University of Houston
AC-3: Undergraduate Program

In addition to completing a wide array of environmentally minded courses, students completing the Bachelor of Science in environmental sciences are required to complete many courses that are directly related to sustainability, including introduction to climate change, introduction to air pollution, and air pollution meteorology.

Across its over 50-year history, the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston has remained focused on design as the fundamental activity of the discipline. The college now houses Texas's first program in industrial design (product design). This degree program serves to further distinguish the college from competing programs and adds faculty expertise in areas important to the future, such as sustainability, advanced materials, human factors, advanced computing in design, and methods of industrialized production. The education model for the industrial design (ID) program focuses on addressing a new structure of learning by connecting and integrating design knowledge in new, useful and meaningful ways for the student. The ID program emphasizes the learner's generative and discovery-oriented learning, explained through the categories of integrated learning, collaborative learning, and project-oriented learning. The College of Architecture seeks applicants to their programs who possess mechanical inventiveness, aesthetic awareness, creativity, commitment, and initiative contributing to their potential to become leaders in architecture and industrial design.

The Bachelor of Science in environmental design follows many of the degree plans of architecture degrees with less of an emphasis on professional practice and more on an emphasis on environmental factors. Students have the opportunity to take more electives, particularly related to sustainability, and in general are exposed to more interdisciplinary concepts than traditional architecture students. This includes a comprehensive survey of historical architecture strategies and a required elective in social and behavioral sciences.

www.uh.edu/sustainability/academics/sustainability-courses/

The energy and sustainability minor provides students from all majors an interdisciplinary approach to broad issues at the cross-section of energy and sustainability. The minor includes two courses developed specifically for the program: an energy and sustainability introductory course and a case studies course. To graduate with the minor, students also take energy and sustainability electives of their choosing. Course concepts include existing, transitional, alternative and renewable energy sources; conservation and consumption; and energy and sustainability from the perspectives of economics and business, architecture and design, public policy, and education.

This minor offers a scientific complement to other sustainability-related majors. Students complete courses in: global climate change, atmospheric chemistry, and air pollution.

Housed in the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, this interdisciplinary and interdepartmental minor encourages students to critically explore cities of the world from different geographical, chronological and disciplinary perspectives in an effort to help them develop analytical tools for understanding complex urban phenomena. Sustainability is a major emphasis for the college as a whole and this minor specifically addresses the urban aspect of global sustainability challenges and solutions.

www.uh.edu/sustainability/academics/sustainability-courses/