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Office of the Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies

McMaster Academic Planner (MAP) - Faculty of Science

Honours Environmental Sciences

Honours Environmental Sciences is a flexible, interdisciplinary program providing a solid foundation in environmental sciences, while including select courses in ecology, ecology of inland waters and plant biodiversity. At Level 2, students have a choice of courses including earth history, soils, earth surface processes, environmental geochemistry, surface climate processes and surface water hydrology.

At Level 3 and 4, students may select courses including surface climate processes and environmental interaction, physical hydrogeology, watershed ecosystem biogeochemistry, advanced physical climatology, contaminants geochemistry, freshwater processes, isotope and microbial geochemistry, hydrologic modeling and contaminant hydrogeology. The program also provides a foundation in environmental assessment and policy.

Program Type

Honours Bachelor of Science

Degree at Graduation

Unlimited Enrollment

Co-op Program

Beginning at Level 3

Learn More About Level 2 Program Types

Admission Requirements

Completion of any Level 1 program with a Grade Point Average of at least 5.0 including:

  • 1 of MATH 1A03, 1LS3, 1MM3
  • 2 courses from EARTHSC 1G03, ENVIRSC 1C03, ENVSOCTY 1HA3, 1HB3 with an average of at least 6.0
  • 3 courses from the Science 1 Course List

EARTHSC 1G03 and ENVIRSC 1C03 must be completed by the end of Level 2.

Typical Second-Year Courses

ENVSOCTY 2EI3

Environment & Society: Challenges and Solutions

ENVSOCTY 2GI3

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

STATS 2B03

Statistical Methods for Science

ENVIRSC 2B03

Soils and the Environment

ENVIRSC 2C03

Surface Climate Processes and Environmental Interactions

ENVIRSC 2Q03

Introduction to Environmental Geochemistry

ENVIRSC 2W03

Physical Hydrology