Purpose
To prepare students to think creatively by engaging them in a process that generates new
ideas. This ability leads students to fresh insights and perspectives, novel approaches to
problems, and new ways of understanding, and it is a prerequisite for excellence in all of
the academic disciplines, especially in a rapidly changing society.

Key Elements

• Articulation of Objectives - Identifying an issue, problem, or idea to which innovative and/or original solutions or outcomes may be applied.
• Idea Generation - Posing questions and challenging presuppositions in order to expand the horizons of possible solutions and to make connections among different areas.
• Analysis - Reflecting on and examining the alternative approaches generated for the question or problem that lead to seeing things in imaginative ways and creating new solutions or resolutions.
• Synthesis - Concretely illustrating how the new ideas resolve the original question.
• Evaluation – Considering the success of one’s solutions to a problem or the value of new ideas.

Purpose
To prepare students to identify problems and to think effectively about their solutions,
both of which require making good arguments and critically assessing information. These
skills are necessary for active learning and independent thinking; they also are essential
for academic success and good decision-making in students’ personal, professional, and
public lives.

Key Elements
Using real world problems, the course will provide instruction in:

• Logical Argumentation – Identifying various types of arguments, analyzing components of arguments, and formulating good arguments, including a significant focus on inductive reasoning.
• Evaluation – Identifying assumptions, and assessing the quality and reliability of sources of evidence, and learning the criteria for evaluating the success of each kind of inference.
• Analysis – Breaking concepts and assertions down into components and identifying the interrelations of these parts in order to ascertain the defining features of the concepts and the meaning of assertions.
• Synthesis – Drawing together disparate claims into a coherent whole in order to arrive at well-reasoned and well-supported inferences.

Purpose
To provide students with the ability to recognize when information is needed and to
locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. In their academic, professional, personal
and civic endeavors, students face an expanding quantity of information from sources of
uncertain quality and have an increasing number of tools available to them for
information retrieval and evaluation.

Key Elements

• Determination of Needs – Defining and articulating the information needed and identifying potential information sources.
• Retrieval – Efficiently constructing and implementing well-designed search strategies, refining the search strategies, and extracting, organizing, and recording the information and its sources.
• Critical Evaluation – Assessing the quality and relevance of the information and the reliability of its sources.
• Ethical and Legal Issues – Understanding the many ethical and legal issues surrounding the use of information and the application of information technology.
• Incorporation – Appropriately using the processes of acquiring, questioning, analyzing and synthesizing information.

Purpose
To help students develop a capacity to interact successfully with others. In the twentyfirst
century, the ability to work collaboratively is a necessity and has become one of the
characteristics of an educated person.

Key Elements

• Teamwork – Contributing, interacting, and making compromises in pursuit of a common goal.
• Empathic Listening – Hearing and responding to others with thoughtfulness, courtesy and respect.
• Communication – Clearly articulating a coherent point of view.
• Responsibility – Following through on commitments.
• Integrity -- Adhering to ethical principles in interactions with others.

Purpose
To develop students’ proficiency in a language and create awareness of cultures other
than their own. These capacities enhance the students' ability to think critically about
themselves in relation to others, to appreciate the complexity of language and the richness
of cultures, and to live as informed and responsible citizens in an increasingly
interdependent world.

Key Elements

• Language Proficiency - Participating in interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive modes of communication at the following levels as defined by the standards of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL): western language – intermediate low; non-western language - novice high.
• Cultural and Linguistic Awareness - Making informed comparisons of one's own and another culture, including cultural values and linguistic diversity, and making informed comparisons across languages, including one's native language, which may include dialectical, stylistic, and syntactic variation.
• Communities - Acquiring tools necessary to continue developing language proficiency and cultural understanding and to approach other unfamiliar languages and cultures, using the target language beyond the classroom setting.
• Connections - Connecting a developing cultural understanding to other fields of study and to other aspects of one's life.
• Critical analysis - Analyzing products of the target culture, such as visual arts, literature, music and performing arts, as well as everyday cultural practices and perspectives, such as cultural attitudes toward food, clothing, transportation and the media.

Purpose
To provide students with the tools to express themselves coherently and cogently in faceto-face interactions. In the twenty-first century, students must be able to interact
effectively in the community and in the workplace to succeed in their professional,
personal, and community roles.

