to modern society. You focus on the life sciences from a human perspective, develop an understanding of human biology and explore the role of different but interconnected life science disciplines in modern life. While reviewing life science from an interdisciplinary context, you examine the major human body systems – cardiovascular, respiratory, excretory, endocrine, nervous, digestive, skeletal and reproductive.
Year 1 core modules
Animal and Plant Biology
This module focuses on multicellular organisms such as animals and plants to introduce physiology, population biology, ecology and the complexity of ecosystems. You gain a thorough introduction with the lecture series and develop these themes during seminars integrating discussion, problem solving and quantitative techniques.
Lectures and practical seminars are also an opportunity to comprehend the relevance of the biological processes introduced to our human societies. Learning is also supported by a field trip within the local area, a first-hand experience of animal and plant biological surveying in the natural environment.
Biodiversity and Evolution
You study the concept of evolution and how it led to the development of biodiversity and the world we now inhabit. You discuss evolution by natural selection and our development from the common ancestor, along with the principles of taxonomy, speciation and the evolutionary tree to demonstrate relationships between species. We highlight the impact of modern molecular methods of taxonomy in the form of phylogenetics, particularly the discovery of the domain of archaea. We discuss the complex biodiversity of the microbial, plant and animal worlds and their importance in ecological balance for the earth, human kind and society in the form of conservation. Lectures and tutorial sessions provide an insight into the theoretical aspects of evolution and biodiversity, and you discuss and analyse problem-based exercises to affirm your theoretical knowledge.
Earth Systems
Learn about the fundamental global systems that sustain and shape our world. You explore the main systems and processes which shape how our world works: tectonics and earth’s structure; our atmosphere and oceans circulations; climatic changes in the past and in the future; as well as the processes which continue to shape the earth’s land surface.
Energy Systems
You are introduced to the concept of energy and the physical laws relating to it. Modern energy generation, storage, distribution and use are explored along with the environmental consequences. Material is delivered through lectures, science laboratory practicals, IT workshops and field trips to local industrial sites. You also work in groups examining case studies including power generation accidents.
Global Environmental Issues
Humankind faces environmental challenges which are severe and varied. Threats as diverse as climate change, the supply of fresh water, soil fertility and plastic waste pose problems which differ in immediacy and scale. You will be introduced to the careful appraisal of information relating to these challenges, how the scale of the problem and its consequences may be measured and where the solutions might lie.
Physical Geography and Geology Field Work
Learn how we map, measure and monitor different natural processes and systems in the field. Delivered through a series of individual field days across the region, this module introduces you to different approaches and techniques for field work in both geography and geology. You will learn discipline specific skills, as well as working together with your colleagues to understand how landscapes form through the interactions between geological and surface processes.
Year 2 core modules
Cities and Sustainable Futures
You investigate the relationships between urban space and sustainable futures. You will explore cities around the world through three key aspects of sustainability – environmental, social and economic – and address how these impact on the concept of a sustainable future. This provides you with critical theoretical and empirical understanding of pertinent urban issues.
Earth Observation and GIS
Technology has fundamentally altered our ability to see and understand the world around us. In this module you will learn the fundamentals of remote sensing for environmental management, including satellite, airborne, and terrestrial sources. You will also learn to use advanced geographical information systems (GIS) to map, model, and understand spatially distributed environmental data.
Ecology and Biodiversity
You will explore ecology and how complex interactions shape the distribution and abundance patterns of species in the natural environment. You examine the ecology of populations and communities, and how the integration of powerful new molecular biology technologies can inform the study of ecology and ecological interactions. You also explore the underlying theories used to explain the observed spatial and temporal patterns of diversity observed and the measurements which can be used to quantify diversity.
These topics are aligned to current issues, enabling you to appreciate the environmental, ethical and socio-economic concerns raised by ecological studies. As part of this module, by sampling natural environments you will have the opportunity to develop your ecological fieldwork, laboratory and data interpretation skills.
Practical Conservation
You are introduced to the complexity of biological conservation science using practical examples and case studies at local, national and international scales. You will learn about the co-existence of a variety of approaches, aims and justification under the same overarching term of conservation. You will have a thorough introduction of conservation biology and how this field informs practical conservation measure undertaken on the ground to preserve endangered species, biodiversity at large, ecosystems services and the natural environment. In addition to lectures, the learning is enhanced by seminars and field trips where different aspect of practical conservation will be studied and discussed.
Renewable Energy
This module develops the ideas discussed in the level 4 module “Energy Systems” by reference to the growing field of renewable energy which will be seen in the wider context of reliability and flexibility of energy generation and its relationship to the energy market. The module will include a low tech construction project in which students will collaborate to design, construct and operate a wind turbine or similar generator.
The Anthropocene
You develop critical understanding of the effect of human activities on the planet, and explore the multiple scales at which this impacts the potential for a sustainable environment. You will address the environmental, social, economic and political issues that intertwine with this relationship.
Final-year core modules
Biodiversity and Ecosystems
Natural ecosystems provide numerous benefits to humanity. Despite this knowledge, ever increasing pressure is being placed on ecosystems and many are under threat. In this module, you will explore how the benefits provided by ecosystems can be viewed as services and natural capital and, subsequently, how these concepts have been used to drive policies relating to biodiversity conservation. Through a series of case studies, you will examine the positive relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function, the mechanisms which underpin this relationship and, consequently, the impact of biodiversity loss on ecosystem services. In addition, you will, also explore how human activities can be mitigated and made more sustainable.
Biogeography and Conservation
This module is ideal for you if you’re interested in the biogeographical distribution of species and how this information can inform conservation practices.
Biogeography, with its focus on the distribution of species at a range of scales, provides an important theoretical framework within which ecosystem services, and the increasing impact of human activity on global biodiversity and ecosystem functions, can be evaluated.
You explore the contribution of habitat destruction and fragmentation and invasive species to biodiversity losses. You examine underlying principles in biogeography, including the historical development of the discipline, and investigates how these principles can inform effective conservation practices targeted at preventing biodiversity losses. You explore how endangered species are characterised, the selection and design of conservation areas, and the legal and policy frameworks in place to support conservation efforts.
Environmental Resource Management
You critically evaluate international agreement-derived sustainability models. In particular, eco-efficiency and ecological models, and their underpinnings of key thrusts, such as industrial symbiosis and sustainable product development. These will be analysed at the local, national and international level. The module will consider in detail the importance of energy policies and energy technologies and their implications in climate change. Specifically, the roles of renewable energies, such as wind, wave, solar, biomass and biofuels will be evaluated. The potentially important role the hydrogen economy could play in satisfying future energy requirements, taking cognisance of the pivotal role of carbon dioxide sequestration and storage, will be discussed.
and one optional module
International Fieldtrip
You apply your skills and knowledge to unfamiliar landscapes overseas. Working as part of a team you will develop and then undertake field-based research on a week-long residential field course. You will also develop professional and employability skills aligned with contemporary geographical, geological, environmental and ecological issues, as well as key skills in interpersonal interactions, project planning, time management, and research presentation.
Sustainability Project
The generic spectrum of sustainability encompasses a range of disciplines, from those based in empirical sciences through environmental economics to social science. As such, environmental scientists must be able to work in expertise teams and communicate with teams in complementary but disparate disciplines. The goal of this module is to develop professionalism and employability skills relevant to pertinent environmental challenges.
The use of team work for problem-based and self-directed learning will be central to this module. Appropriate context will be fundamental to this. Expertise in problem-solving will be gained together with key skills such as interpersonal interactions, time management, budget management and research presentation. Due cognisance will also be taken of the principles of health, safety and ethics.
