In these general elements of our Core curriculum, students
choose from a broad array of courses that have been designed to
meet specific learning objectives.
Analytic Reasoning ~ Show Description
Course Structure: A menu of three-hour courses
to be taken in the first or second year.
Learning Objectives:
- To develop capacities for quantitative and analytic
reasoning.
- To understand the centrality of these capacities to the natural
and social sciences.
- To recognize the applications of such capacities to matters of
personal and public life.
The Natural World ~ Show Description
Course Structure: A menu of five hour
lecture/lab courses to be taken from the first year onward. Courses
not required of science majors.
Learning Objectives:
- To gain awareness of some significant scientific theories and
achievements, and to recognize how they are related both to other
areas of science and to our understanding of broader societal
issues.
- To develop an understanding of the methods of natural science
and a capacity to reason scientifically.
- To experience first-hand the scientific process method through
discovery-based learning.
Perspectives in the Creative Arts ~ Show
Description
Course Structure: A menu of three-hour courses
to be taken from the first year onward.
Learning Objectives:
- To develop cognitive and affective appreciation for the process
and products of artistic creation.
- To participate actively in the creation of an artistic
product.
- To reflect on the nature and sources of aesthetic value.
- To develop habits of participation in artistic and cultural
events that will lead to lifelong engagement within the creative
arts.
Physical Well Being ~ Show Description
Course Structure: A one credit, two
contact-hour, pass/fail course selected from a menu of courses
devoted to physical and health education and activities, taken any
time in the first to fourth years.
Learning Objectives:
- To develop life-long habits of good health and physical
activity.
- To increase awareness of the centrality of health and wellness
for pursuit of a good life.
The Social World ~ Show Description
Course Structure: A menu of three-hour courses
to be taken from the first year onward.
Learning Objectives:
- To study selected questions about human beings and the social,
cultural, economic, and political world in which they are
embedded.
- To develop an understanding of the variety of quantitative and
qualitative research methods social scientists use to study the
social world.
- To develop the ability to discern the social, scientific and
ethical dimensions of issues in the social world, and to understand
the interaction between a society's values and its definition of
social problems.
Texts & Ideas ~ Show Description
Course Structure: A menu of three-hour courses
to be taken from the first year onward.
Learning Objectives:
- To engage in reading, writing and discussion about important
ideas drawn from the study of important texts in a variety of areas
- including among others literary texts, dramatic texts, sacred
texts, historical texts, philosophical texts, and scientific
texts.
- To develop capacities for argument, interpretation and
aesthetic appreciation through engagement with these texts and
ideas.
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In order to ensure that courses are designed to serve the needs
of the general education student, we recommend that courses offered
for core credit meet two important criteria:
- They should carry no prerequisites, and
- Their primary purpose should not be to prepare students for
more advanced work in a particular discipline.
In addition, courses offered under the "Areas of Inquiry"
requirement should be appropriate to freshmen and sophomores (i.e.,
they should be 100- and 200-level courses).