© 2004 SIU Board of Trustee

ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY Required core courses (8-9 hours): ENSC 505 (Environmental Sciences Seminar I): One of the most important aspects of environmental studies is to communicate your findings of scientific research experiments or environmental analysis on current environmental issues. In this course we will discuss and practice different steps and approaches necessary for giving an effective oral or poster presentation. Guest speakers and Faculty in the Environmental Sciences Program will demonstrate how to formulate a scientific presentation, and registered students will each make an oral and a poster presentation. ENSC 506 (Environmental Sciences Seminar II): One of the most critical aspects of environmental analysis is presentation/communication of the results.  In this course we will discuss the steps and processes necessary for presenting the results of an environmental analysis or scientific experiment.  Faculty in the Environmental Science Program will demonstrate how to formulate a scientific presentation and registered students will each make an ORAL presentation.  Being able to effectively communicate the results of an environmental study is critical for evaluating environmental and ecological problems. ENSC 510 (Advanced Environmental Sciences & Policy): One of the most interesting and important aspects of public and scientific debates on risk assessment and risk management is the difficulty of using scientific methods to provide firm knowledge about risk.  Quite often it is not possible to fully test the potential hazardous consequences of a new chemical or a new technology under laboratory conditions.  As a consequence, the risk of using new technologies and chemicals is assessed during use in everyday life.  We will consider an in-depth view of current environmental issues with a scope that is both national and international in flavor.  We will also consider the ambiguous nature of policy decisions regarding risk and the factors that drive risk assessment and management.  In this ambiguity, politics often intersects with science to create environmental policy dilemmas. ENSC 599: Thesis (1-6 hours) or ENSC 597: Final Research Paper (1-3 hours)   Required emphasis courses (9 hours) ENSC 528 (Analysis of Environmental Contaminants): The course will focus on the theory and application of procedures used in the separation, detection, identification, and quantitation of toxicants in environmental samples. Discussion of the laboratory instrumentation, procedures, and experimental methods used for identification and quantitation of toxic substances, as well as their transformation products in environmental and biological samples. ENSC 528L (Analysis of Environmental Contaminants Lab): Applications in environmental analysis, including: extraction, cleanup, and quantitative analysis of authentic samples. Experiments are designed to reinforce and apply theories taught in ENSC 528 (lecture). Hands on experience with the procedures, experimental methods, and instrumentation used for identification and quantitation of toxic substances and their transformation products in environmental and biological samples.   ENSC 531 (Toxicology): This course presents the biochemical and cellular basis for target site specificity of toxic agents in living organisms.  Students will learn toxicant routes of entry, absorption, distribution throughout the body, Phase I and Phase II metabolism, organ specific toxicities, and defense mechanisms.  Special attention will be given to environmental contaminants. Throughout the semester there will be applied toxicology topics covered in between the first and third hours of lecture.  Topics will include: Toxicity testing and ecotoxicological approaches in the field, biological and chemical warfare agents, chlorinated insecticides, natural toxins, case histories and ecosystem surveys, and other topics. ENSC 540 (Pollution Ecology): This course covers a wide range of topics in the environmental sciences, with particular emphasis on the transport and fate of pollutants in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The course examines the influence of physical, chemical, and biological processes on the transport of pollutants in the environment. Students will explore ecological effects of selected environmental pollution problems; particularly those related to chemical contaminants. This course will provide the base scientific knowledge that is essential for assessing the impact of pollution on the structure and function of ecosystems. Note: ENSC 520 (Environmental Sampling) can be substituted for ENSC 528/528L. Electives: 9 hours minimum.