Key Elements

• Oral Interactions - Engaging in oral interactions to accurately convey or obtain information, to express feelings in an appropriate manner, and to exchange ideas.
• Effective Listening - Understanding and interpreting language concerning a wide variety of subjects in an accurate and meaningful fashion.
• Presentation and Audience - Effectively presenting information and ideas to diverse audiences using appropriate technology

Purpose
To enable students to recognize, understand, and use the quantitative elements they may
encounter in various aspects of their lives, to foster abstract quantitative thought, to build
self-confidence, and to appreciate the beauty and power of quantitative reasoning.
Increasingly, success in modern life, academic disciplines, and career paths depends upon
quantitative reasoning.

Key Elements

• Quantitative Situations – Identifying the essential quantitative elements in both routine and novel situations and understanding the relationships between those quantitative elements, and producing mathematical models appropriate for the intended analysis (e.g., writing equation(s) to represent the situation).
• Quantitative Data – Representing quantitative information in both technical and common language by using symbolic, graphical, and tabular formats, and drawing correct inferences from quantitative information through the interpretations of such representations.
• Methods - Acquiring the tools and methods necessary to resolve both routine and novel quantitative questions, including a correct sequencing of procedures, and using them appropriately, given the nature and constraints of a situation. In addition to using knowledge previously acquired in intermediate algebra, students will demonstrate proficiency with information presented in numerical or statistical form and mathematical concepts of growth and decay with their applications (e.g., linear, quadratic, exponential, etc.).
• Reliability of Data and Solutions – Correctly evaluating the level of accuracy stated or implied for given data, and assessing the correctness and accuracy of an analysis, including the assessment of the method and model used and the reasonableness of the solution.
• Mathematical Process – Using discovery (e.g., exploration and pattern-recognition), conjecture, and testing to develop mathematical formulas, theorems, and then giving persuasive mathematical arguments to establish their validity.

Purpose
To provide students fluency in contemporary and emerging technologies that transform
the way we work, and to prepare them to respond to future technological changes. In
today’s highly technological society, comfort with and fluency in rapidly evolving
technology provide students with a competitive edge professionally and with important
tools for social interaction and collaboration.

Key Elements

• Common Tasks – Solving problems, accessing information, and communicating information and ideas using appropriate technologies.
• Focus – Using emergent or recently developed technologies (hardware or software) to address specialized tasks.
• Future Technological Change - Navigating and adapting to future technological developments.
• Broader Implications – Being cognizant of ethical and social implications of revolutionary technologies, including but not limited to their impact on security, privacy, censorship, intellectual property, and the reliability of information.

Purpose
To provide students with the tools to comprehend what they read, to discover new ideas,
to refine their thinking, and to express their thoughts cogently in writing. In our
contemporary society, the capacity to grapple with complex thoughts and to communicate
effectively in written form is of ever-increasing importance to students’ personal,
professional, academic, and public lives.

Key Elements

• Argument Comprehension - Summarizing, analyzing, and challenging sophisticated texts by evaluating evidence and the validity of an author’s claims.
• Argument Construction - Making a coherent written argument that gives background information, presents a reasonable claim, and uses a range of evidence to support the claim.
• Academic Honesty - Avoiding plagiarism by properly using primary and secondary sources, including paraphrase, summary, and accurate citations (in an appropriate citation style).
• Audience Awareness - Using the conventions of multiple genres to communicate effectively with particular audiences.
• Correctness – Demonstrating control over standard English language usage (grammar, spelling, tone, style, semantics, and syntax) and revising for accuracy, clarity and depth

Purpose
To develop a broad understanding of the society, politics, and culture of the United States
and in particular its historical and contemporary diversity. This knowledge enables
students to become informed and engaged citizens and provides a social and historical
context to their lives.

Key Elements
American experience courses should contain exposure to all of the below with emphasis
on at least one.

• Historical Development – Examining the evolution of American society, culture, and/or politics and interconnections among them.
• Diversity in American Experience – Understanding the roles of many different peoples in creating the American experience including non-majority perspectives.
• America’s Relationship with the World – Exploring historical and recent issues concerning America’s interactions with the world (e.g., immigration, globalization, etc.).

