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Requirements
for the B.S. Degree in the Biological Sciences with a concentration in Environmental
Science
The College Core courses are designed to insure that all students, regardless of their major, will possess basic writing skills and have an understanding of the fundamentals of a wide variety of fields. Accordingly, two "Composition" courses are required and selection of one course in each of seven General Education categories is required. The College Core includes a total of 27 credit hours.
| CPN 100 | Academic Writing I | (3) |
| CPN 101 | Academic Writing II | (3) |
| GE 1 | American State and Society | (3) |
| GE 2 | Prejudice and Discrimination | (3) |
| GE 3 | Contrasting Cultures | (3) |
| GE 4 | Fine Arts | (3) |
| GE 5 | History and the History of Ideas | (3) |
| GE 6 | Literature | (3) |
| GE 7 | Science, Technology and Human Affairs | (3) |
The Department of Biological Sciences requires students to take a specific group of courses generally referred to as the Biology Core Courses. The core courses are required because the department feels that the knowledge acquired in these courses is basic to any biology degree. While students will concentrate in their particular area of interest by taking elective courses, the core courses are designed to provide every student with a broad, comprehensive background in biology. The Biology Core includes a total of 47 credit hours.
| BIO 201 | Biological Sciences I | (4) |
| BIO 202 | Biological Sciences II | (4) |
| BIO 210 | Cellular Biology | (4) |
| BIO 312 | Genetics | (4) |
| BIO 319 | Biological Literature | (1) |
| BIO 412 | Ecology | (4) |
| CHE 221 | General Chemistry I | (4) |
| CHE 222 | General Chemistry II | (4) |
| CHE 301 | Organic Chemistry I | (4) |
| MAT 121 | Calculus A | (3) |
| MAT 122 MAT 201 |
Calculus B or alternative Statistical Methods |
(3) |
| PHY 105 | Elementary Mechanics, Heat and Matter | (4) |
| PHY 106 | Elementary Electricity and Sound | (4) |
or alternative physics sequence |
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| PHY 201 | Principles of Physics I | (4) |
| PHY 202 | Principles of Physics II | (4) |
It is important to have an understanding of a variety of disciplines for this concentration. Accordingly 22-23 credit hours are required in this category. It is highly recommended that students in the concentration take or become proficient in: Computer Applications, Public Speaking and Computer Graphics.
| BIO 310 | Field Biology (recommended for the summer following the sophomore year) | (3) |
| BIO 261 | General Geology I | (4) |
| GLY 410 | Hydrogeology | (3) |
| EST 100 | Introduction to Environmental Studies | (3) |
| ENS 486 | Seminar in Environmental Science | (3) |
| ENS 487 | Environmental Science Internship | (3) |
And one course from the following:
| GRY 327 | Computer Mapping | (4) |
| GRY 329 | Geographic Information Systems | (4) |
| GLY 292 | Land Use and Planning | (3) |
| GLY 367 | Geomorphology | (3) |
| GLY 396 | Applied Geochemistry | (3) |
A minimum of 12 credit hours of biology electives is required. Since a mixture of 3 credit and 4 credit electives is usually taken this generally means students will take 3 to 4 biology electives. If you would like to see a list of the biology electives offeredsee the navigation bar to the left.
The minimum number of credit hours required for any degree at Cortland is 124, broken
down, as one can see, in the categories above. Another way to get a sense of the
requirements is to divide the total number of credits by the typical 8 semesters students
are enrolled in college. This comes to 15.5 hours a semester. Obviously, this is an
average and one can have some light semesters and other semesters with heavier loads.
Also, students may take a course or two during the summers to reduce the load a bit during
the normal academic year.