Environmental Sciences: Environmental Health
The discipline of environmental health encompasses understanding and addressing the inter-relationships of the environment and human health, including the effects of biological, chemical and physical factors, as well as social environments on health. Clean air, stable climate, adequate water, sanitation and hygiene, safe use of chemicals, protection from radiation, healthy and safe workplaces, sound agricultural practices, health-supportive cities and built environments, and functioning ecosystems are all prerequisites for good health. As environmental health scientists, graduates of this program will work to protect human health and well-being based on an integrated understanding of human-environment interrelationships and by fostering both healthy communities and healthy ecosystems.
Students build on foundational training in the natural sciences with coursework in ecology, environmental health, soils, water resources, microbiology, physiology, toxicology and epidemiology. Courses in risk assessment, environmental laws and regulations, geographic information systems and statistics provide additional skills. Hands-on experience is gained through fieldtrips, a required environmental health internship and the capstone field course for LRES. Students in this option are eligible for national environmental health scholarships and internships. This is a flexible option with sufficient elective credits to allow students to specialize or earn a minor in any area of the interdisciplinary curriculum, such as environmental law, water and health, entomology/vectorborne disease, global health, one health, toxicology, epidemiology, outdoor recreation safety and more.
Career opportunities: Students earn a bachelor’s degree in environmental science as well as a nationally accredited environmental health degree. As the only accredited environmental health BS degree in the Northern Plains, graduates are well prepared for and go to work as environmental health professionals in the public and private sectors, or go on to graduate school in environmental health, occupational health and safety, risk assessment, epidemiology or toxicology, or pursue medical school, the US Public Health Service or a career in environmental law and policy.
| Freshman Year | Credits |
|---|---|
| CHMY 141 - College Chemistry I & CHMY 142 - College Chemistry I Lab | 4 |
| BIOB 160 - Principles of Living Systems (F, S) or BIOB 260 - Cellular and Molecular Biology | 4 |
| M 151Q - Precalculus (F, S, Su) or M 161Q - Survey of Calculus or M 171Q - Calculus I | 4 |
| CHMY 143 - College Chemistry II & CHMY 144 - College Chemistry II Lab | 4 |
| GPHY 284 - Intro to GIS Science & Cartog | 3 |
| Core and/or Electives | 11 |
| Year Total: | 30 |
| Sophomore Year | Credits |
| BIOM 210RN - Environmental Health Science (F) | 3 |
| CHMY 211 - Elements of Organic Chemistry & CHMY 212 - Elements of Organic Chemistry Lab or CHMY 321 and CHMY 322 or CHMY 123 - Introduction to Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry | 5 |
| PHSX 205 - College Physics I (F, S, Su) | 4 |
| NRSM 240 - Natural Resource Ecology (F) or NRSM 101 - Natural Resource Conservation or BIOE 370 - General Ecology or BIOM 415 - Microbial Diversity, Ecology, and Evolution or SFBS 146 - Introduction to Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems | 3 |
| BIOH 185 - Integrated Physiology I or BIOH 201 and BIOH 211 or ANSC 265 and ANSC 266 or KIN 221 - Health Anatomy & Physiology | 0-4 |
| BIOB 318 - Biometry or STAT 216Q - Introduction to Statistics or HDFS 271 - Statistical Measures of Well-Being | 3 |
| BIOM 250 - Microbiology for Health Sciences: Infectious Diseases | 3 |
| CORE and/or Electives | 7 |
| Year Total: | 28-32 |
| Junior Year | Credits |
| BIOM 360 - General Microbiology (F, S) | 5 |
| MBEH 498 - Internship (F, S, Su)) | 3 |
| EENV 387 - Environmental Laws and Regulations | 3 |
| CORE and/or Electives | 19 |
| Year Total: | 30 |
| Senior Year | Credits |
| BIOM 494 - Seminar/Workshop & BIOM 494 - Seminar/Workshop or MBEH 490R - Undergraduate Research | 2-3 |
| CHTH 440 - Principles of Epidemiology (F) | 3 |
| ENSC 407 - Environmental Risk Assessment (F) | 3 |
| BIOM 425 - Toxicology: Science of Poisons | 3 |
| CORE and/or Electives | 18-19 |
| Year Total: | 29-31 |
| Total Program Credits: | 120 |
Required Electives
Students must take a minimum of 12 credits of electives applicable to environmental health. While the courses listed in this first section are particularly recommended, and the second section lists other eligible electives; students work with their advisor to select electives most relevant to their career goals (even if not listed here).
