Major and Minor in Global Environmental Change and Sustainability (GECS)

You may also be interested in our other undergraduate degrees in Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Overview

The interdisciplinary, interdepartmental GECS major and minor introduce students to both the science of the Earth and its living and nonliving systems and how humans interact with Earth and its natural systems. GECS is also solution-focused on how humans can use powerful tools, such as policy and communication to help those systems. The goals are to advance awareness of the magnitude and consequences of these issues and to train the next generation of problem-solvers to address the effects of global environmental change. Students' backgrounds are typically specialized within traditional disciplines; a primary purpose of this major is to develop the ability of students to venture beyond the confines of those disciplines. Students will be exposed to theory, research, and the practical applications of both throughout their coursework.

Curriculum for Major 

The GECS core requirements provides all majors with a solid background in the study of both the environmental science and social science of our changing world. After completing the core requirements, students will choose either the Environmental Science or Social Science concentration for more in-depth study in their area of greater interest. While allowing students to concentrate, however, both concentrations will continue to require some courses in both environmental science and social science; the proportion will depend on the concentration. Course Requirements:

A key component of the GECS major is the senior capstone experience consisting of projects, research, internships, and field trips that give students "hands on" experience. These projects could be coordinated with other activities at JHU, including those of the Hopkins Office of Sustainability, and could also lead to greater outreach activities.

To further enhance the students’ perspective of the global nature of the issues and differences in world views of different cultures, the major will cultivate and nurture relationships with international institutions to provide a variety of culturally and academically challenging opportunities abroad to augment the JHU experience.

Course Requirements:

Requirements for the major include a total of 23 courses (78 credits) if the Science Concentration is chosen, or 24 courses (75 credits) if the Social Science Conentration is chosen. Although this is a substantial number of courses, GECS majors are exempt from the University’s distribution requirements, thus making the total course load more manageable. Courses can be selected from a diversity of offerings available from different departments. GECS majors take a "core" of 12 foundational courses listed in Table 1. Core courses are offered through Earth & Planetary Sciences, Mathematics, Economics, Chemistry, Engineering, Psychology, Sociology, and Political Science. For electives, the major draws upon additional pertinent course offerings from these departments as well as from Anthropology, Biology, Physics, and History. Economics, Sociology, and Political Science are especially relevant to global environmental change and sustainability, both in their contributions to the problems we face and in their potential contributions to solutions to achieving sustainability. JHU is fortunate to have many courses from these disciplines with vitally relevant content. As such, these three disciplines contribute the majority of the Social Science Elective courses.

1. Core courses: 12 core courses required for all GECS majors are listed in Table 1 below.

2. Environmental Science Concentration core courses are listed in Table 2 below. In addition to these core courses, students choosing this concentration must take an additional 2 upper-level courses from Table 3: Major Electives in Earth and Environmental Science and 4 courses from Table 4: Major Electives in Social Sciences, 2 of which must be upper-level.

3. Social Science Concentration majors must take 2 courses from Table 3: Major Electives in Earth and Environmental Science, at least 1 of which must be upper-level, and 10 courses from Table 4: Major Electives in Social Sciences, at least 6 of which must be upper level.

4. Because GECS is inherently interdisciplinary, students fulfill the University’s distribution requirements by completing the requirements for the major.

5. Capstone Experience: Project, Product, Seminar
 Majors are required to complete a senior Capstone experience in conjunction with the Director and relevant faculty. The Capstone Project provides the academic space, time, and mentoring for the student to integrate and synthesize the knowledge and skills obtained during the 4-year program into a coherent framework in preparation for life after graduation. Moreover, the Capstone Product should be useful for the student’s chosen post-graduate path. The Capstone Seminar provides additional time and mentoring for students to explore sustainability issues in greater depth while finetuning writing and presentation skills.

a) The Capstone Project will likely take the form of original research, internship, or independent study. and will be a demonstration of integration and synthesis of knowledge and skills obtained during the 4-year program.

b) Majors will be encouraged to begin planning their capstone experience during their junior year and will be required to submit a project proposal by the end of their junior year. Subsequent milestones will be designated throughout the senior year to ensure that all majors are making satisfactory progress on their projects.

c) The Capstone Seminar is taken during the spring semester of senior year. Prerequisites include current status as GECS Major, completion of all core courses, and an acceptable plan for completing all requirements for the major by end of the senior year, or approval of Director.

d) Credit for work in earlier terms using standard research, internship, or independent study courses can be applied to the capstone experience.

e) All majors will make an oral presentation about their capstone experience to involved faculty, advisors, and parents at the end of their senior year.

Honors Program:

Majors who complete their 4 years with a university-wide GPA of 3.5 or above will receive a B.A. with Honors. (Note: Beginning in fall 2013, Honors will be awarded to majors who complete their 4 years with a GPA in GECS-required courses.)

Curriculum for Minor

The GECS minor consists of seven courses Table 5. All minors are required to take two core courses: Intro to Global Environmental Change provides the necessary content about the science of the Earth and its environments and Intro to Sustainability covers a thorough overview of the interactions between humans and the Earth’s systems and how those interactions could become sustainable. Students then have a choice of one of three other science courses that further explores a  subset of interactions of humans with Earth’s living and nonliving systems, depending on the student’s area of interest. Students must choose two more courses from the list of Earth and Environmental Science Electives Table 3 and two more courses from the list of Social Science Electives Table 4. At least one course from each elective list must be upper level. A total of five Earth and Environmental Science courses provide the science basis of the minor, which is then rounded out with two relevant Social Science courses. Because students will be acquiring the methodological tools of their major discipline, this curriculum removes the science methodology required in the GECS major, while keeping the most important core content.

Printable version of GECS Program.

For more information contact:
Cindy L. Parker MD, MPH
Director, GECS Major
CIPARKER@JHSPH.EDU

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