Program on the Environment

The Program on the Environment (PoE) fosters and promotes interdisciplinary environmental education at the UW. As an interdisciplinary program merging multiple fields of study, PoE draws faculty from a wide array of disciplines, providing a unique opportunity for students and faculty to explore complex environmental issues from multiple perspectives.

Undergraduate Program

274 Mary Gates Hall, Box 352802
206-616-1208 or 206-616-2461
poeadv@u.washington.edu

The Program on the Environment offers the following programs of study:

• The Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in environmental studies
• A minor in environmental studies

Bachelor of Arts

 Department Admission Requirements

General Education Requirements

All majors must satisfy the College of Arts and Sciences general education requirements.

Major Requirements

Core Courses (15 credits)

• ENVIR 100, ENVIR 200, ENVIR 300

Foundational Courses (33-35 credits)

• Biology (10 credits):  BIOL 161, BIOL 162
• Chemistry (5 credits):  CHEM 120
• Earth Systems Literacy ( 3-5 credits):  One course from among ATM S 211, ESS 201, ESS/OCEAN 230, GEOG  205, OCEAN 200
• Statistics (5 credits):  One course from among Q SCI 381, STAT 220, STAT 311
• Values and Cultures (10 credits):  Two courses from among ANTH 210, HSTAA 221, and PHIL 243

Environmental Perspectives and Experiences (30 credits)

• Minimum 30 credits from the list of approved courses (see department website or advising office for list).  Courses must satisfy the perspectives and experiences sub-requirements shown below.  At least 20 of the 30 credits must be at the 300 or 400 level.  Courses listed under both perspectives and experiences may count toward either, but not both.  Environmentally related independent study courses, study abroad programs, and other courses not on the approved list may count toward this requirement if approved in advance by the PoE adviser.
• Perspectives:  Minimum three credits in each of the following:  natural sciences; human and social dimensions; policy and decision making; and tools and technologies.
• Experiences:  Minimum three credits in each of the following:  bioregional studies and experiences; global studies and experiences; fieldwork.

Capstone Experience ( 10 credits)

• ENVIR 490, ENVIR 491, ENVIR 492

GPA Requirements:  Minimum 2.0 grade in each course presented for the major, except that courses taken to fulfill the biology, chemistry, and statistics requirements under foundational courses may be satisfied by an overall 2.00 GPA for the four courses combined. 

Minor

Minor Requirements:  30 credits, including ENVIR 100 and ENVIR 200.  Remaining 20 credits drawn from the environmental perspectives course list (see program website or adviser for list).  At least one course (minimum three credits) in each environmental perspectives course category, i.e., natural sciences; human and social dimensions; policy and decision making; and tools and technologies. Ten of these 20 credits must be at the 300 or 400 level.  Minimum 2.0 for each course presented for the minor.

Student Outcomes and Opportunities

• Learning Objectives and Expected Outcomes:  The environmental studies major offers a rigorous, interdisciplinary, experiential curriculum designed to prepare future environmental leaders to respond to bioregional and global environmental opportunities and challenges.  It takes advantage of the extraordinary environmental research at the UW, and makes that social, scientific, humanistic, and professional expertise accessible to students in innovative ways.
• Students completing the B.A. in environmental studies have developed skills in the following:
1. Earth Systems Knowledge:  Understand the structure, function, and integration of the Earth, its inhabitants, and its four major spheres:  land, water, living things, and air.
2. Interdisciplinary Approach:  Apply an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment, integrating multiple kinds of information, tools, methods, and scholarship from a variety of disciplines, in order to analyze and construct arguments about complex environmental issues.
3. Experiential Learning:  Understand the connections between classroom and experiential learning and successfully practice multiple forms of hands-on, real world applications.
4. Communication:  Demonstrate proficiency in multiple modes of communication (writing for different audiences and purposes, using a range of disciplinary norms; oral presentations and public speaking; online publishing; and visual display of environmental information).
5. Public Policy & Decision Making:  Understand how uncertainty, risk, law, politics, ethics, economics, and culture interact with environmental public policy and decision making.
6. Teamwork:  Collaborate as members of teams, effectively working with multiple stakeholders from various backgrounds to address environmental issues.
7. History of Environmental Inquiry:  Understand and reflect critically on the intellectual and cultural history of environmental studies including the history of environmental preservation and conservation.
8. Temporal Scales:  Understand various temporal scales inherent in environmental studies and situate themselves on the continuum of geologic time, evolutionary history, human environment history, and decision making for future generations.
9. Spatial Scales:  Understand various spatial scales inherent in environmental studies spanning the continuum from the local/bioregional to the international/global.
10. Diversity:  Understand how environmental perspectives, policies, and decisions are related to issues of diversity, privilege, and power.
11. Technical Knowledge:  Be familiar with some of the technological tools commonly used to address environmental challenges.
12. Professional Development:  Understand how their education will serve them as environmental professionals.
• Instructional and Research Facilities: The Program on the Environment Multipurpose Room, centrally located in 258 Mary Gates Hall, houses a small library of environmental resources and serves as a meeting and study space. Because PoE is an interdisciplinary program, its students access resources, laboratories, and field stations across a range of UW departments, colleges, and schools.

• Honors Options Available: Departmental Honors. See adviser for details.

• Research, Internships, and Service Learning: All environmental studies majors complete a senior capstone experience, which includes an internship with a community-based organization or government agency, an undergraduate research project, and/or international fieldwork or study abroad. Program on the Environment students receive a weekly email listing of internship and career opportunities. For information on identifying internship, research, and career opportunities, see the "Undergraduate Resources" section of the department's Web page.

• Student Organizations/Associations: The UW Earth Club organizes the annual UW Earth Week events and year-round activities such as public-service projects, panel discussions, and social gatherings.