Block 1: Oceans
You’ll begin your journey exploring Earth’s oceans, which cover much of our planet’s surface. You’ll learn how they play a vital role in regulating global temperature and carbon dioxide and providing crucial food resources. Alongside building your knowledge of ocean systems, you’ll begin developing a new skill: using geographic information systems (GIS) to map ocean characteristics.
Block 2: Air
Next, you’ll investigate the atmosphere’s critical role in supporting life on Earth and shaping weather and climate. You’ll examine how Earth’s composition determines temperature and explore how human activities change atmospheric processes. Through your studies, you’ll gain insight into changing air pollution patterns and their impacts.
Block 3: Freshwater
The third block looks at freshwater. Although freshwater makes up a small fraction of Earth’s liquid water, it is essential to life. You’ll explore the water cycle, discovering how water moves through soil, rivers, lakes, and back to the atmosphere. You’ll use GIS to study flooding patterns and examine water pollution, connecting your learning to real-world challenges through the United Nations’ Sustainability Goal 6, ‘the right to clean water and sanitation’.
Block 4: Soil
This penultimate block introduces the soil. You’ll delve into soil's often overlooked but vital role in Earth’s systems. You’ll discover how soil stores vast amounts of carbon, regulates water availability, and recycles nutrients – underpinning terrestrial ecosystems and most food production. Through practical work with a virtual microscope and local soil data collection, you’ll study soil formation, structure, composition and the diverse organisms that make it function.
Block 5: Life on land
In your final block, you’ll investigate the ecological processes that create and maintain biodiversity. You’ll explore how these processes work at different scales, from your local area to regional and global perspectives.
Practical work
The module has a strong practical thread with three specific elements: fieldwork (virtual and physical), data skills, and geographic information systems (GIS).
Practical week 1
The first practical week introduces our Open Living Lab, an innovative outdoor laboratory on the OU campus based around an area of regenerating and replanted riverside woodland fitted with various environmental sensors.
Practical week 2
In the second practical week, you’ll use GIS to explore a variety of landscapes across the world, such as mountains, rivers and glaciers.
Practical week 3
In the third practical week, you’ll participate in an intensive field school, which offers both residential and virtual options.
You’ll gain key skills in using geographic information systems (GIS) to map and understand spatial data, process and analyse data, and perform practical environmental science fieldwork – all fundamental for a career in environmental sciences.
You’ll get help and support from an assigned tutor throughout your module.
They’ll help by:
Online tutorials run throughout the module. While they’re not compulsory, we strongly encourage you to participate. Where possible, we’ll make recordings available.
Course work includes:
You have two choices:
You must attend a residential field school or complete the virtual school to pass this module.
There is no additional cost for the virtual school. However, there is for the residential school. The fee for 2025/26 was £215. You’ll also need to pay for your travel.
The Field Studies Council runs the residential field school, Vegetation and Soils in the Field. This four-day programme (at FSC Preston Montford in Shropshire and FSC Nettlecombe Court in Somerset) includes outdoor exercises and follow-up laboratory work.
Instructions for booking will be on the module website.
You’ll have access to a module website, which includes:
Additionally, the website includes:
You can study this module on its own or use the credits you gain towards an Open University qualification.
S226 is a compulsory module in our:
S226 is an option module in our:
Environmental science (S226) starts once a year – in October.
It will next start in October 2026.
We expect it to start for the last time in October 2032.
As a student of The Open University, you should be aware of the content of the academic regulations, which are available on our Student Policies and Regulations website.
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There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
If your income is not more than £25,000 or you receive a qualifying benefit, you might be eligible for help with some of these costs after your module has started.
There may be extra costs on top of the tuition fee, such as set books, a computer and internet access.
This module offers an optional residential field school, for which an additional charge applies. You’ll also need to pay for your travel. See course details for more information.
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For more information on how to apply, visit our Part-Time Fee Grants for students in Scotland page.
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Read more about Open University Student Budget Accounts (OUSBA).
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Over 30,000 employers have used the OU to develop staff so far. If the module you’ve chosen is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could approach your employer to see if they will sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees.
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We know that sometimes you may want to combine payment options. For example, you may wish to pay part of your tuition fee with a debit card and pay the remainder in instalments through an Open University Student Budget Account (OUSBA).
We know that sometimes you may want to combine payment options. For example, you may get support from your employer to pay part of your tuition fee and pay the remainder by credit or debit card.
For more information about combining payment options, contact an adviser.
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