Environmental Earth Sciences BSc (Hons)

In the first two years of your degree (known as sub-honours) you will take the required modules in Environmental Earth Sciences alongside modules in at least one other subject.

In first year, you must complete two compulsory modules, and in second year, you must complete three compulsory modules.

1st Year

Students are required to take the following compulsory modules in their first year:

• Planet Earth: provides a foundation into the study of Earth through a study of key elements of the planet and environmental sciences.
• Earth Resources and Environment: builds on the understanding of planet Earth gained in the Planet Earth module, with an underlying theme of the Earth's resources and environment.

Students are required to take the following compulsory modules in their second year:

• Dynamic Earth: The Earth System: reflects an up-to-date approach to understanding of the behaviour of the solid Earth and its interaction with the atmosphere and biosphere and beyond.
• Dynamic Earth: Magma, Minerals and Metamorphism: focuses on the geology and geochemistry of the solid Earth and high temperature processes in the Earth's interior.
• Dynamic Earth: Earth Surface Processes: focuses on the low temperature processes that occur in the outer envelopes of the Earth, including land-atmosphere interactions, glacial processes, tectonic geomorphology, geomicrobiology and oceanography.

If you decide to take Earth and Environmental Sciences in your third and fourth years, you choose from a wide variety of advanced options, including modules in hydrology, geodynamics and geophysics.

Honours modules involve key skills training and the opportunity to get first-hand experience of new research discoveries and advances in Earth Sciences.

Here is a sample of Honours modules that have been offered in previous years:

• Petroleum Exploration and Geophysics
• Global Biogeochemical Cycles
• Global Climate Change
• Geochemistry
• Processes and Product in Sedimentary Systems
• Water in the Environment
• Advanced Geochemistry.

In your final year, you will undertake an independent research dissertation involving field and laboratory analyses and research presentations.

The sub-honours modules listed here are the compulsory modules that students must take in order to graduate in this subject. However, most students at St Andrews take additional modules, either in their primary subject or from other subjects they are interested in. For Honours-level, students choose from a range of Honours modules, some of which are listed above.