(Short Course) Introduction to Environmental Issues
Course details
Year of entry
2025
Institution Code
G53
Location
Online
Why choose this course?
The course provides a great introduction for those who want to learn more about environmental changes and what drives them. You will gain an appreciation of the human activities that contribute to this enabling you to live a more sustainable lifestyle.
Key course features
- Study online with weekly lectures and activities.
- Explore a range of past, present and future environmental changes and their impacts.
- Learn how to make more sustainable lifestyle choices.
What you will study
- Earth’s physical systems: nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, water cycles.
- Food chains, webs and trophic levels.
- Autotrophic & heterotrophic nutrition.
- Climate and biomes.
- Environmental changes past: past ice-ages, mass extinctions, evolution and continental drift.
- Environmental changes present: melting ice caps, sea level rise, sea warming and
- acidification, flooding.
- Environmental changes present: changing weather patterns, loss of biodiversity.
- Environmental changes future: warmer global temperatures, redistribution of global populations.
- Global pollution, climate change, toxic emissions, local pollution.
- Alien introductions: plants and animals.
- Overharvesting: marine, mammals, plants.
- Habitat loss and habitat fragmentation: agriculture, food production, urbanisation.
- Population growth: past, present and future predictions.
Students are expected to join the online lecture and class activities weekly on Wednesday evenings. There will be no regular homework or work to be completed outside of the class, however, further reading will be given and students may choose to do this.
Entry requirements & applying
If you would like to find out more about future dates for this course, register your interest.
Teaching & Assessment
Outcomes 1 and 2 will be assessed by Multiple Choice Questions and students will be given 60 minutes to complete the work. This will form 50% of their asessment grade. This will take place at the end of the course.
Outcome 3 will be assessed by ongoing coursework (in the form of worksheets) and students will be given until the end of the course to complete the work. This coursework will have a word equivalent of 100 words and it will form the remaining 50% of their assessment grade.
Fees & funding
£95
Do you live in Wales? We have a number of funding opportunities available, please complete the form below to find out if you are eligible to study this course for free. Apply now via this form.
