糖心原创

Program Costs

Finish the online BS in Wildfire Science and the Wildland Urban Interface in just five semesters, with guaranteed class availability to keep your educational journey on track. The program consists of 60 units, priced at $490 per unit, with tuition discounts available for active-duty military personnel. 

Invest In Your Future: A Breakdown of Your Educational Journey's Cost

*Not all university semester fees are included in this table鈥攕ee the comprehensive breakdown of Extended Learning fees. Semester tuition subtotals are based on a sample program sequence. All quoted tuition rates are based on previous academic years and are subject to change without notice.

Edison International Scholarship

Edison International provides generous scholarships to select wildfire science students鈥攊n fact, the organization has provided more than $120K in funding the past four years. If you are interested in being an Edison Wildfire Science Scholar please visit the 糖心原创 Scholarships for more information.

Fall Semester 1

• FIRE 101: Wildland Urban Interface (3)

  Overview of the wildland urban interface (WUI), which is a complex mix of native and ornamental vegetation, agriculture, industrial, commercial, and residential areas. Explores the challenges WUI firefighters face where vegetation, vehicles, structures, and infrastructure are at risk. Improves understanding of the WUI, including response strategies, interface awareness, size-up, initial attack, incident action planning, structure triage, structure protection tactics, and health/safety. Covers issues related to land-use planning and design, policy-making, and protection of natural areas.   Units: 3

• FIRE 105: Fire Science (3)

  Covers fire conditions, tactics, and strategies to mitigate fire and fire behaviors, emphasizing wildland and urban interface fires. Discusses fire chemistry including oxidizers, chemical process of combustion, and properties of solid, liquid, and gas fuels. Reviews basic fire chemistry for hazardous materials, identification, reactivity, and health/safety implications. Explores issues related to pyrolysis, the properties of the states of matter, sources of energy for fires, and the properties of heat and temperature.

  Units: 3

• FIRE 210: Emerging Technologies and Topics (3)

  Review of current and emerging topics and technologies on wildland and urban interface fires through readings, case studies, and presentations. Evaluates advanced technology described by subject matter experts who will explain the technology and familiarize students with the tools to analyze and understand the legal, ethical, and operational requirements for new technologies. Evaluate and review the cost benefit analysis and a rigorous, scientific processes for testing, adoption, evaluation, and integration of new technologies, products, and procedures into the fire services. 

  Units: 3

• FIRE 352: Emergency Management, Operations and Administration (3)

  Introduces and discusses emergency management techniques, organizational and professional communication, and strategies for problem solving within fire science. Introduces and explains academic foundations on leadership and administration within the fire service, with an emphasis on multi-professional approaches, cooperation, and coordination. Addresses human resource, labor relations, and legal frameworks to applied fire service settings as well as a study of employee safety, risks and healthy/safe work environments.

  Units: 3

Spring Semester 1

• FIRE 353: Firefighter Health and Safety (3)

  Introduces the health and safety implications of firefighting, including hazard identification, situational awareness, and risk assessment. Reviews and examines technical and scientific procedures for evaluating new techniques, protocols, and technologies. Includes a comprehensive review of resources and information, organizations, regulatory, and legal frameworks, including NFPA, NIOSH, CDC, OSHA, NIST, and the IAFF. Covers occupational exposures and limits, injuries, fatalities, health consequences and how tactics, strategies, resources, staffing, personal protective equipment, and situational awareness influence incident outcomes. 

  Units: 3

• FIRE 354: Firefighter Stress, Behavioral, and Mental Health (3)

  Covers industry culture, myths, beliefs, behavioral health, strategies for addressing occupational health and wellness, support services, and behavioral health assistance for first responders. Examines and evaluates the sources of occupational stress and the regularity of incidents that expose first responders to often shocking, dangerous and stressful situations and potentially traumatic events. Covers suicide prevention/awareness, warning signs/symptoms, communication, emotional and physical behaviors, stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, addiction, depression, anger, and separation/retirement. Units: 3

• FIRE 355: Land Use Planning and Community Resiliency (3)

  Covers how to plan and design strong, fire resilient communities. Subjects include land use planning, resource management, homeland security, natural disasters, and wildfires. Examines and evaluates how communities address vulnerability, risk, resiliency, and sustainability using case studies to highlight best practices for planning, preparedness, evacuation, management, design, materials, model codes and ordinances. Discussion of tools available for assessing risk, physical, social, and economic vulnerabilities, and how resilient community planning addresses people, buildings, businesses, infrastructure, cultural and natural resources.  Units

• KINE 306: Exercise Fitness and Health (3)

  Examines the relationship between an active lifestyle and health and the prevention of chronic disease through positive lifestyle choices. Includes in-depth evaluation of personal fitness levels and dietary intake.

