Courses ofInstruction
Aquatic Science
Program Faculty
Walter Bowyer, Professor, Chemistry
Meghan Brown, Associate Professor, Biology
Kristen Brubaker, Associate Professor, Environmental Studies
Lisa Cleckner, Director, Finger Lakes Institute and Environmental Studies
Tara Curtin, Associate Professor, Geoscience
Susan Cushman, Assistant Professor, Biology
Ileana Dumitriu, Associate Professor, Physics
David Finkelstein, Associate Professor, Geoscience
John Halfman, Professor, Environmental Studies, Chair
Aquatic Science is the interdisciplinary study of water at or near the earth’s surface. The interdisciplinary and science-based program is rigorous but essential for those students interested in the science behind water and water resources. The program selected the pertinent introductory and upper-level courses across the natural science division at the Colleges to provide an interdisciplinary, science-based view of water and to prepare students to enter the workforce at state and federal government laboratories, universities, industries, magazines, book publishers, television, radio, legal firms, and environmental societies, or continue in academia at the graduate level.
Why water and the Aquatic Sciences minor? The concentration of aquatic science faculty on campus and the resources to allow study of Seneca and neighboring Finger Lakes, including out 65-ft research vessel the William Scandling, provides a great resource for students planning careers in the field. This is a distinction at HWS not found at most other colleges and universities. Well trained students in the aquatic sciences will be of increasing demand in the future as the planet struggles with clean water, food scarcity, and the changing climate, just to name a few examples of water in international issues. The Aquatic Science minor provides an opportunity to major (or double major), in any of the sciences or other majors across the Colleges.
Offerings
Please refer to the Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Studies, Geoscience, Mathematics & Computer Science, and Physics departmental pages for course descriptions for their majors and minors.
Aquatic Science Minor
interdisciplinary, 7 courses
Requirements:
GEO 186 Introduction to Hydrogeology; and six courses selected from the following four lists: Global Context & Aquatic Processes, Analytical Techniques, Spatial & Statistical Analysis, and the Aquatic Sciences Capstone Research Experience. Credit/No Credit cannot be used for program courses. No more than two courses from another institution may count toward the minor. All courses must be completed with a grade of C- or better. At east 3 courses must be unique to the minor.
Global Context and Aquatic Processes (Two Courses)
BIOL 225 Ecology (offered annually)
BIOL 238 Aquatic Biology (offered annually)
BIOL 240 Global Change Biology (offered alternate years)
BIOL 325 Invasive Biology (annually)
CHEM 260 Environmental Chemistry (offered occasionally)
GEO 210 Environmental Hydrology (Spring, offered annually)
GEO 220 Geomorphology (Fall, offered alternate years)
GEO 250 Oceanography (Spring, semi-annually)
GEO 330 Limnology (Fall, annually)
Analytical Techniques (One Course)
CHEM 210 Quantitative Analysis (offered annually)
CHEM 437 Instrument Analysis
CPSC 225 Intermediate Programming (offered annually)
CPSC 226 Embedded Computing (offered alternate years)
CPSC 327 Data Structure and Algorithms (offered annually)
CPSC 343 Database Theory and Practice (offered alternate years)
GEO 280 Aqueous and Environmental Geochemistry (Spring, annually)
GEO 335 Stable Isotope Geochemistry (Spring, alternate years)
MATH 204 Linear Algebra (offered annually)
MATH 237 Differential Equations (offered annually)
MATH 350 Probability ((offered alternate years)
PHYS 285 Math Methods (offered annually)
PHYS 287 Computational Methods (offered annually)
Spatial and Quantitative Reasoning (Two Courses – only one statistics course may count)
ENV 203 Fundamentals of GIS (Fall, annually)
ENV 281 Remote Sensing (Spring, annually)
ENV 310 Advanced GIS (Spring, Annually)
BIOL 212 Biostatistics (offered every semester)
GEO/ENV 207 Statistics (offered annually)
Capstone Research Experience (One Course and Formal Presentation)
AQSC 450 Independent Study
AQSC 495/496 Honors
Related Upper-Level Science Courses
BIOL 227 Behavioral Ecology
BIOL 320 Agroecology
CPSC 336 Robotics
GEO 270 Paleoclimatology
GEO 320 Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks
MATH 353 Mathematical Models
PHYS 240 Electronics
PHYS 260 Waves and Optics