Sustainability Minor
The sustainability minor is an excellent addition to any major. It has an interdisciplinary focus with the shared goal of understanding, preserving and promoting a healthy planet. MSUM is one of only a few universities in the country to approach sustainability across the curriculum. The Sustainability Minor consists of 25 credits.
Sustainability Minor Requirements
Sustainability Minor Courses
Total Credits: 25
Core Requirements (15 credits)
- SUST 200 Nature of Sustainability (3)
- ENGL 407 Big City, Big Impact (3)
- PSCI 378 Energy and Environment (3)
- SUST 421 Systems Thinking (3)
- SUST 432 Environmental Dilemmas (3)
Restricted Electives (10 credits)
Take one course from the list of science electives.
- GEOS 109/GEOS 109L Processes and History of a Dynamic Planet (4)
- GEOS 110/GEOS 110L Water, Land, and People: An Introduction to Physical Geography (4)
- BIOL 115/BIOL 115L Organismal Biology with Lab (4)
Take two courses from the list of global and human diversity electives:
- GEOS 111 Cultures and Regions (3)
- HIST 374 Plagues and People (3)
- HIST 379 Environmental History (3)
- SUST 485 Global Health Perspectives (3)
- WS 330 Gender, Justice and the Environment (3)
Student Learning Outcomes
- Explore the concept of sustainability within the context of socio-environmental systems.
- Evaluate how humans impact the surface of the earth and the biosphere, and the consequential effects on ecosystem services.
- Examine the relationships between civilization, society and energy use and look at possible steps to a sustainable energy and environmental future.
- Identify issues faced by developing countries in the conflict between rapid economic development and the threat of environmental degradation.
- Describe how class, gender, race, ethnicity, nation status, and other identities intersect with relationships within environmental justice and activism.
- Examine the motivations behind humans' decisions to modify ecosystems throughout the world, and the effects that environmental change has had on the peoples and ecosystems throughout human history.
- Interpret any environmental issue within a systems thinking framework.
- Articulate the ethical responsibilities humans have for the non-human world and for future human generations.
Questions? Contact Us
Karl Leonard,
PhD, MS, BS
Professor
Anthropology & Earth Science Department