Purpose
To prepare students to think creatively through significant hands-on practice with a
process that generates new conceptions and reveals new interpretations. Creativity is the
well-spring of invention and delight.

Key Elements

• Articulation of Project - Identifying a concept and a medium.
• Development of Project – Using creative thinking: examining different strategies or designs that will lead to accomplishing the project; selecting and refining the most productive strategies through constant self-reflection.
• Presentation of Project – Displaying or performing the project publicly.
• Creative Process and Exemplars – Examining the creative process itself as both an inspirational and problem solving endeavor; examining exemplary works.

Purpose
To develop the students’ understanding of and aesthetic appreciation for influential
cultural objects and traditions. This understanding will enable students to expand their
own aesthetic sensibilities and enhance their encounters with cultural works.

Key Elements

• Aesthetic Evaluation – Encountering historical and/or contemporary genres of cultural expression.
• Analytical Skills – Thinking critically and analytically about cultural expressions.
• Cultural Significance – Examining social, historical, and aesthetic contexts of cultural expressions.

Purpose
To acquaint students with perspectives on current world affairs not centered in the
American experience. To be effective citizens, students need to know and understand the
conditions of others around the globe and the relationships and connections between self, local surroundings, and the broader world.

Key Elements

• Area or Phenomenon Outside the United States – Understanding a specific geographical region or phenomenon of international significance (e.g., the Middle East, sustainability, or globalization).
• Contemporary Implications – Gaining significant insight into contemporary world issues.
• Non-U.S. Perspectives – Exploring non-American points of view and ways of life.

Purpose
To develop students’ understanding of various conceptions of the self and awareness of
the self as a developing entity. This will enrich students’ appreciation of their own
personal identity and help them make effective and meaningful decisions about their
lives.

Key Elements

• Conceptions of the Individual – Examining multiple ways that different disciplines and/or cultures define the self.
• Growth – Studying the development of the individual in response to both internal and external forces.
• Mind-Body Connection – Understanding conceptual and experiential interrelations between mental and physical aspects of the self.
• Focus – Exploring deeply at least one approach to understanding the self (including but not limited to physical, psychological, religious, and philosophical).

Purpose
To familiarize students with science as a method of inquiry and to raise their awareness
of the role science plays in the world. The ability to accurately and objectively articulate
the scientific underpinnings of important complex issues is essential in a society that
increasingly depends on science and technology.

Key Elements

• Scientific Inquiry – Understanding the nature of scientific inquiry in general and the use of the scientific method as a basic inquiry tool.
• Body of Scientific Principles – Learning a coherent body of scientific knowledge.
• Significant Lab or Field Experience – Collecting and analyzing scientific data in a laboratory or field setting using reasonable scientific protocols.
• Quantitative Methods – Using, understanding, and analyzing numerical data to make reasonable inferences and interpretations.
• Relevance to Contemporary Societal Issues – Understanding the scientific components of some important world issues (for example, biodiversity loss, genetic engineering, global climate change, land use and planning, resource depletion, or energy concerns)

Purpose
To develop student understanding of social conflicts and their sources, and of possible
means for seeking resolution. An understanding of the relationships among competing
interest groups, power dynamics, conflicts, and potential resolutions of such conflicts is
necessary to engage with a diverse society.

Key Elements

• Institutions and Power Dynamics – Understanding the normative structure, function and historical context of institutions (e.g., family, government, economy, education or religion, etc.), and how social power influences and is influenced by them.
• Sources of Social Conflict – Examining how social conflicts evolve.
• Variety of Perspectives – Recognizing the role of multiple perspectives in
  understanding conflict and seeking consensus.
• Specific Social Conflict – Exploring extensively at least one significant social conflict.

Purpose
To appreciate the rich variation in human perspectives on the human experience and on
nature. Exposure to such perspectives fosters a more cosmopolitan view of the world and
provides an important context for the students’ understanding of themselves and their
own time and place.

Key Elements

• Focus – Examining a specific time and/or place with an emphasis on continuity and change.
• Perspective – Encountering unique viewpoints associated with that time or place.
• Significance – Understanding the relevance of such perspectives to students’ lives today