MS in Environmental Studies, Science Teacher Certification

Our students graduate as outstanding science teachers and are in high demand.

Become a science teacher who works with your students to explore compelling classroom and community-based problems. Create playful, active, and rigorous science classrooms where students design their own scientific investigations in order to explore intriguing questions, all the while meeting educational standards. Learn to teach for excellence and engagement, with empathy and respect.

Learn to design and teach problem-solving and inquiry-based lessons in one of our three lab schools during your first semester, develop learning-centered month-long units on science topics of your choice during Curriculum Design, design, and teach experiential science lessons to middle and high school students in another one of our lab schools. Student teach anywhere in the country and develop an online professional teaching portfolio that will enable you to create a compelling job application. 

This degree is offered by AU New England.

Program Overview

This concentration is the only science teacher certification graduate program in the country that is housed in an environmental studies department. Ours is one of the first environmental studies departments in the country. Consequently, our graduate students are eager and equipped to infuse their middle-level science (grades 5-8) and life sciences (grades 7-12) with ecology, environmental science, and natural history.

We root science teaching in our own observations, inquiry, and explorations of science, teaching, and learning. In doing what scientists do, we grow our understanding of what it means to create and develop practical and enduring engagements with the subject matter of science. This program also lays the groundwork for approaching science teaching as an ethical enterprise and vocation. 

Because you will be earning an MS in Environmental Studies along with your science teaching certification, you can pursue both formal and non-formal education careers. And for those of you who want to teach during your summers off, you can also find opportunities in non-formal educational settings like summer camps, outdoor adventure programs, science museums, nature centers, and environmental learning centers.

Degree Requirements

Length of Program:

This coursework for this program can be completed in 5 semesters. Classes are held on Thursdays & Fridays, and occasional weekends. Full-time student teaching can take place almost anywhere in the country during the final semester.

Coursework:

To earn the MS degree with certification in either Life Sciences or Middle-Level Science you must successfully complete a minimum of 36 credits, meet the general education requirements, and satisfy the prerequisites listed below. These prerequisites do not have to be satisfied before you apply or begin the program.

Core Areas (9 credits, select 3 out of 4 courses):

• Earth Systems and Climate Change (3) – Required
• Community Ecology of the New England Landscape (3) – Required
• Political Economy and Sustainability (3)
• Leadership for Change (3)

Concentration courses (18 credits):

• Conceptual and Human Development (3)
• Curriculum Design (3)
• Foundations of Science and Environmental Education (3)
• Problem Solving Science (3)
• Teaching Exceptional Children (2)
• School Law (1)
• Science Teaching Methods (3)
• In consultation with a student’s academic adviser, other courses may be selected from the complete suite of concentration course offerings

Skills courses (3 credits)

• Intro to GIS (3)
• Advanced GIS (3)
• Applied GIS (3)
• Communication in the Digital Age (2)
• Consulting Skills (1)
• Dispute Resolution (1)
• Diversity, Justice & Inclusion (2)
• Field Study Trips (2-3)
• Natural Resource Inventory: field Techniques (2)
• Proposal Writing and Project Management (3)
• Service Learning Seminar (1)
• with permission of the academic adviser, students may substitute 2-3 credits of skills with a concentration course

Capstone – Student Teaching (6 credits)

Most course offerings rotate over a 2-year cycle;  Professional Science Masters students should select courses in consultation with their academic adviser to meet additional requirements; Students who select 1 and 2 credit courses should plan carefully with their academic adviser to avoid additional cost; Students entering under a recognized partnership with AUNE should discuss degree requirements with their academic adviser.

Requirements prior to graduation (Prerequisites):
In addition to a solid academic background in at least one science area, you must satisfactorily complete (“B” or better) courses from an accredited undergraduate or graduate institution (within the last 10 years of beginning the program), or obtain a passing score on an equivalent CLEP exam before you can be recommended for certification to the State of NH. The prerequisites do not need to be completed before attending; however, they must be satisfied for recommendation to the NH Department of Education for certification. See additional info for details

Career Outlook

Our graduates teach life, physical, earth, and environmental science in the middle school, and biology, AP environmental science, and ecology in the high school. All our certification graduates instill their curricula with an environmental science sustainability and ecology orientation.

For years, 100% of AUNE’s Science Teacher Certification graduates seeking teaching roles have been hired as science teachers, often within 30 days before or after graduation. There is a critical shortage of middle level and high school science teachers in most states, and a demand for new science teachers is projected into the foreseeable future.

Teacher certification alumni also direct after-school programs, direct and/or teach in environmental camps and outdoor leadership programs during their summer breaks, as well as write environmental and ecology curricula.

Internships

Teacher certification students must complete one 6-credit, 15-week full-time student teaching assignment. Student teaching occurs during the fifth and final semester. All students also participate in a weekly seminar, either virtually or at AUNE.

Student teaching can happen in public and private middle and high schools throughout the country. While most of our students find sites in New England, recent graduates have also student taught in California, Colorado, Washington, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia. A small sampling of New England-based student teaching sites follows.

New Hampshire

• Contoocook Valley High School, Peterborough, NH, high school biology
• Keene High School, Keene, NH, biology, environmental science, earth science, and oceanography
• Keene Middle School, Keene, NH, 7th grade life science with emphasis on research design, and experimentation
• Kingswood Regional High School, Wolfeboro, NH, honors biology and physical science
• Monadnock Regional High School, East Swanzey, NH, 8th grade physical science
• South Meadow Middle School, Peterborough, NH, general science and mathematics
• Westmoreland School, Westmoreland, NH, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade earth, space, biology, and physical science
• Soughegan High School, Amherst, NH, biology and geology

Maine

• Belfast Area High School, Belfast, ME, biology, environmental science
• Camden-Rockport High School, Camden, ME, middle and high school research biology, laboratory biology, and earth science
• Isleboro Central School, Iselboro, ME, 7th-12th grade biology and marine sciences
• Lakes Region, Bridgton, ME, biology
• Mary E. Taylor Middle School, Camden, ME, general science

Massachusetts

• R.J. Grey Junior High School, Action, MA, 8th grade general science
• Francis W. Parker Charter School, Ayer, MA, 10th-11th grade biology; 9th-10th grade chemistry
• Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, Cambridge, MA, biology (basic and intensive)
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, Dorchester, MA, 6th and 8th grade general science, hydrology, and astronomy (bilingual science teaching)
• Northfield Mount Hermon School, Northfield, MA, high school biology and environmental studies
• Shutesbury Elementary School, Shutesbury, MA, 6th grade life science
• Wayland Middle School, Wayland, MA, 7th grade life science
• Pentucket Regional Middle School, West Newbury, MA, 8th grade earth science

Vermont

• Brattleboro Area Middle School, Brattleboro, VT, life, physical, and earth science
• Brattleboro Union High School, Brattleboro, VT, life science, earth science
• Compass School, Westminster West, VT, life science
• F.H. Tuttle Middle School, Burlington, VT, 6th grade science/mathematics
• Guilford Central School, Guilford, VT, 7th-8th grade general, physical, earth, and life science
• Vergennes Union Junior High School, Vergennes, VT, middle school science and mathematics
• Wilmington High School, Wilmington, VT, biology and astronomy

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