The Bachelor of Science Program in Ecosystem Science & Stewardship (BS ESS) studies the structure, function, and processes of ecosystems and their responses to global environmental change. The program focuses on student training in the science and practice of stewardship and restoration, with particular attention to the species, habitats and landscapes of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region of the US. The goal of the program is to equip students with the essential knowledge, skills, and practice to generate resilient solutions to the ecosystem stewardship challenges of our time.
The BS ESS curriculum requires students to integrate multiple scales of scientific inquiry (e.g, from molecules to ecosystems; locally to globally), identify and engage diverse stakeholders, and translate scientific knowledge to action. Learning throughout the program is active, engaging, and both independent and highly collaborative, incorporating field and laboratory training, remote sensing, statistics, modeling, and GIS. The program is designed to train students through community-based partnerships, projects, and research, with coursework spanning multiple fields of study, including: earth systems science; organismal biology and ecology; soil, water and climate science; spatial and quantitative reasoning; experimental design and analysis; human dimensions of natural resource management; global change biology; ecological restoration and stewardship in practice. CMC’s Ecosystem Science & Stewardship Emphasis (AS) is a recommended pathway that will prepare a student well for the upper-division coursework within the BS ESS.
The BS ESS program is offered at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville, Steamboat Springs, and Vail Valley at Edwards. Not every course is offered in-person on every campus, most will be offered via campus virtual classrooms (students join virtually from a classroom at their home-campus).
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