Earth and Environmental Science (Study Abroad) MSci Hons

Program Overview

The Earth and Environmental Science (Study Abroad) MSci Hons program at Lancaster University combines the study of Earth science and environmental science, focusing on the role of geoscientists in addressing global challenges like climate change, sustainable development, and resource management. This four-year program includes a year of study abroad at one of Lancaster University's partner universities, providing students with diverse perspectives and specialized knowledge in Earth science.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This program, Earth and Environmental Science (Study Abroad) MSci Hons, focuses on the intersection of Earth science and environmental science. It emphasizes the role of geoscientists in tackling global challenges such as climate change, sustainable development, and resource management.

Objectives:

• Equip students with a comprehensive understanding of both natural and human-impacted environments.
• Explore the key factors and processes that shape the present environment and its potential future transformations.
• Provide students with the expertise of faculty specializing in various Earth science domains, including volcanology, geophysics, hydrogeology, and glaciology.
• Develop students' transferable skills such as communication, information technology, data handling, and environmental sampling and analysis, making them highly valued by employers.

Program Description:

• The program encompasses a four-year duration.
• It includes a year of study abroad at one of Lancaster University's partner universities, offering a range of specialist Earth science modules.
• Students are expected to complete an extended research project during the fourth year, alongside Master's-level modules.

Outline:

Year 1:

Core Modules:

• Atmosphere, Weather & Climate: Provides an introduction to atmospheric science, covering the structure and characteristics of the atmosphere, physical principles governing its behavior, and its role in the Earth's climate system.
Includes practical sessions on meteorological data interpretation.
• Biogeochemical Cycles: Introduces key biogeochemical processes affecting the lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere, discussing their relevance to Earth System Science.
Explores the impact of anthropogenic perturbations on biogeochemical cycles, using carbon as an example.
• Environmental Processes and Systems: Focuses on environmental processes and their impacts across various environments.
Covers the physical processes governing the Earth's climate system, surface material behavior, fluid transport, and soil development.
• Geology: Investigates geological processes and materials shaping the Earth.
Covers minerals, volcanic and sedimentary processes, metamorphism, deformation, and rock identification. Aims to provide a foundation for careers in fields like oil and gas, hazard management, and environmental consultancy.
• Global Environmental Challenges: Addresses major contemporary environmental issues and their complexities.
Explores the interconnectedness of social, environmental, and biotic processes, and potential solutions for key environmental issues.
• Hydrology: Water in the Environment: Explores the study of rainfall, groundwater, evaporation, and rivers, and their application in solving water environment problems.
Utilizes case studies of rainforest logging and radionuclide repository risks. Includes a field trip and laboratory sessions.
• Natural Hazards: Examines the distribution and hazards associated with natural phenomena like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods.
Covers the underlying geological and meteorological processes, intensity scales, monitoring, and forecasting methods. Discusses risk mitigation strategies using case studies. Includes practical sessions on data analysis and disaster preparedness.
• The Earth's Interior: Takes students on a journey to the Earth's core, investigating the composition and behavior of the crust, mantle, outer core, and inner core.
Covers the Earth's history and theories on plate tectonics and volcanic activity.

Optional Modules:

• Biodiversity and Conservation: Introduces biological diversity, patterns of distribution, threats to biodiversity, and the rationale for species preservation.
Includes field trips to sites of special conservation interest.
• Geographical Skills in a Changing World: Provides an introduction to cartography, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, and quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques.
• Global Change Biology: Examines how the biosphere reacts to environmental changes like drought, global warming, ozone depletion, and air pollution.
Focuses on plant responses and their impact on terrestrial ecosystems.
• Introduction to Environmental Chemistry: Offers an introduction to the chemistry of environmental systems for students without A-level chemistry.
Covers fundamental chemical behavior, chemical reactions, and instrumental analysis.
• Numerical Skills I: Develops numerical skills necessary for environmental science, focusing on the mathematical analysis of environmental systems.
Includes workshops and case studies.
• Numerical Skills II: Builds on Numerical Skills I, covering trigonometric equations, calculus principles, and equation solving, applying these concepts to environmental examples.

Year 2:

Core Modules:

• Aquatic Biogeochemistry: Covers topics such as the properties of aquatic systems, substances in natural waters, chemical weathering, sorption phenomena, and colloids.
Includes an acid rain case study.
• Beyond LEC?
• Steps to Career Success: Consists of four interactive workshops focusing on career planning, exploring options, recruitment and selection techniques, and professional networking.
• Environmental Field Course: Teaches students hydrological, geological, and surveying techniques in laboratory and field settings.
Uses data from a disused tungsten mine in the Lake District to assess water quality impacts.
• Experimental Design and Analysis: Introduces the scientific method, experimental design, data collection, statistical analysis, and data presentation.
• Geologic Mapping: Focuses on learning geological mapping techniques and understanding geological and geomorphological processes.
Taught as a residential course on the Isle of Mull in Scotland.

