Environment Joint Honours Component (B.A.) (36 credits)
Offered by: Bieler School of Environment
Degree: Bachelor of Arts
Program credit weight: 36
Program Description
Students wishing to study at the honours level in two disciplines can combine joint honours program components in any two Arts disciplines. For a list of available joint honours programs, see "Overview of Programs Offered" and "Joint Honours Programs".
Joint Honours students should consult an adviser in each department for approval of their course selection and their interdisciplinary honours research project.
Students will enter the Joint Honours at the end of their U1 year, and will be required to maintain a PGPA of 3.30 and an overall CGPA of 3.0. Whereas the Faculty Program Environment Honours requires the student to undertake a Minor as well, the Joint Honours Environment component does not.
This program comprises 36 credits, including:
- Honours research (6 credits);
- Environment core (21 credits);
- statistics (3 credits); and
- complementary courses (6 credits).
Degree Requirements — B.A. students
To be eligible for a B.A. degree, a student must fulfil all Faculty and program requirements as indicated in Degree Requirements for the Faculty of Arts.
We recommend that students consult an Arts OASIS advisor for degree planning.
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Program Prerequisites or Corequisites
The program corequisites (6-8 credits), which are common to the stand-alone Environment Honours program, are in addition to the overall credit account. Students are required to complete these courses by the end of their U1 year.
3 credits of Basic Science, one of the following, or equivalent (e.g., CEGEP objectives Biology 00UK, Chemistry 00UL, Physics 00UR):
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| BIOL 111 | Principles: Organismal Biology. | 3 |
Principles: Organismal Biology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introduction to the phylogeny, structure, function and adaptation of unicellular organisms, plants and animals in the biosphere. | ||
| CHEM 110 | General Chemistry 1. | 4 |
General Chemistry 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A study of the fundamental principles of atomic structure, radiation and nuclear chemistry, valence theory, coordination chemistry, and the periodic table. | ||
| PHYS 101 | Introductory Physics - Mechanics. | 4 |
Introductory Physics - Mechanics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An introductory course in physics without calculus, covering mechanics (kinematics, dynamics, energy, and rotational motion), oscillations and waves, sound, light, and wave optics. | ||
And one of the following:
3 credits of Calculus or equivalent (e.g., CEGEP objective 00UN):
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| MATH 139 | Calculus 1 with Precalculus. | 4 |
Calculus 1 with Precalculus. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of trigonometry and other Precalculus topics. Limits, continuity, derivative. Differentiation of elementary functions. Antidifferentiation. Applications. | ||
| MATH 140 | Calculus 1. | 3 |
Calculus 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Review of functions and graphs. Limits, continuity, derivative. Differentiation of elementary functions. Antidifferentiation. Applications. | ||
Required Courses (21 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENVR 200 | The Global Environment. | 3 |
The Global Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A systems approach to study the different components of the environment involved in global climate change: the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. The interactions among these components. Their role in global climate change. The human dimension to global change. | ||
| ENVR 201 | Society, Environment and Sustainability. | 3 |
Society, Environment and Sustainability. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course deals with how scientific-technological, socio-economic, political-institutional and behavioural factors mediate society-environment interactions. Issues discussed include population and resources; consumption, impacts and institutions; integrating environmental values in societal decision-making; and the challenges associated with, and strategies for, promoting sustainability. Case studies in various sectors and contexts are used. | ||
| ENVR 202 | The Evolving Earth. | 3 |
The Evolving Earth. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Formation of the Earth and the evolution of life. How geological and biological change are the consequence of history, chance, and necessity acting over different scales of space and time. General principles governing the formation of modern landscapes and biotas. Effects of human activities on natural systems. | ||
| ENVR 203 | Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. | 3 |
Knowledge, Ethics and Environment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Introduction to cultural perspectives on the environment: the influence of culture and cognition on perceptions of the natural world; conflicts in orders of knowledge (models, taxonomies, paradigms, theories, cosmologies), ethics (moral values, frameworks, dilemmas), and law (formal and customary, rights and obligations) regarding political dimensions of critical environments, resource use, and technologies. | ||
| ENVR 301 | Environmental Research Design. | 3 |
Environmental Research Design. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Techniques used in design and completion of environmental research projects. Problem definition, data sources and use of appropriate strategies and methodologies. Principles underlying research design are emphasized, including critical thinking, recognizing causal relationships, ideologies and bias in research, and when and where to seek expertise. | ||
| ENVR 400 | Environmental Thought. | 3 |
Environmental Thought. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Students work in interdisciplinary seminar groups on challenging philosophical, ethical, scientific and practical issues. They will explore cutting-edge ideas and grapple with the reconciliation of environmental imperatives and social, political and economic pragmatics. Activities include meeting practitioners, attending guest lectures, following directed readings, and organizing, leading and participating in seminars. | ||
| ENVR 401 | Environmental Research. | 3 |
Environmental Research. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Students work in an interdisciplinary team on a real-world research project involving problem definition, methodology development, social, ethical and environmental impact assessment, execution of the study, and dissemination of results to the research community and to the people affected. Teams begin defining their projects during the preceding summer. | ||
Complementary Courses (15 credits)
Statistics
3 credits of statistics from the following (or equivalent):
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| GEOG 202 | Statistics and Spatial Analysis. | 3 |
Statistics and Spatial Analysis. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Exploratory data analysis, univariate descriptive and inferential statistics, non-parametric statistics, correlation and simple regression. Problems associated with analysing spatial data such as the 'modifiable areal unit problem' and spatial autocorrelation. Statistics measuring spatial pattern in point, line and polygon data. | ||
| MATH 203 | Principles of Statistics 1. | 3 |
Principles of Statistics 1. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Examples of statistical data and the use of graphical means to summarize the data. Basic distributions arising in the natural and behavioural sciences. The logical meaning of a test of significance and a confidence interval. Tests of significance and confidence intervals in the one and two sample setting (means, variances and proportions). | ||
| PSYC 204 | Introduction to Psychological Statistics. | 3 |
Introduction to Psychological Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The statistical analysis of research data; frequency distributions; graphic representation; measures of central tendency and variability; elementary sampling theory and tests of significance. | ||
Honours Research
0-6 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| ENVR 494 | Joint Honours Research. | 3 |
Joint Honours Research. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Honours research and report conducted under the supervision of a member of staff. | ||
| ENVR 495D1 | Honours Research. | 3 |
Honours Research. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Preparation of an honours thesis. | ||
| ENVR 495D2 | Honours Research. | 3 |
Honours Research. Terms offered: Summer 2025 See ENVR 495D1 for description. | ||
| ENVR 495N1 | Honours Research. | 3 |
Honours Research. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Preparation of an honours thesis. | ||
| ENVR 495N2 | Honours Research. | 3 |
Honours Research. Terms offered: Summer 2025 See ENVR 495N1 for description. | ||
Note: Students must complete 6 credits of honours research between the two components of the program. If the second component requires 0 credits of honours research, the student must take 6 credits of ENVR honours research. If the second component requires 3 credits of honours research, the student must take 3 credits of ENVR honours research. If the second component requires 6 credits of honours research, the student is not required to take any credits of ENVR honours research. Students may not count the same honours research credits towards both components.
6-12 credits chosen with approval of the Program Adviser. A maximum of 3 credits of these courses may be at 200 or 300 level.