Provides graduate students with a broad sampling of new and cutting-edge research related to environmental conservation to help foster critical thinking and provide a more expansive view of natural resources research. Seminars will be given by departmental faculty and faculty from other departments, both on campus and from other institutions. The seminars will be designed for both students who plan a research career and those who plan a more applied path.

This Unoccupied Aerial Systems (UAS) capstone course will provide the essential aeronautical, business, legal knowledge and skills to achieve a successful foundation in UAS industry. Students that complete this application course will be prepared for successful careers as Remote Pilots in Command (PICs), observers, payload operators, and/or operational managers of governmental and private sector UAS applications.

This course will cover several programming methods and applications in GIS. Beginning in the (familiar) ArcGIS environment, this course will explore fundamentals of programming in Python while learning the Model Builder interface. By exploring basic automation methods of repetitive or complex tasks, this course will also introduce the foundations of computer science and computational thinking. While gaining proficiency in Model Builder, this course will expand to other python scripting applications, both within ArcGIS and on other platforms.

Spatial data provides an extra layer of information that provides an opportunity to gain powerful insights from our data. Analysis of spatial data also poses unique challenges and pitfalls. In this course, students will learn a range of techniques for analyzing data with spatial information, from both a theoretical standpoint as well as implementation of methods in R.

Intermediate statistics illustrated using examples from ecology. Topics include ANOVA, linear regression (simple and multiple), correlation, logistic regression, continency tables and noparametric methods. Techniques discussed in lectures and applied in laboratories.

Intermediate statistics illustrated using examples from ecology. Topics include ANOVA, linear regression (simple and multiple), correlation, logistic regression, continency tables and noparametric methods. Techniques discussed in lectures and applied in laboratories.

Conservation biology emerged roughly 30 years ago as a mission oriented discipline, engaged in scholarly scientific inquiry, addressing the problems of biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. It is an inherently synthetic and interdisciplinary field, founded largely on basic principles from ecology and environmental management, but strongly dependent on the integration of social and natural science approaches. Together, we will examine the state of conservation science today: how the field is changing, new insights from current literature, and competing visions for the future.

Provides graduate students with an opportunity to deepen their studies in Building Information Modeling (BIM), a concept that is at the heart of contemporary digital building planning and execution. This course also provides a thorough introduction into Autodesk Revit and covers applied topics in Trimble SketchUp, both industry-standard software in the AEC field.

This course offers an opportunity to visit local and regional sustainability initiatives. This includes public services, non-governmental organizations, and family businesses spanning multiple dimensions of sustainability. Each field trip has been chosen with the objective of cultivating a deeper understanding of one component of a larger system. Students should have graduate level standing and be enrolled in the MS Sustainability Science program to enroll in this course. This class is entirely field based.

This course introduces concepts related to the management of urbanized landscapes, focusing on what comprises the urban forest, its function as a natural system and the value of urban forests as an environmental and social catalyst. Examination of what makes up the urban forest, how these components function and the importance of sustainable urban natural landscapes will be undertaken.