Recommended electives
A minimum of 120 credits is required for graduation, with at least 42 course credits at 300 level or above.
| BIOM 419 | Programming for Biologists ( Programming for Biologists) | 3 |
| BIOM 430 | Applied and Environmental Microbiology | 4 |
| BIOH 303 | Global Diseases and Health Disparities | 3 |
| LS 191 | Special Topics (Introduction to Global Health (F)) | 3 |
| ENSC 272CS | Water Resources (F) | 3 |
| ENSC 245IN | Soils (F) | 3 |
| ARCH 231CS | Issues in Sustainability | 3 |
| WRIT 221 | Intermediate Tech Writing | 3 |
| or WRIT 326 | Advanced Writing | |
| STAT 217 | Intermediate Statistical Concepts | 3 |
| or STAT 337 | Intermediate Statistics with Introduction to Statistical Computing | |
| CHTH 210 | Foundations in Community Health | 3 |
| CHTH 428 | Health Disparities (take alternate pre-reqs) | 3 |
Electives: Other
A minimum of 120 credits is required for graduation, with at least 42 course credits at 300 level or above.
| MBEH 490R | Undergraduate Research | 1-6 |
| MBEH 492 | Independent Study | 1-3 |
| AGSC 465R | Health, Agriculture, Poverty (F, S) | 4 |
| BCH 380 & BCH 381 | Biochemistry and Biochemistry Lab | 5 |
| BIOE 375 | Ecological Responses to Climate Change | 3 |
| BIOH 201 | Human Anatomy and Physiology I (F) | 5 |
| BIOH 303 | Global Diseases and Health Disparities (S) | 3 |
| BIOM 400 | Medical Microbiology (S) | 3 |
| BIOM 405 | Host-Associated Microbiomes (S) | 3 |
| BIOM 410 | Microbial Genetics (S) | 3 |
| BIOM 435 | Virology (F) | 3 |
| BIOM 450 | Microbial Physiology (F) | 3 |
| BIOM 452 | Soil & Envirnmntl Microbiology (F) | 3 |
| BIOB 410 | Immunology (F, S) | 3 |
| BIOO 262IN | Introduction to Entomology | 3 |
| BMGT 235 | Management (F) | 3 |
| CHMY 323 & CHMY 324 | Organic Chemistry II and Organic Chemistry II Lab | 4 |
| CHTH 317 | Health Behavior Theories | 3 |
| CHTH 428 | Health Disparities | 3 |
| MBEH 498 | Internship | 2-12 |
| ENSC 353 | Environmental Biogeochemistry | 3 |
| ENSC 444 | Watershed Hydrology (F) | 3 |
| ENSC 460 | Soil Remediation (S) | 3 |
| ENSC 461 | Restoration Ecology | 3 |
| ERTH 101IN | Earth System Sciences | 4 |
| GPHY 357 | GPS Fund/App in Mapping (F) | 3 |
| GPHY 384 | Adv GIS and Spatial Analysis (F, S) | 3 |
| GPHY 402 | Water and Society | 3 |
| M 161Q | Survey of Calculus (Calculus can count as elective if M151 taken at MSU) | 4 |
| or M 171Q | Calculus I | |
| NASX 310 | Native Cultures of North America | 3 |
| or NASX 450 | History of American Indians | |
| NASX 415 | Native Food Systems | 3 |
| NASX 476 | American Indian Policy and Law | 3 |
| NRSM 430 | Natural Resource Law | 3 |
| NUTR 221CS | Basic Human Nutrition (F, S, Su) | 3 |
| NUTR 226 | Food Fundamentals (S) | 3 |
| NUTR 227 | Food Fundamentals Lab (F, S) | 2 |
| NUTR 322 | Food Service System Management (F) | 3 |
| PHSX 207 | College Physics II | 4 |
| SFBS 346 | Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems Summer Field Course | 1 |
| SFBS 451R | Sustainable Food Systems | 3 |
| STAT 411 | Methods for Data Analysis I | 3 |
| STAT 412 | Methods for Data Analysis II | 3 |