  Units: 3

Summer Semester

• FIRE 351: Wildfire Law and Economics (3)

  Discussion of major concepts in environmental laws, regulations, and policies related to land management, forestry, and urban growth. Reviews the evolution of natural resource and land use policy, with emphasis on the local, state, and federal government, and considers the role of science, law, and economics. Examines analytical techniques and tools to evaluate liability, risk, and the social, economic, and environmental consequences of wildfires. Examines the roles of judicial oversight, administrative procedures, politics, key organizations, agencies, and stakeholders.

  Units: 3

• BIOL 339: Conservation Biology (3)

  Study of the principles of ecology applied to plant and animal populations considered endangered, threatened, or at risk. Investigates the complex factors contributing to the dynamics, decline, extinction, and perhaps recovery of species. Develops a stewardship perspective rooted in biological principles and considers the associated cultural, historical, economic, and political issues. Local, regional, and global conservation strategies are discussed.

  Units: 3

• CHEM 390-2: Chemistry of Wildfires (3)

  A survey course of selected topics in current literature in Chemistry and Biochemistry.

  Units: 3

• PHIL 340: Ethics and the Environment (3)

  A study of recent developments in the field of environmental ethics: Examines the moral and ethical status of the natural world. Environmental ethics is the attempt to think through issues such as: the proper place of human beings in nature, the extent of our moral and ethical obligations to the natural world, the ethical foundations of public environmental policy, the principles that govern environmental use and protection, and the legitimacy of various approaches to environmental advocacy. A survey of classical ethical theories will provide context for discussion of environmental ethics, and examination of current environmental issues (i.e., the Endangered Species Act, the debate over use of public lands) will serve as a 鈥渢esting ground鈥� for the practical application of environmental ethical theories.

  Units: 3

Fall Semester 2

• ANTH 379: Environmental Health and Justice (3)

  Examines disproportionate burdens of environmental contamination and subsequent health disparities affecting communities of color across the U.S. and internationally. Reviews environmental health and justice through anthropological case studies that illustrate how communities have organized to improve health and justice in their communities. Examines environmental health and justice literature and reviews programs organized to address childhood asthma reduction, lead poisoning prevention, clean-up and restoration of contaminated sites, sustainable/organic agriculture, clean energy programs and cancer and health disparities research.

  Units: 3

• BIOL 391: Fire Ecology (3)

  Covers an interdisciplinary review and study of wildfires as a natural and man-made biophysical and ecological process. Evaluates the costs and benefits of wildfires and prescribed burns as a tool for land management, and the implications for endangered species, habitat, soils, air quality, and watersheds. Explores fire history, and fire in the context of global environmental change. Addresses current issues in fire ecology in the Western U.S. and globally, including readings and discussions of recent scientific literature.

  Units: 3

• BIOL 392: Natural Resource Management (3)

  Covers management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects quality of life, ecosystems, and long-term sustainability. Reviews and evaluates how management decisions influence ecosystem health, with a specific emphasis on the impacts related to invasive species, disease, insects, climate change and wildfires. Covers timely and topical relevant readings from the primary literature, especially those dealing with the current state of our knowledge of natural resource management, ecology, and public policy.

  Units: 3

• BIOL 216: Biostatistics for Wildfire Science (3)

  Covers techniques and underlying principles necessary to analyze various types of data used in wildfire sciences professions. Introduces sampling and experimental design, descriptive statistics, graphical display of data, point and interval estimation methods, and common hypothesis testing methods, including t-tests, linear regression, and analysis of variance. Study cases focus on the use of statistical analysis in support of scientific reasoning, as it applies to firefighting professions.

  Units: 3

 Spring Semester 2

• KINE 316: Stress Management (3)

  Identifies the psychological, physiological, emotional and behavioral aspects of stress. Discusses the body鈥檚 hormonal and neurological response in times of extreme emotion and the severe health consequences of these responses will be discussed. Teaches and provides experiences in a variety of stress reduction techniques and biofeedback methods.

  Units: 3

• FIRE 489: Research Methods and Design (3)

  Capstone experience focused on a foundation in scientific research, research design, effective communication practices, and interview skills. Integrates interdisciplinary approaches to research in the wildfire and wildland urban interface. Emphasizes fundamental principles and practices of scientific method, research ethics and responsible conduct, and the organization of scientific inquiry in institutions of higher learning. Prepares students for independent research experience in . 

  Units: 3

• FIRE 402: Fire Behavior, Fuels and Resource Management (3)

  Covers the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and analytical tools to understand and evaluate fire behavior prediction systems, with attention to assumptions, limitations, uncertainty, sensitivity, and probability. Explains and demonstrates how fuels, land use, and environmental conditions influence combustion and behavior by using fire models, with discussion on how resource deployment and land management influences outcomes of an incident. Examines and evaluates the tools and approaches for inventory and management of fuels for wildland fires over large, diverse areas in forests, woodlands, shrubland, and grasslands.  

  Units: 3

• FIRE 499: Senior Experience in Wildfire Science (3)
  Units: 3