University of Maine at Farmington 2014-2015 Catalog
 
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Context

Interdisciplinary Studies - Environmental Policy and Planning
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Degree Earned
Bachelor of Arts: Interdisciplinary Studies - Environmental Policy and Planning

Interdisciplinary Studies recognizes that academic disciplines do not exist in a vacuum, that to fully understand a subject one must move beyond the silos of the individual disciplines and integrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are to be found in related, complementary academic subjects. Thus the student will study at least two different subjects in the Interdisciplinary program, looking for connections between them.

About the Concentration:

Graduates with this concentration will be engaged citizens and lifelong learners who can apply a deep understanding of environmentally sound principles to issues facing their neighborhoods, state, and the world.

Learning Goals:

  • Students will become sophisticated learners, handling ambiguity, shifting perspectives, strategic thinking, and critical thinking.
  • Students will develop an intellectual identity as planners by considering environmental policy implications and acquiring specialized knowledge and interests within the broader disciplinary domain.
  • Students will encounter difference (e.g., spatial, cultural, class, status, gender, sexual, ethnic, and racial), recognize these as agents in the environmental policy landscape, and cultivate ways of uncovering, handling and valuing these differences.
  • Students will understand the importance of space, place, and environment (i.e., human-environment connection).
     

Assessment Criteria:

  • Students will think and read critically and analytically.
  • Students will use effective writing to support and critique multiple viewpoints.
  • Students will interpret visual texts, media, quantitative data, maps, and landscapes.
  • Students will be able to connect conceptual frameworks to real world environmental agents and actors.
  • Students will connect to environmental issues and processes going on a various scales, seeing themselves in relation to and acting on local-to-global dynamics.
  • Students will be able to connect conceptual frameworks to real world, hands-on problems.

 

Concentrations:

Development and Economics

Students will be able to analyze the range of economic factors and processes that impact communities and their development.

Ecology

Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of ecosystems and their interface with human activities.

Geosciences

Students will be able to recognize how politics and planning best account for physical processes and systems that operate in various environment.

 Environmental Health

Students will be able to connect the social and environmental factors that affect health to policy and practice.

Policy

Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of various legal considerations and policies that impinge upon environmental decision making.

 
MAJOR REQUIREMENTS
 
Foundation Courses (36 credits)
 
EPP 131S Conservation and Environment
EPP 231 Environmental Issues
GEO 235 Physical Geography
GEO 304 GIScience
GEO 340 Land Use
GEO 343 Town and Regional Planning
EPP 397 Internship
EPP 331 Nature and Society
GEO 450 Research in Geography
 
 
CONCENTRATION REQUIREMENTS
Select one concentration from the options below and complete at least 3 courses (12 credits) in that concentration, with 2 courses (8 credits) above the 100-level.
 
 

I. Development and Economics

ECO 101S Principles of Macroeconomics
or  
ECO 102S Principles of Microeconomics
ECO 228 Environmental and Natural Resource Economics      
ECO 360 International Economic Development
GEO 310 International Development
GEO 320 Economic Geography
BUS 362 Social Entrepreneurship

II. Ecology

BIO 110N Introductory Biology
BIO 160 Plant Biology: Organisms to Ecosystems       
BIO 170 General Zoology
BIO 294 Forest Ecology and Conservation
BIO 353 Conservation Biology
BIO 361 Ecology
BIO 383 Aquatic Biology

III. Environmental Health

HEA 245 Nutrition and Ecological Concerns      
HEA 210 Environmental Health
HEA 350 Principles of Epidemiology
GEO 325 Geography of Health and Disease
 
IV. Geosciences
 
GEY 101N Environmental Geoscience
GEY 103N The Earth System
GEY 104N Oceans: Ancient and Modern            
GEY 203 Surficial Processes          
GEO 235 Physical Geography
GEY 301 Terrain Analysis
GEY 303 Climate Change
 
V. Policy
 
POS 101S Introduction to American Government
POS 200S Public Policy
POS 251 Civil Society and Social Accountability: Civic Engagement Practicum
ECO 325 Public Finance

MATHEMATICS REQUIREMENT (4 credits)
MAT 120M Introductory Statistics
 
 
Total  Credits for the Major:  52
 
 
FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
One year of one foreign language at the college level or two years of one foreign language at the high school level.
 
GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS
For specific information about general education requirements and expectations, see the General Education Requirements in the Academic Programs section of this catalog.
 
MINIMUM TOTAL OF CREDITS FOR THE DEGREE: 128

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