Course Descriptions

Introduces students to renewable resources and their management. Emphasis will be on human use of surface water, groundwater, land and plant resources. The concepts of sustainable use and ecological goods and services will be explored for each resource. The role of each resource as an alternative energy source and the interaction between human use of the resource and global change will also be addressed. Critical assumptions that underlie human use of resources will be discussed in weekly tutorial sessions.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Tutorial hours

This course will explore basic components of meteorology, weather, and climate in a Saskatchewan agricultural context. Basic tenets of past and future climate change across various temporal scales will be probed, especially as they relate to the various entities of Saskatchewan agriculture and bioresource industries. Implications for current climate changes within each of the agricultural industries will be probed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

An introduction to the principles and practice of sampling and analysis of soils and related environmental materials. This course involves hands-on exercises on field soil sampling, sample handling, basic laboratory techniques and safety, and selected laboratory analyses designed to demonstrate soil principles relevant to environmental soil science.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Note: Students with credit for EVSC 303 may not take this course for credit. There are additional non-refundable costs in addition to tuition fees.

Soil sampling is an integral part of the environmental and agricultural sciences. Students in this course will learn about how sampling can provide reliable evidence to address various problems and how to design and implement sampling programs. Students will also gain experience in performing basic calculations and in the methods to express variability associated with different soil properties. Exercises throughout the class are drawn from real-world regulatory frameworks.

Prerequisite(s): AGRC 111.3 or GEOG 120.3 or ASKI 101.3
Note: Students with credit for EVSC 203.3 will not receive credit for EVSC 204.1

Essential physical concepts and processes (transport and storage of matter and energy) in the environment are introduced through applications and case-studies. Case studies include water cycles, natural and human-induced climate change, and the impact of human activity (industrial and agricultural) on the environment. Practicums are in the form of tutorials. Students will develop the essential ability to solve practical environmental problems through this course.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 3 Practicum/Lab hours

Focuses on soils as an integrator of a broad range of environmental processes and as a critical component in human induced environmental change. Major topics include the influence of the environment on soil formation and the physical, chemical, and microbial/biochemical soil processes of relevance to environmental science.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): AGRC 111 or 3 credit units GEOG or GEOL.
Note: Students may receive credit for only one of EVSC 220 or SLSC 240.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

A five-day field course, plus tutorials early in the term, to study the landscape, soils and vegetation of the prairie ecozone. Emphasis will be on the environmental factors controlling soil and plant distribution, and characterizing relationships among vegetation, soils and landscapes. Basic field skills will be taught, including soil and vegetation classification and sampling. There are additional non-refundable costs in addition to tuition fees.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture/Practicum/Lab hours
Note: There are additional non-refundable costs in addition to tuition fees.
Prerequisite(s): PLSC 213 and either SLSC 240 or EVSC 220 or permission of the instructor
Note: SLSC 232 is recommended. This one-week field course is held the week preceding the start of fall Term One.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

This course will focus on how contaminated sites are managed and remediated for new land uses. Students will learn the theory of how sites are investigated and characterized, how toxicological information is used to estimate the risk to humans and ecosystems, how threats to groundwater are assessed and finally, methods by which these risks and threats are mitigated through remediation approaches. This course will provide students with the skill sets necessary to assess, manage and reduce human and ecological risk at a contaminated site.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of 72 credit units, including EVSC 210.3 or 3 credit units of 100-level PHYS or STAT 245.3 or PLSC 214.3 or GE 210.3.
Note: Students with credit for SLSC 819 cannot receive credit for this course.

A project based course investigating global and local environmental issues. Students will investigate and synthesize information on topical environmental problems and present the results in class or to the community. Students will identify environmental issues to investigate. Skills involving the selection, acquisition, filtering and presentation of data, together with project completion, will be taught through critical thinking and concepts of systems theory.

Weekly hours: 1 Lecture hours and 2 Practicum/Lab hours
Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of 75 credit units of university level courses. For students planning on completing the Certificate in Sustainability, it is highly recommended that ENVS 201 be completed as a prerequisite to this course.

A technical writing and communications course in which the student investigates a problem relevant to Environmental Science. The focus will be on literature research using electronic and library resources, but original data may be included. A term paper will be written under the guidance of a faculty advisor and results presented in a seminar or as a poster. Communication skills will be addressed in a series of lectures early in the course.

Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of 75 credit units of university level courses.

Students will investigate a problem in Environmental Science using modern laboratory or field methods. An extensive literature review will be prepared utilizing electronic and library resources and a research question will be taken from the literature. Students will develop a hypothesis, design experiments to test the hypothesis, and analyze and interpret their experimental results. Finally, a comprehensive thesis will be written and findings will be presented in a formal seminar or poster. Communication skills will be addressed in a series of lectures at the beginning of the term.

Prerequisite(s): Successful completion of 75 credit units towards the Environmental Science B.S.A. degree or permission from the Head of the supervising department.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.