Optional Modules:

• Geoscience in Practice: Examines the interpretation of geological history through the analysis of rocks, minerals, and fossils.
Emphasizes practical skills like mineral identification, rock and fossil identification, map interpretation, and field data collection.
• Soil Science: Introduces the nature and properties of soils in an environmental context.
Covers soil formation, description, chemical and physical properties, and biology.
• Introduction to Eco-Innovation: Explores the development of eco-innovative products, processes, and services for sustainable business growth.
• Populations to Ecosystems: Explores the factors that drive population and community dynamics, focusing on multi-trophic interactions in terrestrial ecosystems.
Covers population ecology, life history strategies, competitive interactions, meta-population dynamics, and belowground systems.
• Principles of Biodiversity Conservation: Provides a broad understanding of conservation biology, including biodiversity definition, distribution, threats to biodiversity, conservation strategies, and reserve design.

Year 3:

• Study Abroad Year: Students typically study eight modules at a partner university in North America, Australasia, or Iceland.

Year 4:

Core Modules:

• Dissertation: Students conduct an extensive research project in a focused area of science aligned with Lancaster Environment Centre's research interests.
Involves formulating a hypothesis, designing experiments or data collection methods, analyzing data, and writing a comprehensive dissertation.
• Physical Volcanology: Provides knowledge of volcanoes and volcanic systems, covering the properties and behavior of volcanic materials, physical and chemical processes during volcanic activity, and the impact of volcanism on the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere.

Optional Modules:

• Behaviour of Pollutants in the Environment: Focuses on the fate and behavior of contaminants in the environment, considering the principles and processes that control their fate in environmental systems.
• Conservation Biology: Examines challenges facing biodiversity conservation, trade-offs between conservation goals and human desires, and the complex relationship between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human life.
• Contaminated Land and Remediation: Covers issues related to contaminated land, including assessment methodologies, remediation techniques, and relevant legislation.
• Data Assimilation and Integration: Explores the fundamentals of retrieving, annotating, analyzing, and interpreting digital data from various sources.
Covers data manipulation techniques and tools for data mining and visualization.
• Data Collection and Analysis: Provides a grounding in statistics and data analysis, using the open-source statistical package 'R'.
• Environmental Aspects of Renewable Energy: Covers the positive and negative environmental impacts of various forms of renewable energy.
• Environmental Governance and Management: Provides a critical understanding of environmental management concepts, principles, and techniques.
Examines challenges in managing complex and changing environmental systems.
• Food Security, Agriculture, and Climate Change: Explores challenges facing global agricultural production due to climate change, resource scarcity, and food security issues.
• Geoinformatics: Introduces the principles of GIS and remote sensing, exploring their applications in environmental data analysis and presentation.
• Geological Hazards: Covers geological hazards, exploring the underlying processes, prediction methods, and mitigation strategies.
• Global Change and the Earth System: Introduces the Earth system, its components, and their interactions in shaping the Earth's climate.
• Habitat Management: Covers the planning and ecological principles behind habitat management.
Includes excursions to sites of conservation interest and workshops on management techniques.
• Lake Ecology: Provides an introduction to lake ecology, covering drivers of water quality, ecological principles, and management techniques.
• Modelling Environmental Processes: Introduces basic principles and approaches to computer-aided modeling of environmental processes, with applications to real-world environmental problems.
• Pollution Microbiology: Covers the interactions between microorganisms and naturally occurring organic matter, their role in pollutant degradation, and their application in biological treatment of contaminated ecosystems.
• Spatial Analysis and Geographic Information Systems: Explores the properties of spatial data, their representation in computer systems, and spatial analysis techniques.
Covers map design principles and practical experience with GIS software.

Careers:

• Potential career paths:
• Environmental Consultant
• Weather Forecaster
• Conservation Officer
• Sustainability Consultant
• Toxicologist
• Wastewater Manager
• Hydrologist
• Academic positions
• Non-environmental roles where problem-solving, critical thinking, data handling, project management, and commercial awareness are valued.
• Opportunities:
• The program offers LEC Skills Development Placements, providing voluntary placements with environmental organizations and researchers to gain practical experience.
• A Career Success Module helps students understand the graduate labor market and develop career plans.
• The program includes a Placement pathway option, allowing students to spend a year working full-time in a business.
• Outcomes:
• Graduates from this program are well-paid, with a median starting salary of £24,347.
• The program emphasizes skills development through the Lancaster Award, offering opportunities for work experience, employability development, and social development.

Other:

• Fieldwork: The program offers extensive fieldwork opportunities at locations like Carrock Fell in the Lake District, Mount Etna in Sicily, the Swiss Alps, and Croatia.
• Facilities: Students have access to facilities like research glasshouses, the Hazelrigg Weather Station, environmental chemistry laboratories, and international field sites.
• Student support: Students are assigned mentors, academic tutors, and have access to support from the Director of Studies, teaching coordinators, and a student learning advisor.

Home International £9,250 £28,675