B.Sc. Environmental Geoscience with Professional Placement Year

The course structure is very flexible. All Cardiff's School of Earth and Ocean Science degree programmes share a common first Semester. This is designed to give you a sound foundation in Earth Sciences upon which to build. At the end of your first Semester you will decide whether to continue with your original degree choice or choose another of Cardiff's Earth Science degrees.

You will study the following modules:

• The Sedimentary System
• Life Through Time
• Earth and Planetary System Science
• Fieldwork
• Earth Science Skills
• Natural Resources and Energy
• Formation of the British Isles
• Dangerous Earth
• Geological Maps, Sections and Structures
• Environmental Chemistry and Biology

In you will study a wide variety of modules. The modules studied in the second year range from: more ‘applied’ modules that will facilitate your understanding of site-specific geoenvironmental issues, such as contaminated land, rock engineering and geotechnics: to modules that address more ‘global’ geoenvironmental issues, providing a base for studies on subjects like climate change and sea level rise: to those specialise in biological interaction with past and present environments.

You will study the following modules:

• Fieldwork
• Data Acquisition and Analysis
• Applied GIS
• Biogeochemistry
• Earth Surface Processes
• Palaeoecology
• Environmental Pollution
• Structural Geology
• Catchment Hydrology and Geomorphology
• The Atmosphere System
• Geoecology

In all these modules you will be taught the skills required for planning, executing and reporting on project work.

The School provides a wide range of different potential projects from which you can choose a subject that interests you. Students often choose or devise projects that relate to geoenvironmental issues close to their homes or that have impacted on their lives in the past. Often the projects are undertaken with help and advice provided by bodies such as the Local Authorities or Environmental Agency.

Dedicated environmental training takes place around Easter, and this addresses issues that have not been covered in previous modules. This is also an opportunity for you to start acquiring more specific skills that will be required for your own project work. For example, if you undertake a project that requires you to do geochemical analyses, you will be taught the protocols required to work in a modern state-of-the-art geochemical facility.

Your third year will be spent as a placement year working in industry. Some of the work you undertake during this year can be used as a basis for your project which you will complete in Year 4. Although we will do our best to secure you a placement, we must stress that in the current economic climate many companies are unwilling, or unable to commit to year-long placements we therefore cannot guarantee that you will obtain a placement. If you do not get a placement you will progress directly to the third and final year of the Environmental Geoscience degree.

In the fourth year you will complete your project work, presenting it in the form of a professional report.

There are a few ‘core’ modules, but the majority are optional, allowing you to target your own geoenvironmental interests and aspirations. As with the previous years, the third year consists of a mixture of taught knowledge and skills. However, in this final part of your degree, the emphasis is much more on synthesis, tying together the separate strands to give a more complete and holistic understanding of the subject.

The evolution of our present environment into the future is a key subject for global enquiry and includes the problems of climate change and the effect of human activities on the environment.

Core Modules

• Environmental Geoscience Project
• Environmental Geoscience Field Course (Tenerife)
• Global Geomprphology
• Environmental Case Studies

Optional Modules

• Engineering Geology
• Palaeobiology
• Environmental Law
• Global Climate Change
• Marine Microfossils
• Integrated Coastal Management
• Water Resources
• Environmental Management and Policy
• Geomicrobiology
• Biogeography