Basic Communication

Students will:

• produce coherent texts within common college-level written forms;
• demonstrate the ability to revise and improve such texts;
• research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details;
• develop proficiency in oral discourse; and
• evaluate an oral presentation according to established criteria.

Critical Thinking

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• identify, analyze, and evaluate arguments as they occur in their own or others’ work; and
• develop well-reasoned arguments.

Information Management

Students will:

• perform the basic operations of personal computer use;
• understand and use basic research techniques; and
• locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources.

Students will show competence in the following quantitative reasoning skills:

• Interpret and draw inferences from mathematical models such as formulas, graphs, tables, and schematics;
• Represent mathematical information symbolically, visually, numerically, and verbally;
• Employ quantitative methods such as arithmetic, algebra, geometry, or statistics to solve problems;
• Estimate and check mathematical results for reasonableness; and
• Recognize the limits of mathematical and statistical methods.

Students will demonstrate:

• an understanding of the methods scientists use to explore natural phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence, and employment of mathematical analysis; and
• the application of scientific data, concepts, and models in one of the natural sciences.

Students will demonstrate:

• an understanding of the methods social scientists use to explore social phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence, and employment of mathematical and interpretive analysis; and
• knowledge of major concepts, models, and issues of at least one discipline in the social sciences.

Students will demonstrate an understanding of at least one principal form of artistic expression and the creative process inherent therein.

Humanities

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

• read and analyze the main themes of written, visual, aural and/or cinematic texts;
• articulate the central arguments of such texts orally and in writing;
• situate a text in a larger generic, cultural, and/or historical context; and
• comprehend, raise questions about, and synthesize classroom lectures and discussions with assigned texts.

American History

Students will demonstrate:

• knowledge of a basic narrative of American history (political, economic, social, and cultural), including knowledge of the unity and diversity in American society;
• knowledge of common institutions in American society and how they have affected different groups; and
• an understanding of America’s evolving relationship with the rest of the world.

Western Civilization

Students will:

• demonstrate knowledge of the development of the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc., of Western civilization; and
• relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world.

Foreign Language

Students will demonstrate:

• basic proficiency in the understanding and use of a foreign language; and
• knowledge of the distinctive features of culture(s) associated with the language they are studying.

Other World Civilizations

Students will:

• demonstrate knowledge of either:
  a broad outline of world history; or
  the distinctive features of the history, institutions, economy, society, culture, etc., of one non-Western civilization;
• relate the development of Western civilization to that of other regions of the world.

Students will demonstrate:

• positive health and wellness concepts and practices; and
• an understanding of how such practices contribute to mental and physical well-being.