For admission, you should first complete BIO 181 and AEC 360 with letter grades of C- or better before contacting the minor coordinator.
For completion: You must complete AEC 360, AEC 400, AEC 492 (At least 3 CR) and at least two additional courses from the ‘optional courses’ list. This will result in a minimum of 16 credit hours. All letter-graded courses must be completed with a C or better.
Required Courses (7 credit hours total)
AEC/PB 360 – Ecology (Prerequisite: C- or better in BIO 181) – 4 credit hours
AEC 400 – Applied Ecology (Prerequisite: AEC/PB 360) – 3 credit hours
Research Experience (3-6 credits)
AEC 492/493 – Learning Experience in Applied Ecology (on or off campus) – at least 3 credit hours
Complete the following steps before enrolling in AEC 493:
- Identify a mentor. Your mentor can be faculty at NCSU, faculty at another academic institution, or a research professional that you may connect with (e.g., someone in the NC Wildlife Resources Commission or NC Department of Environmental Quality. You’ll make that connection by digging into work that individuals do and identifying someone that would be a good fit with your interests.
- Work with your mentor to map out an independent research project. What you do for the experience is entirely up to you and your mentor and could include lab work, field work, or a combination of the two. One thing that we want to ensure with this learning opportunity is that you get the full research experience. Ideally, you’d work with your mentor to carve out a piece of the project that would give you some experience with how to ask a specific scientific question, how to develop methods to answer that question, how to collect and analyze appropriate data, and how to interpret and contextualize those data. You’ll then turn all of that into a presentation to be given towards the end of your AEC minor.
- Complete the Memorandum of Agreement form, and turn it in to the minor coordinator. The completed form verifies that you and your mentor have agreed on the scope of the research you will complete, and how much time it will take you to complete it.
Electives
Minor Electives (Must choose a minimum of two courses from this list) – at least 6 credit hours: