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Our Qualifications:
BA (Honours) Environmental Studies
Environmental issues are posing multiple challenges to people and ecosystems across the planet. These challenges can only be addressed effectively if the complex connections between the societal (social, political, economic, cultural, and ethical) and the biophysical (geological, physical, ecological) dimensions of environmental issues are taken seriously. This innovative, interdisciplinary degree combines the social and natural sciences to help you understand these different dimensions and why their interrelationships matter as we respond to intensifying environmental change.
Learn more ❯BA (Honours) Environmental Studies
BA (Honours) Social Sciences
In a fast-changing world the social sciences seek answers to the big questions we face as a society. Those answers inform the work of anyone needing to base their decisions on the best available evidence ? civil servants, policy makers, business executives and many more. Half of your studies will be interdisciplinary social science and sociology, giving you a firm grounding in knowledge and ideas central to the social sciences. For the other half, you can specialise in criminology, economics, geography, politics, philosophy, psychology, religious studies or sociology, or you can choose a combination of modules that most suits your interests. Whatever path you take, you will acquire valuable transferable skills opening up employment opportunities in private, public and voluntary sector organisations.
Learn more ❯BA (Honours) Social Sciences
Certificate of Higher Education in Environment
This certificate combines aspects of science, technology and social science to help you understand the environments in which we live and work; how our activities influence them; how they influence what we do; and how can we live sustainably within them.
Learn more ❯Certificate of Higher Education in EnvironmentOur Modules:
Environment: sharing a dynamic planet
Environmental issues pose challenges. What are the biophysical and social causes of environmental change? What exactly is an environmental issue and why are they often controversial and difficult to resolve? How can we make a difference? You'll address all of these questions as you explore four key global environmental concerns ? life, water, carbon, and food ? through a rich and interactive set of study materials. As you do so, you'll develop a distinctive way of thinking about environments and environmental issues that draws on the insights of both natural and social sciences to be at once intellectually innovative and practically relevant.
Learn more ❯Environment: sharing a dynamic planet
Environmental science
This on-screen module spans biology, chemistry, earth science and physics, drawing them together in a holistic approach to studying the environment. You'll investigate air, water, earth, life and cycles and explore the processes, interactions and feedback mechanisms operating within different environments. Practical experiences provided through multimedia interactive 'virtual' field trip activities and project work allow you to develop skills and apply your learning. By the end, you will be able to make critical analyses of environmental processes and structures, e.g. landforms, soils, water flows and habitats of flora and fauna, and comment on anthropogenic influences and their likely consequences.
Learn more ❯Environmental science
Environment: journeys through a changing world
Our world is changing fast ? we are experiencing pressure from climate change, growing demands for finite resources, biodiversity loss and the extinction of many plants and animals. introduces you to subjects from the natural sciences, social sciences and technology to develop your understanding of environmental issues and sustainability concerns. It shows how people are seeking positive solutions to environmental challenges where you live, in the Arctic, Africa, the Amazon and China. You do not need any prior environmental knowledge to study this key introductory OU level 1 module, just an interest in the future of our planet.
Learn more ❯Environment: journeys through a changing worldOur Free Courses:
Water in the UK
Water is arguably the most important physical resource as it is the one that is essential to human survival. Understanding the global water cycle and how we use water is essential to planning a sustainable source of water for the future. Globally, there are many areas that do not have enough water to support the current population adequately. Decisions will have to be made on the best way to use water in a world where there is climate change. This free course looks at Water in the UK where water supplies are limited in certain areas, as shown by recent droughts.
Learn more ❯Water in the UK
Managing coastal environments
Coastal environments are by their nature ever-changing. This free course, Managing coastal environments, looks at the example of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, England, describing how the current state of the estuary came to be. It examines the contests and conflicts that centre on the estuary in terms of managing the environment for human needs and the needs of the other species who make their habitat there.
Learn more ❯Managing coastal environments
Energy resources: Tidal energy
The rise and fall of ocean tides result from the combined gravitational pull on water by the Moon and, to a lesser extent, the Sun, which exerts a force on water directed towards the two astronomical bodies. These gravitational effects combine with centrifugal forces that result from the Earth and the Moon orbiting each other. All of which makes tidal change a complex process. Energy resources: Tidal energy, is a free course that considers the power of the ocean tides as a potential source of useable energy and whether or not it can ever make any significant contribution to global energy supplies.
Learn more ❯Energy resources: Tidal energyRead more about the effects of plastic on the environment
Sea level rise | International case studies
Sea level rise will have effects around the globe, from large countries such as the USA to many smaller island nations. Below are some case studies on how these countries are coping.
Read now ❯Sea level rise | International case studies
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